Customer Reviews

Slow Airs & Set Dances

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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.

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.