Daily Archives: May 4, 2014
Glen Cottage (Edor)
The polka Glen Cottage is sometimes called “As I Went Out Upon the Ice.”  In Irish the title is TeachĂn an Ghleanna, known variously in English as “Glen Cottage,” “Glin Cottage,” “The Green Cottage #2” and various other permutations, with settings in both Edor and Ador. There are, in fact, a whole group of polkas called […]
Child of My Heart (Aaeol)
“Child of My Heart” is a single jig, #1095 in O’Neill’s 1850 (1903) and #395 in O’Neill 1001 (1907). According to the Fiddler’s Companion, the tune was picked up by Capt. Francis O’Neill from John Ennis, the piper and flute player from County Kildare who had himself gotten it from a nameless player who was […]
Haunted House (G)
There are a variety of variations of this G Ionian jig, Haunted House, which is becoming popular at sessions. The tune is from the prolific Galway flute player Vincent Broderick (1920-2008). He and his brother Peter were well-loved musicians, generous with their time and talents. According to legend the brothers used to explain the origin of […]
Mooncoin (Amix)
The jig “Mooncoin” is named after Mooncoyne, a town in County Kilkenny in SE Ireland, in an area that has produced many a fine piper over the last two hundred years. One of them, James Byrne, was discovered in Mooincoyn in 1904 by Father Henebry and Father Fielding (both clerics and Irish music enthusiasts). They […]
Christmas Day In da Morning (D|Eaeol)
The strathspey “Christmas Day In Da Morning” is notated in 4/4 when a strathspey or a reel, and in 6/8 when it’s a jig. It is played in many places around the globe. It has obvious Scandinavian influences, and also seems like an old tune.  To avoid confusion note tht there is also a Northumbrian […]
Bank of Turf (D)
Though the Bank of Turf is also played as a double jig, Randal Bays (with Davey Mathias) plays it as a single jig.  There is also a hornpipe by this name (in G) that seems otherwise unrelated. About the name of the hornpipe, however, Sean Keane once offered up what some might call a Sliabh Luachra[1] […]
Kansas City Hornpipe (D)
The Kansas City Hornpipe was written around 2007 by Fred Morrison on his return trip from the MHAF Winter Storm piping event and workshop held in Kansas City, MO – which is a rapidly growing workshop attracting octopus wrestlers from many and sundry places. Apparently, Morrison was headed home with some others from the workshop and became […]
Madame Bonaparte (G)
This is a very basic setting of the hornpipe Madame Bonaparte. The tune is sometimes played as a reel for set dances (and so flattened out a bit), but more commonly played as a hornpipe in sessions. It’s also played in A as well as G. According to the Fiddler’s Companion, the tune is named in […]
Gander in/at the Pratie Hole (D)Â
Gander in/at the Pratie Hole is tune #30 in Breandán Breathnach’s Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1 (1963), and in  Phil Rubenzer’s Midwestern Irish Session Tunes: Millennium Edition (2000), p. 137.  The title of this tune is multiply ambiguous. “Pratie” is an Anglicized form of the Irish prátaĂ (plural of práta), the word the Irish in […]
Maggie in the Woods (G)
“Maggie in the Woods” is a popular two-part polka, similar to “The Scartaglen Polka” (also in G), though the latter has three parts. There are some common lyrics to this polka:  If I met Maggie in the wood / I would kiss her if I could / that’s the thing would do her good / […]