You might have thought that all the Irish jigs and reels possible had already been composed, or perhaps you thought there was no need for any new ones. Over the years the odd musician here and there has introduced a new tune to the mainstream repertory of Irish dance music. Reavy, Dwyer and Fahey stand out as prolific composers, but there have been many more who have given us just one or two little gems. Such is the manner of things that we sometimes lose sight of the connection between composer and composition, so that few active musicians now would know who wrote The Maid of Mount Cisco or George White's Favourite or The Mountain Road?

 

The difficulty in coming up with a new tune is to avoid the piece sounding like something that already exists or to be simply a medley of well-known phrases. Chris, in a relatively low-key manner, has put together about fifty tunes of his own over a number of years, and he has only just now let on about it. The remarkable thing about them is that they all stand as tunes in their own right, with very little reference to anything else, and from a technical view they range over a varied selection of modes, tune types and construction patterns. So how do they come to him? Noodling on the flute might accidentally suggest an attractive phrase, which soon emerges as the first part of a tune, and with a little thought the turn is added. It's all over in a short time, and as Chris says, "It comes out of thin air." I suppose the final test will be in a few years' time when a group of musicians, all unknown to Chris, play a rake of tunes and one of them says, "What's the name of that last one?" "That's one of Corbett’s!"

 

Reg Hall. Oct 2008