24/010 Irish Music in Northern Greece

23^rd October 2024: The session officially entered its fourth year on October 13^th. Musically, we were better this time round compared with our September efforts. It was great to see Manos and Ersilia come back. On top of that, we had two visitors from the UK. Dave and Kate had been attending a two-day conference at the University of Macedonia on Music Pedagogy and Community Music. Dave hunted us down on www.thesession.org

Kate played the whistle; Dave had an array of harmonicas and a guitar. He and Tikitu started playing Da Lounge Bar – in this clip played by the composer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsMniutrofI I liked it so much that I have added it to the latest band playlist we are currently preparing.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and parsimonious airlines are the mother of ingenuity where travelling musicians are involved. At the end of the session, Dave literally folded his guitar. The neck fitted into the body, and the whole instrument fitted into what was no more than a small backpack. When I was in Athens in May, I was wondering where the children were because I saw several small fiddle cases but no kids. In order to avoid airline charges, there is now a niche market for fiddle cases that accommodate only the violin, the bow being housed in a tube that can be placed inside your suitcase or strapped to the side of your bag. Overall, the violin case is around 10-12 cm shorter which, I am sure, will still not dissuade some airlines from confusing a violin with a cello. Personally, I don’t like the idea of the bow being separated from the violin. One is useless without the other. I’ve been flying since the 80s with my violin. It had never been an issue until I flew to and from Athens in May. Out of curiosity, I looked for “folding bows” and found this:

“To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN D. ADAMS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Phoenix, in the county of Maricopa, State of Arizona, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Folding Violin Bows, of which the following is a specification…” It goes back to 1911. Nothing new under the sun, I suppose, or καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν πᾶν πρόσφατον ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον.

Last week we had our first serious practice at Kathleen’s. We invited Ersilia. She IS good. With two of the band over 70 and one on the threshold, we have to think about finding people who can fit in when we are unwell or unavailable – not that we are inundated with bookings.

Since the practice, though, I have been inundated with proposals for key and chord changes, as well as suggestions for reordering the items on the playlist. I’m not complaining. It’s good that most of us are pitching in. In our case, fortunately, too many cooks are not spoiling the broth.

This coming weekend is the last big break before Christmas. Saturday is the feast of St. Demetrius, the patron saint of Thessaloniki, and Monday 28^th  is No Day (Όχι Μέρα), the country’s second National Day after March 25^th. I’ll need to check if the Romania-based Peter Moynahan will be performing at the weekend.