Slow Airs & Set Dances

Eugene O'Donnell | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 5, 1993)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Green Linnet
• ASIN: B000005CM6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,475 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #68 in Music > Folk > British & Celtic Folk > Irish Folk
  • #85 in Music > Indie Music > Folk > General

Editorial Reviews

Slow Airs and Set Dances by Eugene O'Donnell

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars perfect, October 26, 2005

By 

Henry Charles "[e-mail]" (Avenel, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slow Airs & Set Dances (Audio CD)

Aubrey beardsley made me want to draw. Ian Anderson made me want to play the flute. Eugene O'Donnell makes me want to play the fiddle. Which I can't, by the way. Just a guitar and a fiddle . Perfect.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only disk you will ever come home with, September 18, 2007

By 

C. Scanlon "least helpful reviewer" (among us humans) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Slow Airs & Set Dances (Audio CD)

I first heard this excellent disk decades ago on vinyl and kept it in constant play on the turntable, struggling to lighten the balanced tone arm, and then weighting it with a penny as the grooves wore down.

Now I hear it constantly once more through the wonder of the unwearable compact disk.

This recording remains in play in the background during my ESL classes. The theorist of the current program in force recommends the Mozart Effect series, such as Music For The Mozart Effect, Volume 1, Strengthen the Mind, but I find this one disk more effective for this purpose. Amadeus Mozart will not take a backstage to anything. But neither is this present disk "muzak" but truly intelligent and emotional and soothing and involving music.

And it is only a violin and a guitar, played by master musicians the likes of which we will not soon see again.

Mr. O'Donnell was actually a set dancer, but decided to take up violin to preserve the tunes. He is classically trained and it shows in his virtuoso handling of his instrument. Mr Moloney provides a humble yet utterly competent, tasteful and talented accompaniement, varied, not just strumming but picking without becoming obtrusive, but ever right on time and tasteful and appropriate.

These are two excellent musicians deeply masters of this music.

The music as the title indicates includes both moderate and semi-formalized dance tunes as well as slow airs of a great nostalgia and yearning, of a universal longing which transcends cultural expression. My ESL students of varying backgrounds, not Irish, pause and listen carefully to it in unison, and also respond to the livelier tunes.

I am ever grateful to hear once more this soundtrack for my life. It really sounds like so much more than just fiddle and guitar, and it is.