Paul H. Umfleet
Original compositions for Irish Whistle
Several years ago I put together a collection of original compositions I called “Family And Friends”. A few years before I had already started with this idea when I wrote “Tune for Annie” for my wife and “Megan’s Air” for one daughter and "Lesley's Air" for the other.
Tune for Annie
Megan's Air
Lesley's Air
My grandchildren are Briar Rose Redding (now Oliver) and Brandon Paul Redding. Here are my tunes for them.
Briar's Waltz
Brandon's March
I wrote the next tune when my Grandkids were only 15 and 16. Ann asked if I wasn’t getting a little ahead of things. Well as of March 25, 2021 this tune can be played for my Great Grandson Atrayu Oliver.
Lullaby For My Great Grandchildren
My mother’s Middle name was Rose so that was given to my daughter Megan as a middle name and she gave it to her daughter Briar as a middle name. That lead me to write
Touched By A Rose
I also went ahead and wrote a tune for my Son-In-Law
Brian's Jig
Sadly both of my parents, Harold and Fannie Umfleet had passed before I started writing these.
Fannie Rose
Hymn For My Father
For over 50 years I have considered the Jordans and Sweeneys amongst my best friends. That is why I wrote these tunes. Unfortunately Norma and Mert are no longer with us.
Mike Jordan
Norma Jordan
Mert Sweeney
Valerie Sweeney
Other Original compositions
There is a short tune that has been used many times in music called "Dies Irae". Not to be confused with the movements named such in masses. I have always been fascinated with the tune and did some improv with this composition.
Dancing with Death
As you can tell with the previous tune I like the Tango rhythm. So I came up with this original idea but so far not come up with a very original name.
Tango
I spent a year or two arranging the compositions of Turlough O'Carolan for whistle. After becoming that familiar with his work I decided to imitate what I thought was his style (with a little modern twist) in an original composition.
Mr. O'Carolan
One of my favorite places in Ireland was the Cliffs of Moher (see my photo at top of page)and my inspiration for this tune.
Cliffs of Moher
I would rather not get into what was the inspiration for my tune
Baggy Stockings
Another little tune I wrote for my wife was
Annie's Waltz