Sir James Galway

Hi Michael. Very good, thank you.

Yeah, well, I don't feel too bad considering this lockdown.

Produces a certain amount of... lethargy.

I'm doing it. I'm doing it. (Laughs)

Yes, I do.

Well, you know the old saying, Michael: "If you don't use it, you lose it."

And this is absolutely true.

I think what happens is it's a, uh, a change in the muscle tone. You're not so strong as you were before. And, uh, because, because many of my colleagues don't practice, they lose the strength in the, in the abdomen. They lose the strength to take a really good breath, to sustain a phrase to the end. There's all these sort of little things that, that happen when you get old, if you're not careful enough to look after them. And I tell you, I'm speaking from personal experience. I, I mean, there's certain things I can't do now that I could just toss off twenty years ago.

Well, uh, let, let me say, the first thing that gives you difficulty is the breathing. You know, breathing is a very big thing. Uh, let me put it to you like this: if you take a good breath, you really want it to last you to the end of the phrase. And you want to be able to hold the last note with some good support, and not gasping.

My first teacher was a singer. She learned the flute with Geoffrey Gilbert, who was the solo flutist of the Royal Philharmonic, whose conductor was Sir Thomas Beecham.

And, uh, she was a very good singer. I mean, she was a professional singer. She sang all, she was a mezzo, and she sang all these Bach arias and things, uh, in the Queen's Hall with Sir Henry Wood conducting. He's the guy who made the new, uh, the Proms.

Henry Wood Proms. So when, uh, when the Luftwaffe got rid of his first concert hall, he moved to the second one.

Which was the Albert Hall.

Yeah.

The same ideas prevail. Take a good breath, stop, play. Take a good breath, hold it, sing.

You don't want to be taking a breath and singing right on the exhalation.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Well, you know, you put me on the spot there. I don't really have any thoughts about this sort of stuff. You know, I don't, uh, uh, I don't get into Baroque, Baroque. I just play it like I think it should go. And it's, it's pretty good. I mean, if you listen to my C.P.E. Bach concertos, uh, I think they're a sort of landmark in flute playing.

The breathing, especially in the, in the third movement of the first concerto, and the last movement of the third concerto, is, I think, remarkable.

If I may say so.

Yeah.

Charlie Parker.

Well, I didn't know I had it. I, I don't know why I have it, but I think a lot of it has to do with my first teacher, Muriel. I mean, she had in her mind the flute playing of Geoffrey Gilbert. And Geoffrey played in the French style, which was not popular in England at the time. But it says something for Sir Thomas Beecham when he saw this guy playing on a silver flute, and with vibrato and absolutely shining, he hired him as the solo flutist of his new, new Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. And I think Muriel had this sound in her mind, and she brought it to my attention. And I, I thought, "Wow, this is the way I, this is the way I want to play." And, and then, one, one day, uh, her husband, Dougie—Douglas. Dougie, John used to call him Dougie. He, uh, (laughs) he said to me, "Jimmy, I want to take you to a concert tonight." I said, "Okay." And it was the Wigmore Ensemble, which had Geoffrey Gilbert playing the flute, Maria Korchinska playing the harp, and Frederick Riddle playing the viola. These were all famous musicians in London.

And, uh, I got along there with, uh, with my suit, uh, which I'd been wearing for the last three years, and had the menus of school dinners all over it. (Laughs) And I sat down and started listening to this concert. I thought, "This is amazing, how this guy plays the flute. Nobody plays the flute like this." And it was true at the time—nobody did play the flute like that. In England, anyway. Of course, in France, it was another, another matter. But, uh, I got to meet Geoffrey afterwards, and it was so interesting. He showed me his flute, which was an old Louis Lot flute, which he, old French flute, which he liked. And, uh, then I got to eventually study with him when I went to London. I studied for three years with John Francis, who was a very good teacher, and, uh, was very kind to me. I lived in his house as well.

Three things.

Embouchure, breath, and the inside of the mouth. You know when you sing a scale, a simple scale, any scale like: Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si-Do. The embouchure changes as you go up inside your mouth, and changes as you come right down.

Wait till you hear me when I get warmed up. (Laughs)

But you see what I'm talking about, Michael. You can relate to this in the voice, because it is not possible, absolutely not possible, to sing a low note with the same mouth position as a high note. And that means that every note in between has a special place, and that you can only sing these notes with special... uh, what would I say, vowels?

That high E.

Well, you know, I can't tell you, because it's so long since I played it, I can't remember. (Laughs) But I, I just remember that it, it would certainly not be the embouchure for a low note. It would be the embouchure especially for E.

Everything is a little bit high up, and the lips are a little bit more forward, like, like a kiss.

And whereas, when you come down to the lower octave, the mouth is then open inside, and the lips are more extended, and the, the embouchure hole is a little bit broader.

This is going to cost you extra here, Michael, because (laughs) I'm not a cheap flute teacher.

Right.

No. (Laughs) You know, there's a lot of people say that, "Oh, you know, the French are very good at, uh, tonguing, articulation, you know, this digga-digga-digga-digga." And, uh, I think, well, what about—there's one or two good German flute players who play very well, and a few Scandinavians who do that, too, and a lot of Americans, and then none of them have that French accent.

Yeah, sure. And now, listen, uh, about the tonguing, um, the reason the French are so good at it is the standard French tutor for the flute is written by Taffanel and Gaubert.

And then the 17 Daily Exercises contained in Part 2—uh, oh no, not Part 2, Part 1—there are 22 pages on articulation. Whereas, we have, uh, a book by such and such a teacher, and there's one page on articulation. (Laughs) And that's not going to do it, is it?

You know, I like the story about Heifetz, this story really kills me.

When he, when he demonstrated a scale for the student, he would start on, uh, F major, and by the time he got to the top of the scale, it was an E major. (Laughs) But you didn't notice where it changed. And then he would come down again, and it would—he started on the E and come down, and it would be on F.

Well, you know why I could, you know why I did it? Because I could do it.

See, when I was a kid, we didn't learn Beethoven symphonies. We learned Molly on the Shore, and Planxty's third, jig and reel, and whatever, and all these sort of things. And we learned also, uh, Give Me a Home Where the Buffaloes Roam. And all this stuff we learned as kids because that's what was happening on the radio.

See, so we, we just latched onto it. And then when we went—when we, I got a scholarship to the Royal College of Music to study with John, and, uh, that was interesting because all that stuff immediately stopped. And we only played classical music like Vaughan Williams' Third Symphony and stuff like that. Yes.

Yes, yeah, he was a very good conductor. Uh, but I, I have to say, you know, when I was a kid, there were such great conductors as guests coming in, like Rudolf Kempe conducted Lohengrin at, uh, the Royal Opera House and absolutely was...

No, no, no. This is when I went to London.

Yes.

Oh, that, well, that was amazing. I mean, playing with Lenny was just an, an eye-opener about what conducting was all about. I mean, he really brought the music to life, especially Shostakovich. Uh, mainly because of his Jewish heritage.

Yes. And I think that's what really was driving him in this symphony.

Well, I mean, it's—if you're Irish, it's absolutely essential when you play to retain your Irishness.

Don't ask me, I don't know. But you get it, you get it from your mom. (Laughs)

Oh, I hope it would one day be, uh, united. And that everybody would stop beating up on each other.

You wouldn't believe it. We've, we've rented a new apartment here in, in Switzerland, and I think of going back to Ireland because right outside the, the side of the house, there's a field with 15 cows in it. (Laughs)

I think—I think, you know, when you're, when you're... when you grow up in Ireland as a kid, you automatically learn music. You learn it, you learn singing at school, and if you, if you join a flute band, you learn a flute, you practice the flute. And I joined a flute band, and people think flute bands are rather outrageous or stupid. But, you know, I learned things like, uh, the Thieving Magpie overture, and I can still play from memory the first violin part of the overture to Oberon.

And when I went to the Royal College of Music, I was the only one sitting in the orchestra with any sort of, uh, orchestral experience, even though it was in a flute band. (Laughs) And you know the, the, the, the, the... the, the... oh, what did, the... the one that starts with the drum, I just mentioned it a minute ago.

Yep. It, it goes perfect because it opens up with a drum solo.

Yeah. And I mean, the, the, the, the side drum plays all the way through the first part of the overture.

So when we learn these things, we, it really took root. And it was not only pieces like that we learned. Uh, I first played my first Unfinished Symphony with 36 flutes, four drums, bass drum, side drum, and cymbal—and cymbals. (Laughs) You could hear that racket. And this was a funny thing. I thought the Jupiter Symphony was great. We played it really good. And then I went to, uh, I went to London, and I went round to, to hear Thomas Beecham conducting the BBC Orchestra in the, the Jupiter Symphony. And guess what? He swore at them all the way through! (Laughs) Live performance.

Yeah.

The intonation and stuff.

And I was thinking, "Oh man, this is terrible intonation from a professional orchestra." But I mean, it was the standard at the time. They probably had like no rehearsal. And you know what that's like. Nothing's changed.

Yeah, I mean, not through the whole performance. Just now and again, he would turn and ask them if they were serious. I don't know what—I don't know what he was saying, though. But he was a real character. Oh, yeah. Towards the end of his life, he, he, he developed this trait.

I like his, I like his La Bohème.

Wow.

I think it does, of course. Uh, especially when you're practicing.

Uh, I mean, when I'm practicing something and I can't get it on the Monday, uh, there's hope for it on Tuesday. (Laughs) If it still doesn't work by Wednesday, you, you really begin to get it. But then, you might be talking about, uh, repetition of pieces.

Like symphonies.

Yeah, well, I think, for example, Karajan, when he—I think he conducted the Beethoven symphonies maybe four times.

Recorded.

At least three, anyway.

And, uh, everything got better. The technical, the technical aspect of it got better, and he had been driving his Rolls-Royce Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for several years before that, and they, they really began to knit together in a way that other orchestras didn't.

I know I listened to them recently, uh, doing an, uh, a Nielsen flute concerto, and I thought it was remarkable.

Oh, you, you're going to like this, Michael. I get up, have breakfast, and then go back to bed. (Laughs)

Then I get up and have lunch.

But it's only, it's only because I'm rather elderly, uh, that I do all this sleeping business.

Yeah.

Yeah. (Laughs)

I play scales and arpeggios. That's all. And now, uh, sometimes I, I practice a, a piece if I need to demonstrate it, uh, to the students online. For example, uh, if I want to demonstrate, uh, something like breathing, I take the second movement of the suite by Widor for the flute, which is really very difficult for the breathing. And what I try to convey to the student is, when you get to the end of this place in the music, the note should be full and have a full support. It should not—you shouldn't be empty.

Otherwise, you're not going to have the, the rich tone that you really are searching for if you don't take... And, of course, you know, in the editions that I make, I, I mark breathings in all over the place, because there's a lot of students and people taking breaths, they say, "Oh, I don't need to take that breath." And I think, this is the bad news. You really do need to take that breath (laughs) because it's not—it's not really supported. It's only blown.

Oh, yeah, concertos.

Well, we're trying, we're trying to get, uh, flutes that are of a high enough quality and cheap enough for students to afford, and for young professionals to afford. You know, and, and, and, and I, I do my best to influence, uh, the most important part of the flute, which is the, the embouchure plate.

The little chimney that you blow on here.

Uh, I, I, I know my flute makers are going to kill me, but I don't think so. (Whispers) We won't tell them. We won't say.

Um, I, I play on a platinum flute with a platinum riser. This is the, the little bit we're talking about, the riser. Some people have gold risers, some people have a completely gold flute. I have several completely gold flutes, and I like them all. In fact, the most popular flute that I own is the one that I used for the most of my recording career, and it's the one with the diamonds in it.

Made by Muramatsu in, in America. Now, of course, I play a different flute. I play a Nagahara in, from Boston. But I play all these flutes all the time. You know, I play three or four of them all the time. Just change. But mostly I play my platinum one because I like it the best. The Flute Academy, ta-da! Well, it sort of came about after 30 years of teaching. The same time, the same place, and the same scales. And gradually, we saw from this collection of people who came to the class, they began to get jobs in places like, uh, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, all these sort of places.

Los Angeles.

Yeah. I mean, really, really big-time flute players they all became. I mean, one of them just now has gone off to, uh, Abu Dhabi to, to teach the flute.

And she'll be a very good teacher because, you know, she plays everything from memory.

And plays it very well, too, I have to say. Beautiful player.

Well, I'll give you a description of how the day starts.

In the morning, we have breakfast around about 8:00. And then we have, uh, warm-ups, and, and, and, and at the same time, I play the kids some films of flute players, including myself, (laughs) Marcel Moyse and stuff. And then we start doing an, um, interpretation of sound, how to get a good sound. So we do that for a bit, for about an hour, and then I begin to teach each privately. So everyone gets a 40-hour, a 40-minute lesson. Then it moves along to lunchtime, and we have three 40-minute lessons in the afternoon—maybe five, not sure. Uh, can't remember. (Laughs)

Hi.

Yeah, this is my baby. You talk—you're talking about my baby here, the, the Academy. Um, I was just on the phone actually with my assistant, and she's making a whole new timeline and format for what we're going to be releasing October 1st.

Virtually. Um, you know, our Academy, it's just bringing everyone together, and the purpose, it's just an umbrella for everything that we do and all our outreaches, our community events we've been doing all over the world. Every time we had a concert, you know, bringing it for kids. We work with the Ravinia Music Matters program, we support that, we, we support so many programs. And one of the big things that we have done that got stalled that I'm just working on now is our 80 for 80. And for my husband's 80th birthday, we decided to go to some flute companies and ask for 80 flutes to distribute to some, some organizations that we work with, one of them being HOLA out in Los Angeles—you know, the Heart of Los Angeles.

And also the Kaufman Music Center that we're big supporters of, um, in, in New York, and some other various, and also the Music Matters program in Ravinia, and also some in England, Ireland, everywhere we are. Um, but as soon as we reached 80, which was very quick, my number went up to 800. (Laughs) Because that, you know, this Galway Gives Back is what we're all about, and, um, so what we did initiate this summer was, uh, the Galway at Home series, which is our free, um, you know, live Facebook, uh, teaching things. And, uh, you know, it's all about mentoring. I just, just now, wrote to two of my students that were communicating. Um, you know, and especially now, we have to really, really, we have to get out of our little shell here and encourage the others. And, um, it's a little hard, it's hard for us, too, because, you know, it's just, everything for us has stopped, too, but we just have to keep pushing ahead.

Thank you.

Thank you. Bye for now.

Thank you, Michael. Take care.