Weblog
Skara Brae videos on YouTube
Five segments of video on YouTube. They feature Skara Brae, the group founded by the O’Domhnaill siblings with Daithi Sproule long before Nightnoise.
This seems to be the TG4 programme of the Skara Brae reunion concert a few years ago.
Segment I
Segment II
Segment III
Segment VI
Segment V
Thanks to Luis Fernando García for the tip.
Posted 38 days agoRidiculous pricing
I have set up a Google alert on Nightnoise. It sends me an e-mail every time it finds a new page that refers to Nightnoise. The finds are generally pirate MP3 download sites, where you can get an entire album for less than a dollar.
That is in stark contrast to the 99 cents per track charged by the iTunes Music Store (which only has “At the End of the Evening”, “Shadow of Time”, “Something of Time” and “Nightnoise Pure” for sale), and 89 cents at Amazon’s MP3 Downloads store (which has no Nightnoise music at all only 2 albums: “Something of Time” and “Shadow of Time”, plus 2 albums by the Japanese electronic band called Nightnoise).
But it gets worse. Today Google sent me a new alert, and the link takes me to Amazon’s physical record store where they have 6 used copies of “Nightnoise” by Billy Oskay and Mícheál Ó‘Domhnaill, an album that has been out of print for well over 10 years. The prices range from $47.79 to $95.00.
There is absolutely no reason why this album shouldn’t be available as MP3 from a legitimate online music store, at a reasonable price. And Nightnoise fans ought to be able to lay their hands on this album from a legitimate source, while creating revenue for the artists.
Who wins in this situation? Scummy pirate download sites.
Who loses? The artists, their heirs, and the record companies themselves.
Conclusion: idiocy on the part of Windham Hill. (If anyone has a better explanation, I’ll be delighted to publish it).
Posted 140 days ago"They were the most elegant group, inspiring to us."
Harp guitarist John Doan, flute duo Meadowlark (Rick Cyge and Lynn Trombetta) and violinist Allen Ames are playing a winter solstice concert at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts in Scottsdale, Arizona, on 21 December 2007.
Lynn Trombetta (quoted above in the title) acknowledges their debt to Nightnoise, and the concert is dedicated to our favourite group.
Posted 204 days agoSony-BMG merger
The BBC reports that the Sony-BMG merger has been approved by the EU authorities (after it had been overruled).
What has this got to do with Nightnoise? I am informed the whole merger story is the reason why only 3 Nightnoise albums are available on iTunes Music Store and only one track on the new Amazon MP3 store. Since Sony had (has?) plans for its own online music store, all electronic sales of BMG music (BMG owns Windham Hill) have been on hold since the merger got under way over 3 years ago.
The result is that Nightnoise, and many other artists, have lost potential online sales since the records are no longer available in the shops, and you can’t download the tracks either. (Well, of course you can, but not in any way that benefits the artists – I mean Usenet and BitTorrent, not to mention those Russian sites :-).
A case in point is the “Nightnoise” album by Billy Oskay and Mícheál Ó‘Domhnaill, but “The Parting Tide” and “A Different Shore”, both by Nightnoise, are also unavailable.
So this may be a sign that Nightnoise’s full catalogue of music may eventually be available for sale online, but don’t hold your breath. The music business has shown in the past that artists’ interests are the very last thing on its mind.
Posted 274 days agoOld articles from the New York Times
The NYT has dropped its paywall on articles from 1981 onwards. Below are links to some articles that reference Nightnoise (surprisingly few):
2003 Johnny Cunningham, 46, Celtic Fiddler
Obituary.
1996 A new age company feels good about a campaign intended to give it a new image
For instance, in No. 27, to promote “A Different Shore” by the Celtic group Nightnoise, an announcer told how large wooden goblets on a “huge medieval dining table” came to life and started “to chant in unison.”
1995 Dreams and Meditations From the Realm of Experience O Gravity, O Light
Mr. Haisma was a street dweller in “Five Short Dreams,” a suite of dances set to music by Ry Cooder, Mickey Hart and Nightnoise, with a text by Karen Kiwus and a sound score by Mr. Haisma
1991 For Irish, it isn’t Folk, it’s just Music, and it’s here
Article about Tríona playing live with Patrick Street, including interview and profile.
1987 New Age music booms softly
Windham Hill releases a passable album now and then, lately ‘‘Nightnoise’‘ by Billy Oskay and Micheal O Domhnaill, which treats Celtic melodies as new-age duets, but that could be considered a modern folk album.
1986 Weekender Guide
Posted 282 days agoThe World Music Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting the finest in traditional and contemporary music from around the world, needs $75,000 to continue its programming, and some friends have joined forces to help the institute meet its bills. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, the Washington Square Church, 135 West Fourth Street, will present benefit concerts for the institute. Tonight’s program features traditional and Celtic music by the group Nightnoise, which includes some of the most respected musicians in the flourishing Celtic music movement. Triona Ni Dhomhnaill (vocals, clavinet, synthesizer) and Micheal O’Domhnaill (guitar, vocals) are both veterans of the Bothy Band, the seminal Celtic revival group. The quartet is rounded out by the violinist Billy Oskay and the jazz flutist Brian Dunning
Nightnoise trivia: Windell
The track “Windell” on the “At the End of the Evening” album is named after Billy Oskay’s son. Windell Oskay is also credited with assisting on the recording of the clocks at the beginning of “Timewinds” on the “Something of Time” album.
That was then.
Windell recently featured in Wired for building a 3D fabricator that uses sugar as its raw material.
More information at his evilmadscientist site
Posted 295 days agoLocal composer inspired by "Snow on High Ground"
Medford, NJ-resident composer Stephen Majewski has released “Tamarac”, a soundtrack for the area where he lives. He says he took up the piano again after hearing “Snow on High Ground”:
Around Christmas of 2002, Majewski heard “Snow on High Ground,” an instrumental piece by Nightnoise, composed by Triona Ni Dhomhnaill. Primarily a solo piano composition, the song re-inspired him. Determined to play at that level, he enrolled at the New Jersey School of Music for a year before beginning to compose his own pieces while self-studying the piano.
Check out his web site
Posted 297 days agoNew site in memory of Micheal O'Domhnaill
http://www.michealodomhnaill.com/. And there’s a memorial concert on 24 May.
A gig for Mícheál – Ómós
The concert is on 24 May in Vicar Street, Dublin. The line-up is amazing:
- Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill
- Paddy Keenan
- Donal Lunny
- Matt Molloy
- Paddy Glackin
- Mick Hanly
- Noel Hill and Tony Linnane
- Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
- Mary Black
- Moya Brennan
- Brian Dunning
- Mairtin O’Connor and Cathal Hayden
- Dáithí Sproule
- Conal Ó Domhnaill
- Jimmy Crowley
and other special guests
Concert proceeds will go to the Irish Traditional Music Archive.
Forthcoming CD
Friends of Mícheál have set up the Mícheál Ó Domhnaill Trust Fund. More details on the site
Posted 446 days agoMore videos on YouTube
Two videos of Mícheál Ó‘Domhnaill on YouTube, from 1979
Casadh an tSugáin with Kevin Burke and (?)
Loving Hannah with Mary Black.
Again, thanks to Luis for drawing this to my attention.
Posted 455 days agoJohnny Cunningham concerts online
There are four concerts by Johnny Cunningham available at the Kennedy Centre#.
Thanks to Luis Fernando García for the link
Posted 468 days agoPhotos at Johnny Cunningham site
The Johnny Cunningham site is back online. Check out the “News” section for some photos of him and Mícheál.
Posted 472 days agoRadio show in memory of Mícheál O'Domhnaill
New York Public Radio’s New Sounds programme did a special one-hour tribute to Mícheál in July 2006. You can hear the full programme, which includes a brief interview with the members of Nightnoise in 1989 (i.e. including Billy Oskay) followed by a live recording of some Nightnoise tunes: After 4/Nollaig/At The Races, Nightnoise and The Cricket’s Wicket. The show is in RealAudio format. Get it here
(Thanks to Carme for the link).
Posted 535 days agoTróna and Maighread also on YouTube
Video of Tríona and her sister Maighread from the same programme.
Gracias a Luis Fernando García por el aviso.
Posted 629 days agoVideo of Mícheál Ó'Domhnaill & Paddy Glackin on YouTube
Its here. It’s 9 minutes long and they play for the first 5 minutes or so.
Thanks to Luis Fernando García for letting us know!
Posted 629 days agoMícheál Ó'Domhnaill - Necrológica de El Pais
NECROLÓGICA
Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, músico irlandés
Fue la guitarra de los grupos Skara Brae, The Bothy Band, Relativity y Nightnoise
El guitarrista Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, uno de los intérpretes más relevantes de la música tradicional irlandesa durante los años setentay ochenta, falleció el 8 de julio por causas aún sin precisar en su casa de Dublín. Tenía 54 años. En España se le recordará siempre por el grupo Nightnoise, de gran éxito, pero antes había dejado ya su impronta en Skara Brae, Relativity y, sobre todo, The Bothy Band.
F. NEIRA
EL PAÍS – Gente – 13-07-2006
Era tan elegante con una guitarra entre las manos como exquisito en el trato personal. Los aficionados españoles a la música celta se enamoraron de Mícheál Ó Domhnaill durante la segunda mitad de los años ochenta, cuando ejerció un discreto liderazgo en el cuarteto Nightnoise, con el que recorrió una y otra vez la geografía peninsular durante una década de gloria.
Su estrella declinó a finales de los noventa, a partir de la disolución del grupo y de algunos problemas con el alcohol. Grabó a dúo en 2001 junto al violinista Paddy Glackin, pero hacía tiempo que no se sabía gran cosa de él hasta la noticia de su repentino fallecimiento, el pasado día 8, en su domicilio dublinés. Tenía 54 años.
Natural de Kells, en el condado de Meta, Mícheál creció en una familia de habla gaélica y fuerte ascendente musical: su padre, Hugh, era cantante y recopilador de melodías tradicionales, mientras que la madre, Brid, formaba parte de un coro. Tanto Mícheál como sus hermanas, Tríona y Mairéad, terminaron dedicándose de manera profesional a la música, con trayectorias a menudo paralelas. Los tres hermanos Domhnaill debutarían en 1971 con una banda cándida y seminal, Skara Brae. Les acompañaba Dáithí Sproule, luego guitarrista de otro grupo imprescindible en la música irlandesa: Altan. Aquel álbum homónimo de Skara Brae fue durante años una de las piezas más codiciadas del coleccionismo céltico, hasta que en 1998 se reeditó ya como disco compacto.
Tras la experiencia de Monroe, un dúo fugaz con Mick Hanly, Ó Domhnaill se graduó como un personaje decisivo de la música irlandesa cuando formó parte, en 1975, del núcleo fundacional de The Bothy Band. Le acompañaban su hermana Tríona y otras luminarias locales como Dónal Lunny, Matt Molloy o Kevin Burke. Nada en la música celta posterior, desde Altan a Dervish o Lúnasa, habría sido igual sin su magisterio. Luego llegaría la experiencia más renovadora y discutida de Relativity, una banda integrada por dos parejas de hermanos: Mícheál y Tríona por un lado, y los siempre divertidos escoceses Phil y Johnny Cunningham.
Afincado ya en Portland (Oregón), Mícheál se convirtió en 1983 en uno de los fichajes estrella de Windham Hill, la entonces incipiente factoría de nuevas músicas instrumentales. El fundador de la compañía, Will Ackerman, se enamoró del sonido acústico, nostálgico y evocador de Ó Domhnaill junto al violinista Billy Oskay.
Su primer disco como dúo se titulaba Nightnoise, nombre que serviría para bautizar a la banda con la posterior incorporación de Tríona (nuevamente) y del flautista Brian Dunning.
Nightnoise conjugaba las raíces irlandesas con la música de cámara y el aire contemplativo de las nuevas músicas. En Irlanda repudiaron a los Domhnaill como auténticos felones, pero su sonido delicado y preciosista triunfó en geografías muy dispares, sobre todo la española y la japonesa. Mícheál siempre destacó como guitarrista, aunque también tocaba la flauta, el piano y el armonio, además de cantar francamente bien. Su interpretación del clásico irlandés Fionnghuala, un trabalenguas de la llamada mouth music, fue un éxito clamoroso tanto en los tiempos de la Bothy Band como en su posterior reinterpretación por parte de Nightnoise. El irreversible paso de los años y la certeza de la muerte fue una constante temática en la banda, con discos como Something of time (Algo de tiempo) o Shadow of time (La sombra del tiempo).
Tríona - Irish tour in September 2006
Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, formerly with Nightnoise, is playing a number of dates in Ireland in September with her sister, Maighread, and guitarist Tony McManus. Tour title: “The songs of Donegal”.
Dates are as follows (September 2006)
- Wed 20 – Westport (Matt Molloy’s Yard 9.30 pm)
- Thurs 21 – Ennis (Glór Irish Music Centre 8 pm)
- Fri 22 – Thurles (Source Arts Centre, 8 pm)
- Sat 23 – Portlaoise, (Dunamaise Arts Centre, 8 pm)
- Sun 24 – Letterkenny (An Grianán, 8 pm)
- Tues 26 – Dublin (Coach House, Dublin Castle, 8 pm)
- Wed 27 – Carrick-on-Shannon, (The Dock, 8.30 pm)
- Thurs 28 – Ratoath, (Ratoath Community Centre, 8 pm)
- Fri 29 – Bray, (Mermaid Arts Centre, 8 pm)
- Sat 30 – Tinahely, (Courthouse Arts Centre, 8.30 pm)
Though probably not what a grieving Nightnoise fan is looking for, Tríona and Maighread are a top-class act in their own right, as reflected on their two albums idir an Dá Sholas and Gan Dhá Phingin Spré.
Posted 683 days agoPuck Fair concert in Dublin, 15 August 2006
Anyone lucky enough to be around Dublin on 15 August has the opportunity to hear Brian Dunning’s group “Puck Fair” at the National Concert Hall. They will be playing at 1.05 pm.
Puck Fair plays a jazzy/Irish style of music. The line-up features Brian Dunning (flutes), Tommy Hayes (percussion) and Sean Whelan (guitar).
Puck Fair recorded one album, “Fair Play”, in 1987. It has long been out of print and is not available for purchase in electronic format either. Copies are occasionally available second-hand on Amazon’’s z-shops (live link below). The album features the late Mícheál Ó’Domhnaill on guitar and Gordon Lee on piano.
Posted 701 days agoMícheál Ó'Domhnaill - discography
A prolific musician and producer, not to mention composer, Mícheál Ó’Domhnaill first recorded as part of Skara Brae in 1971. He was a founder of The Bothy Band and Relativity, before forming Nightnoise out of a collaboration with American violinist, Billy Oskay.
Discography
With SKARA BRAE
- Skara Brae 1971 (re-released 1998)
With MICK HANLY
- Celtic Folkweave. 1974 (Vinyl only. Never released on CD and hard to get – copies of the LP have changed hands on ebay for over $50)
With THE BOTHY BAND
- 1977 – The Bothy Band (1977)
- Out of the Wind and into the Sun
- Old Hag You Have Killed Me
- After Hours
- Best of the Bothy Band
- BBC Radio 1 in concert
With RELATIVITY
With KEVIN BURKE”
With PADDY GLACKIN
Posted 712 days agoObituary in The Independent
Micheal O Domhnaill
Bothy Band guitarist and singer
Published: 22 July 2006
Original article
Mícheál O Domhnaill, guitarist, singer and folklorist: born Kells, Co Meath 1952; died Dublin 8 July 2006.
Irish music didn’t quite know what had hit it in 1974 when the Bothy Band exploded out of traditional music, all guns blazing. They were a folk group in personnel, acoustic instrumentation and pedigree; a rock band in attitude and vision. Most of the focus fell on the band’s more flamboyant virtuosos – the ferocious Donegal fiddler Tommy Peoples, the travelling piper Paddy Keenan, the master flautist Matt Molloy, the alluring singer and harpsichord/clavinet player Tríona Ni Dhomhnaill and the bouzouki rhythm king Donal Lunny.
But Mícheál O Domhnaill offered a subtly crucial counterpoint to the musical fireballs bursting around him, with his thoughtful accompaniments and gentle voice. His contribution to the legend of the Bothy Band was profound and, through many years playing in an assortment of styles, he was recognised as one of Ireland’s finest accompanists of traditional music.
O Domhnaill was also a fine singer who did much for raising awareness and interest in the Irish-language song tradition both before and after the halcyon years of the Bothy Band, going on to achieve further acclaim with the American-based bands Nightnoise and Relativity.
Born in Kells, Co Meath, Mícheál O Domhnaill inherited a deep love and understanding of Irish culture from a family rooted in the Donegal Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) area of Rann na Feirste and steeped in traditional music history. His mother Brid was a choral singer and his father Aodh was a teacher who also sang and collected music for the Irish Folklore Commission. Aodh’s sister Neilli Ni Dhomhnaill provided a goldmine of material with a fund of over 300 Irish- and English-language songs, some of which – like “Do You Love an Apple?” – found their way into the Bothy Band repertoire.
Taught piano from the age of six, Mícheál gravitated to the guitar and formed his first band, Skara Brae, with his sisters Tríona and Maighread and the gifted Derry guitarist Dáithí Sproule. Their beautiful, adventurous arrangements of mostly Irish Gaelic material did much to raise the profile and status of this tradition when they released their first and only album for the Gael Linn label in 1971. By this time both Mícheál and Tríona were students at University College Dublin, where Mícheál forged a partnership with Mick Hanly under the name Monroe, recording one fine album, Celtic Folkweave, with him, released by Polydor in 1974.
The origins of the Bothy Band were set when the accordion player Tony McMahon recruited both Mícheál and Tríona to play at a one-off concert with Donal Lunny, Paddy Keenan, Paddy Glackin and Matt Molloy under the name of Seachtar (“seven”). The night was such a success and the rapport between them so instinctive they decided to formalise the group.
At Mícheál O Domhnaill’s suggestion they called themselves the Bothy Band after a group of itinerant Irish labourers who worked the farms in Scotland by day and entertained themselves with wild, impromptu music sessions by night. Tony McMahon had a day job and bailed out and Paddy Glackin soon left to be replaced by Tommy Peoples, but the incredible energy generated by the new band caused an immediate impact. Planxty had already opened young people’s ears to the joy and excitement of Irish music, but nobody had heard anything quite like the Bothy Band in full flight before.
Full of strong characters and brilliant, thrilling musicians, they had a natural dynamism that manifested itself in fury of passion and blistering power that belied their acoustic line-up and blew most electric rock bands out of the water. People still talk in awe of their legendary début concerts in Ireland (at Trinity College Dublin) and Britain (at Hammersmith Town Hall).
The Bothy Band split after five years in 1979, but they made three classic albums, 1975 (1975), Old Hag You Have Killed Me (1976) and Out of the Wind, into the Sun (1977), plus a fine live collection, After Hours (1979). They set the benchmark by which all succeeding Irish bands have been judged and most of the leading Irish bands of today like Altan, Danu and Dervish point to the Bothy Band as a primary inspiration. It made them famous, but not rich, and due to business and record-company problems none of the band made much money out of the experience.
O Domhnaill went on to record the lovely Promenade (1980), an instrumental album with the fiddle player Kevin Burke (a post-Tommy Peoples member of the Bothy Band) and followed his sister Tríona to the United States, settling in Portland, Oregon. Tríona and Mícheál were subsequently reunited in Nightnoise, a band Micheal had formed with the violinist/keyboard player Billy Oskay, and the flautist Brian Dunning.
Nightnoise couldn’t have been more different from the Bothies, moulding a mellow, ambient instrumental style involving jazz/classical fusion full of spirituality that almost came to define the new age culture. The Celtic influence was minimal, dismaying many of O Domhnaill’s old fans from the Bothy Band era, but they hit a chord in the US and sold more records than the Bothies ever did. They were mainstays of the Windham Hill record label, for whom they recorded seven albums, and O Domhnaill stayed with them for over 15 years.
During the ambient years of Nightnoise, however, O Domhnaill did continue to involve himself in Irish music, founding the band Relativity with his sister Tríona and the great Scottish musicians Phil Cunningham (accordion) and his brother Johnny on fiddle. The late Johnny Cunningham, one of the finest fiddle players of his generation, was even inducted into Nightnoise as Billy Oskay’s replacement after their fourth album.
With the Cunninghams on board and Tríona and Mícheál sharing the vocals, Relativity were an outstanding band, recording two fine albums, Relativity (1986) and Gathering Pace (1987). It proved yet again that Mícheál O Domhnaill had few peers when it came to providing the understated guitar arrangements for others to blossom and get the best out of a jig or reel. Indeed he was critical of the high-octane obsession of many Irish musicians trying to recapture the magic of the Bothy Band.
He returned to live in Ireland in 1997 and again showed his adeptness with arrangements and sparingly sympathetic guitar accompaniments when he teamed up for a tour and a 2001 album, Athchuairt (“Reprise”), with his close friend the original Bothy Band fiddle player Paddy Glackin. Glackin gave O Domhnaill particular credit for his work on popularising Irish language songs. “He took a lot of old songs and re-fashioned them and made them accessible to a new generation,” he said.
A gentle, unassuming, mild-mannered character, Mícheál O Domhnaill was held in high regard by his peers for his quiet influence both as an ambassador of Irish music, his willingness to embrace other styles and the rich legacy of tunes and songs he brought with him. He collaborated on an album by the Japanese singer Mimori Yusa and appeared weekly as part of the house band on the RTE1 show Brid Live. He was also a producer, radio presenter (he was the first host of the Irish music show The Long Note) and a keen golfer, but, perhaps more than anyone else, he defined the role of the guitar in traditional tunes with his lightness of touch and understated style.
Colin Irwin
Irish Times obituary for Mícheál Ó'Domhnaill
Musical visionary who pushed the boundaries
Mícheál Ó Domhnaill: The vibrant pulse of traditional music was rendered silent last week with the news of the sudden death of Mícheál Ó Domhnaill at the age of 53. He was a quiet, self-effacing man who never sought the limelight on stage, yet he was a musical visionary whose influence touched musicians and listeners in traditional, folk and contemporary music circles across the world. He was a quiet, self-effacing man who never sought the limelight on stage, yet he was a musical visionary whose influence touched musicians and listeners in traditional, folk and contemporary music circles across the world.
Mícheál Ó Domhnaill was born on October 7th, 1952, in Dublin, the second son of Aodh Ó Domhnaill from Rannafast, Co Donegal, and Bríd Comber, Dublin. The family were reared in Kells, Co Meath. He had two sisters, Maighréad and Tríona, and two brothers, Éamon (who died in 2003) and Conall. He moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1979 and married American potter Peg Feindt. But in 1997 Mícheál returned home to be closer to his family and settled in Dublin.
Mícheál was an avid sportsman. He was a Meath minor footballer and played rugby until an injury brought him to the attention of the GAA, which then banned him from Gaelic football. His love of golf was lifelong, particularly in latter years as he happily combined musical sorties around the country with Paddy Glackin with daily golf games.
Mícheál’s musical literacy was encouraged from an early age. A grounding in piano, courtesy of the Kells nuns, left a lasting influence on him, as did his participation in a choir founded by his father.
An emergency hospital admission with appendicitis at the age of 12 resulted in an unexpected musical opportunity that steered his life course thereafter. To ease the boredom of recuperation, a brother who was teaching in Mícheál’s school gave him a guitar, which quickly became an extension of his 10 fingers, and later defined his musical identify with enormous subtlety and skill.
Mícheál first came to prominence at the age of 20 when he and his sisters, Tríona and Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill, joined him along with Dáithí Sproule in the group, Skara Brae.
They recorded one seminal album in 1970. After a brief but adventurous interlude playing with Mick Hanley in Munroe, Mícheál embarked on a picaresque journey as one of the founding members of The Bothy Band in 1974, along with Donal Lunny, Paddy Glackin, Matt Molloy and his sister, Tríona.
By the age of 22, Mícheál had already played a central role in two groups, both of which pushed the boundaries of traditional music through a combination of sheer genius, forensic attention to tune pairings and arrangements, and crystalline vocals and harmonies.
He later engaged in diverse musical collaborations, including Nightnoise, with Brian Dunning, the late Johnny Cunningham and his sister, Tríona, which achieved significant successes in the US and Japan; and Relativity, with Tríona, Johnny and Phil Cunningham.
Mícheál had a keen ear for great music and was never slow to share his discoveries with a willing audience. He was the first presenter of Radio Éireann’s The Long Note, and was the producer of what is acknowledged to be a sublime recording in 1978 of concertina player Noel Hill and fiddle player Tony Linnane. Ó Domhnaill also contributed harmonium to this recording, making his mark with the subtlest of accompaniments, and undoubtedly broadening the audience for traditional music in the process.
Although steeped in the tradition, primarily through his father’s Donegal roots and through Aodh’s role as a music collector, Skara Brae took some of the oldest songs in the tradition and breathed fresh life into them, with their peerless sibling harmonies and sympathetic yet startling arrangements.
Their revolutionary harmonies sparked the imagination of everyone from Máiréad Ní Mhaonaigh (later of Altan) to Clannad.
It was Mícheál, along with Dáithí Sproule, who introduced the DADGAD guitar tuning to Irish music, having been influenced by John Renbourn and Bert Jansch of Pentangle. (This tuning enabled countless musicians to unpick the harmonies and underscore the melodies in traditional and folk music with a finesse previously unknown.)
The group set the bar high with this early recording, aided in no small way by their deep appreciation that to sing a song well, one had to understand its provenance. It was here that Aodh Ó Domhnaill’s long summers of music collection bore fruit.
Mícheál inherited his father’s passion for delving deep beneath the skin of the tradition, and he spent well over a year in the company of his blind aunt, Néilí Ní Dhomhnaill, in Rann na Féirste.
Her unique and formidable store of songs fuelled a lifelong love of forensic musicianship in Mícheál, a passion he later pursued by collecting songs in the Hebrides and western isles of Scotland. This attention to detail was also repeatedly evident in his magnificently detailed arrangements of songs and tunes on two albums with Relativity and seven album recordings with Nightnoise, not to mention his superbly innovative recordings with Kevin Burke, Portland and Promenade.
Ó Domhnaill was a musician who had a deep appreciation of the space between the notes as much as he did the notes themselves. He had an equal facility with songs in both Irish and English.
In that he united disparate audiences, with his arrangement of the Scots Gaelic song, Fionnghula, becoming a keystone of The Bothy Band’s repertoire; while his interpretation of Lord Franklin, a seminal English seafaring song, has yet to be matched, in terms of both the sensitivity of his arrangement and the subtlety of his vocal delivery. His more recent forays into the recording studio resulted in the excellent collaboration with Paddy Glackin on 2001’s Athchuairt/Reprise.
At his funeral, the remaining members of The Bothy Band convened, along with piper Liam Ó Floinn, accordion player Tony MacMahon and Máiréad Ní Mhaonaigh, an apt farewell to a musician whose talent remains peerless.
Mícheál Ó Domhnaill: born October 7th, 1952; died July 7th, 2006
© The Irish Times