Howlin' Wind

Interview with: Howlin' Wind

Q) When did your love for playing the flute first begin?

Listening to Jethro Tull in 1971. Ian Anderson was the main singer/songwriter and he played the flute. They were such as great English rock band. Their two albums 'Thick as a Brick' and 'Aqua Lung', 40 years later are still two of my favourite recordings. So naturally, I loved the flute, without knowing anything about it. They came to Festival Hall in Melbourne in 1972 and then I saw him in action and fell in love with the flute. He was a really great performer. Soon after that gig I saw a flute in a musical instrument shop and went and tried it and bought it; it was $50.00. It was an 'American Olds', it was pretty good. I fell in love with it straight away, I never stopped playing it. I had a terrible eye condition at the time called 'Glaucoma' and you had to have these eye tests every day with these painful eye drops and you had to wait in a dark room to wait for the drops to wear off and I used to play my flute in the dark room. I instantly was fascinated by the sound and the shape of it and couldn't believe this is what this guy in this rock band was playing. I was instantly attached. Since 1972 I have hardly missed a day of playing the flute – coming up for nearly 40 years.

Q) What are your musical influences?

My musical influences are The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Free, Led Zeppelin, Rory Gallagher, The Beach Boys, Elvis, Maria Callas, Yosha Hifitz (the greatest violinist) and Claudio Arrou (the great Chillain pianist) and I used to love the English Chamber Orchestra and the Academy of St. Martin's in the Fields Orchestra; infact I love all these groups and musicians more than ever today, 2009. Their sounds and style are, just for me, heaven. I love everything about their harmony, their rhythm, their melody and their interpretation of the great classic repertoire of the great J.S Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. They still sound the best to me. And therefore they have always been a huge influence in my style and sound, in the shaping of notes and in the creation of melodic lines and harmonic structures on my flute. They have played enormous parts in my mind and heart; enforging the sounds and style and shape that I create with my flute today.

Q) What genre is your music?

I have released 31 flute albums, 29 of which have all been original 'Howlin' Wind' compositions. The style of which spans world music, folk music, atmospheric music, dance/night club music, techno music, rock music and soul meditative, dreaming style music. There is a whole range. I made two albums of easy-listening flute covers of Hollywood tunes, Beatles, well-known songs from films and theatre shows- 'Memories', 'The Way We Were', 'Taras' Theme', 'Moon River', 'Danny Boy', 'Norwegian Wood' and 'Strangers In Paradise' - but my main love of composition for my flute is feeling the song lines of my great home land, Australia and writing music for my flute that reflects my feelings for my great country Australia.

Q) How do you write and perform your music?

All the main tunes, melodies and riffs for my flute compositions are written on manuscript paper, usually collected in a 50 page booklet, so they're all in batches. On each page is the key signature written out in long hand, in old-fashioned style; I prefer using a lead pencil to write. All the phrasing is written in really long arches, all the accompanying chord patterns and shapes or sequences are all written out on each page and I work them out on either piano or synthetisers. Sometimes there is very strict attention to 4-bar phrasing, so that I can write in the style of the great masters like Schubert, Schumann, and Beethoven, etc; so that the structure and the form of these pieces becomes very stylised. Then when I write a much more avant-guard style I will write out the main motif or theme and then indicate with squiggles whether I am going up the scales, across the scales, across the universe, or – simply chattering or jamming, throwing in wild elements. I often write on the manuscript, go crazy, smash it to bits, or fall asleep – so that there is always contrast within the compositions. When I perform my music, every piece, every song is fully committed to memory. So that when I perform my music live there is never any music stand or paper work; because I'm playing from my heart now and I know where every sound is going. I feel this is the only true and honest way to perform my music, or anyone else's music. I must say, I feel the audience feel a greater connection with my music because they are seeing me right in front of them, playing my flute, playing my heart out.

Q) How do you use Intervals, Chords, Scales, Progressions, Dynamics, Rhythm, Phrasing, Intonation and Expression?

Intervals
In my compositions Intervals are critical – for example in 'Dreaming of Home' it is a rising major 5th to establish the glorious melody. Sometimes I will use a rising minor 3rd to give a way more melancholic vibe. For a quick, happy, fast song I might repeat major 3rd's, major 5th's and major 6th's intervals, to give a happy, chattery, whistling type of song. For atmospheric music such as 'Nullarbor Plain' - I use a rising 7th to create a really eerie, out of this world atmosphere and then I use melodic minor and harmonic minor scale passage work up and down the flute over three octaves to create the composition. I use lots of minor seconds and semi tones. I use semi tone declining patterns to create lots of harmonic tension and drama.

Chords
My choice of chords is mainly to accompany my flute. Generally I will choose 1-4-5-1 pattern and then I can go anywhere from there; adding sharp of flat intervals or selecting major or minor chords in each pattern. The chords are critical to compliment the melodic line.

Scales
Scales are an intregal part of my composition technique and performance. Each day I practice the 'Paul Taffanel' and 'Phillip Gaubert' scale patterns of the 24 keys for my flute. Simply, without practicing these scale patterns each day for nearly 40 years; I can't imagine anything else. They are my whole love; blood and heart beat of my flute playing.

Progressions
Progressions are essential in my compositions. The selection of chord progressions, chord shapes – are critical to the harmonic content of each piece of music I write, record and perform.

Dynamics
Dynamics have a very special place in my flute composions; flute recordings and flute performances, because dynamics (the very louds to the very softs range of sound) are the doorway to raw emotion and feeling of the music. The exploitation of dynamics enables me to develop the sound of my flute into a far more vocal, more expressive, more passionate, more dramatic instrument. My selection of dynamics within the music allow me to search for the greatest sounds way beyond a simple old flute.

Rhythm
Rhythm is an essential element in my music, whether it's a full on beat, a 4/4 rock piece, a 3/4 slow waltz, a rumba, a tango, or 2/4 march – rhythm is essential. Especially in the big band music, techno dance, and the funk, RNB or rock - rhythm sets up the character of the song or the piece of music; therefore the rhythmic variation is a critical ement to the music. Also in slow pieces a almost sub aural rhythm can be implied and hinted at to give an almost invisible illusion of rhythm by selecting some very low deep frequencies and pulses.

Phrasing
Phrasing is beautiful. I love phrasing it makes sense of all melodic line and the consistency of phrasing and phrase-length within song or composition makes that music or song beautiful to listen to. Phrasing is like breathing; it must happen. It's essential to the elegance and structure of each composition. I already said I love using heavy lead pencil on paper to amplify my phrasing of selection of notes - to show the tunes, to show the riff.

Intonation
In 1974 I began learning the flute with the greatest mater of all 'William Bennet' and 'Wibb' (as he is affectionately known by) taught me complete tuning of my flute and how to memorize each note and each interval so that intonation of my instrument became perfect. So that intonation and the memory of each interval, each harmonic, each octave and especially the A and the A octave were all firmly drilled into me and now implanted deep inside my brain; so that intonation is never an issue. I am always in tune. In fact he drilled me so well and he was such a magic teacher, that after about 12 months of my 10 years with him; I threw my A 440 tuning fork off the Waterloo Bridge (London) into the river Themas one night. Therefore making the ultimate commitment to my flute and myself, that we were bonded forever and I would always have the absolute sound of A 440 imbedded in my heart and mind forever.

Expression
My aim is to make the flute a far more expressive instrument than you have ever heard before. (Using all the above). Expression is what makes the flute magic. These answers are very brief, I will be most happy to speak at length if ever needed.

Q) What advice can you please give to a music student?

To all young players who love music, whether it's singing or instruments or both – practice as much as you can. Work as hard as you can, day and night. Go to the best players and singers you can find, anywhere in the world and learn from them, study from them, ask them questions. If you love it enough and work hard enough you will have a wonderful life of creating music; like I have been blessed to have.

(By Maria Richardson – 2009)