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Notes
“Trip to Pakistan” is a modern classic in the Celtic world, composed by the famous Scottish flute player Niall Kenny. Despite its title, it isn’t an ancient traditional tune, but it has been adopted so thoroughly into Irish and Scottish sessions that it is now considered a “standard.”
The tune is a high-energy reel that is instantly recognizable for its dark, driving, and exotic “modal” sound.
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The Scale: It is played in E Minor, but it heavily utilizes the E Dorian mode. This gives it a “shifting” quality—sometimes feeling somber and other times feeling triumphant and aggressive.
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The Three-Part Structure: Unlike many reels that only have two parts, “Trip to Pakistan” has three distinct sections. Each part builds in intensity, starting with a low-register “snake-like” melody and ending with a high-pitched, soaring finish.
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The Name: Niall Kenny reportedly named the tune after a trip he took to Pakistan, and the repetitive, rhythmic nature of the melody is said to evoke the hypnotic pulse of the music he encountered there.