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Concertina Reel (D)

By Eddie | Published January 10, 2015

The English concertina was invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1829, and the German version invented by Carl Friedrich Uhlig in 1834. These seem to be independent inventions. It is a hand-held bellows-driven free reed instruments, with reeds made of brass and later steel. The English concertina is unisonoric, giving the same note per button, push or pull. The Anglo concertina is bisonoric, giving a different note per button on the push and pull.

The well-known “Concertina Reel” is from at least the late nineteenth century. This very tune is sometimes called “The Old Concertina Reel” and sometimes called “The New Concertina Reel.” Now, though the reasons are obscure, mostly having to do with confusions between this and a few other reels, the “Old Concertina Reel” seems most apt, as calling this tune “The New . . .” requires taking up a socially and historically unavailable perspective, even for those who were addicted to “The Victorian Farm,” “The 1900s House,” “The Victorian Pharmacy,” “The Edwardian Farm,” “The Edwardian Country House” or “Manor House,” “The Colony” (New South Wales version), “Colonial House,” “Frontier House,” or even “All Creatures Great and Small.”

Willie Clancey

Our tune, whether you call it “old” or “new,” was played by the piper Willie Clancy, who learned it from his concertina-playing mother, Ellen Killeen of Enistymon, and it is in the tune book The Dance Music of Willie Clancy (Cork, 1976) by Pat Mitchell. Willie Clancy’s father Gilbert (Islandbawn, near Milton Malbay) also played concertina in addition to his primary instrument, the flute.

It is tune #275 in Breandán Breathnach’s Ceol Rince na hÉireann, no. 2 (1976), #43 in Dave Mallinson’s 100 Essential Irish Session Tunes (2001), and in Phil Rubenzer’s Midwestern Irish Session Tunes (2000).

For the ABC click Concertina Reel

Concertina Reel,

Concertina Reel, the dots

Concertina Reel, Reel in D

Posted in ABC format, Dots, Irish Tunes, Irish-American Culture, MP3, Reel, Slow Session, Tune, Tune Comment, Very Popular | Tagged ABC format, Irish Reels, Irish Session, Irish Traditional Music, Learning Irish Music, Recordings of Irish Music, Session Tunes, Teaching Irish Music, Tune History | Leave a comment

Gravel Walks (Ador)

By Eddie | Published January 8, 2015

This reel, “Gravel Walks” or “The Gravel Walks,” is also called “The Gravelled Walks to Granny,” and “Jenny Tie your Bonnet.” In Vallely’s Fiddler’s Companion Caoimhin Mac Aoidh writes that Granny (or sometimes Grainne or Cranny) is a secluded and unpopulated glen between Ardara (pronounces Ar-DRA) and Glencolmcille (pronounced Glen-CULLIM-kill) in southwest co. Donegal. People from the nearby villages of Ardara, Kilcar, and Glen would bring their sheep to Granny for the summer and come back for them in autumn. To get there they’d have to walk and climb up several gravel paths. It was not smooth going. The tune, perhaps, mimics route.

The title “Jenny Tie your Bonnet” appears to have originally been a Scottish tune called “Janet Tyed the Bonnet Tight” as printed in The Piper’s Assistant (1877). Two brothers, fiddlers from Donegal, tell the tale of a man who had only two tunes in his repertoire. However, upon meeting some of the wee folk, they imparted to him many, many more tunes, vastly increasing his repertoire — which is not an unknown benefit of meeting favorable folk of their kind in Ireland — this being one of the tunes. So if you are having trouble with this one, you know where to go . . . and who to blame.

In the KC area we play this Ador|C tune with the structure AABBCCDD. Apparently, in Donegal, where the tune is a favorite, it is often played as ABCCDD. In the key of Ador (which means the tune has all the same notes as the key of G), the first three parts of the tune can be simply backed with Am and G chords (and an occasional Em), while the fourth part has a nice uplifting change, starting on a C major chord. There are many more possibilities, of course.

For the ABC click Gravel Walks

Gravel Walks

Gravel Walks, the dots

Gravel Walks, Reel in Am|C

Posted in ABC format, Dots, Irish Tunes, Irish-American Culture, MP3, Reel, Scottish, Slow Session, Too Popular, Tune, Tune Comment, Very Popular | Tagged ABC format, Irish Reels, Irish Session, Irish Traditional Music, Learning Irish Music, Recordings of Irish Music, Session Tunes, Teaching Irish Music, Tune History | Leave a comment

Da Slockit Light (D)

By Eddie | Published January 7, 2015

Tom Anderson

This reel-time slow air, “Da Slockit Light,” was composed by the renown Shetland fiddler Tom Anderson (1910-1991), who composed over three hundred tunes. He was born in Esha Ness, on the Northmavine peninsula, in the far northwest edge of the Shetland mainland. He began composing in 1936 and continued to do so almost until the day he died. This tune is sometimes thought to be his best-known, and it is often played very slowly to reflect the sort of melancholy nostalgia with which it was composed. This is the way it is played, for instance, on the CD by Brendan Bulger, Marty Fahey, Kathleen Gavin entitled Music at the House (2003). Kathleen Gavin plays “Da Slockit Light” on piano there, and it’s a very moving rendition if you know the background. She provided background on the tune, as have others, and the story runs as follows:

Tom Anderson, Silver Bow (1975)

Once, when asked about the tune, Tom Anderson recounted that he was leaving his birth-home of Esha Ness one cold January in 1969. It was after 11pm and with maybe a quarter-moon it was a rather dark night. As he was leaving he looked back at the top of the hill leading out of the district and he saw so few lights compared to what he remembered from his youth. Then, as he stood there, the lights started to go out one by one. “Coupled with the recent death of my wife,” he explained “made me think of the old word ‘Slockit,’ meaning, a light that has gone out, and I think that is what inspired the tune” (1970).

It has been done many times, by many players, traditional and classical. The best versions, in my opinion, embody a real sense of reminiscent sadness, recalling a memory that brings you joy but with the recognition that it will never be had again. Here’s an arrangement by Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas (2004), and here’s one by Takehiro Kunugi with the Osaka Symphony (2006). By the way, there are a few Tom Anderson tune books around, but they are pretty hard to come by these days. If you see any of them you should think about that, and if you find one and don’t want it, let me know please! Here are the three I know are out there somewhere: Haand me doon da Fiddle (1980), Ringing Strings: Traditional Shetland Music and Dance (1983), and Gie’s an A: Shetland Fiddle Tunes (1995).

As an idea, start with this tune played at a slow to med tempo, and then pick up the tempo when you transition to “Da Rood ta Houll > Far from Home > Bonnie Isle O’Whalsey” and maybe then on to “Spootiskerry > Willafjord.” That would be quite a Shetland set!

For the ABC click Da Slockit Light

Da Slockit Light,

Da Slockit Light

Da Slockit Light, da dots

Da Slockit Light, Reel in D

Posted in ABC format, Dots, Irish Tunes, MP3, Reel, Slow Session, Tune, Tune Comment, Very Popular | Tagged ABC format, Irish Reels, Irish Traditional Music, Learning Irish Music, Recordings of Irish Music, Session Tunes, Tune History | 1 Comment

The Crooked Road to Dublin (G)

By Eddie | Published January 6, 2015

Missing Liberty Tapes, Paul Brady (1978)

The reel “The Crooked Road to Dublin” is not a crooked tune, in fact it’s simply played ABAB. Also just called “The Crooked Road,” it is a pretty popular session tune in many corners of the world, despite the fact that the world has no corners, the Flat Earth Society notwithstanding. There were several recordings of this tune in the 1970s, including John McGreevy and Seamus Cooley on McGreevy & Cooley (1974) in a set with “The Moving Bog.” Julia, John, and Billy Clifford have a version played with “The Clare Reel” on The Star of Munster Trio (1977), recorded between 1964 and 1976. On Paul Brady’s first solo album The (Missing) Liberty Tapes (1978), the set “Crooked Road to Dublin / Bucks of Oranmore” is track 9, and features Paul Brady, Donal Lunny, Matt Molloy, Andy Irvine, Liam O’Flynn, Paddy Glackin, and Noel Hill. That recording shows that this is a pretty mighty 32-bar reel when it gets moving. Martin Hayes has a roaring version on Under the Moon (2006). It was also on the Paul Brady & Andy McGann album It’s A Hard Road to Travel (1977) in a much more sedate form, something reminiscent of the way it was played earlier by several well-known players: Michael Coleman (1891-1945) on the fiddle, John Kelly (1912-1989) on the fiddle, Willie Clancy (1918-1973) on the pipes, John McGreevy (1919 – 1990) on the fiddle, and Seamus Cooley (1929-1997) on the flute. It seems to have evolved from a Scottish pipe tune sometime after 1910. The chords I’ve give are very simple (actually there’s just two chords), though there are many more options!

For the ABC click Crooked Road To Dublin

The Crooked Road to Dublin, slow tempo

The Crooked Road to Dublin, med tempo

The Crooked Road to Dublin, the dots

Crooked Road To Dublin

Bean a Tí ar Lár (D)

By Eddie | Published January 5, 2015

The title of this reel “Bean a Tí ar Lár” (Bahn uh Tee air Lahr) is usually simply translated as “Mistress on the Floor” in English, though sometimes also called “The Woman of the House on the Floor” perhaps to get away from the connotations of the former in English. Without suggesting that there aren’t plenty of Irish tune names that court that very connotation, the sense of the phrase is actually that the mistress or host of the gathering is on the floor ready to dance, or already dancing. The initial translation is from Brendan Breathnach’s notes on the tune — #199 in Breathnach’s Ceol Rince na hÉireann vol. 2 (1976) — which was used on the Tommy Peoples & Paul Brady LP High Part of the Road (1976), and re-released on CD in 1994. Owing to the popularity of that album the translation is so common now that it would be very hard to change. So, most often that’s what it’ll be called by native English speakers. This is the case despite the criticism of that translation, which comes primarily from Caoimhin Mac Aoidh, the author of Between the Jigs and Reels: The Donegal Fiddle Playing Tradition (1994), who maintains that the title used here is a corruption of the original title, which was “Bean a Ti Faoi Chláir” (Bahn uh Tee Fwee Khlaar) which means “the woman of the house in a coffin” (lit. “under a board”) and is itself a reference to the lilter Bidi a’ Mhucros, who was well known at the time as a repository of a vast number of tunes. According to the fiddler’s companion, when she died she was waked in an open coffin in her cottage, as was the custom, and toward dawn as the lid was placed on her coffin the cottage door flew open. Then two fairy fiddlers came in to pay their respects. They walked up to the coffin, produced their instruments, and proceeded to play this reel many times through and then abruptly walked over to the fireplace where they were whisked up the chimney, never to be seen again.

For the ABC click Bean An Ti Ar Lar

Bean a Tí ar Lár, slow tempo

Bean a Tí ar Lár, med tempo

Bean a Tí ar Lár, the dots

Bean a Tí ar Lár, Reel in D

Posted in ABC format, Dots, Irish Tunes, Irish-American Culture, MP3, Reel, Slow Session, Tune, Tune Comment, Very Popular | Tagged ABC format, Irish Reels, Irish Traditional Music, Learning Irish Music, Recordings of Irish Music, Session Tunes, Teaching Irish Music, Tune History | Leave a comment

Salamanca Reel (D)

By Eddie | Published January 3, 2015

This reel, called either “The Salamanca Reel” or just “The Salamanca,” has been popular since at least the mid-nineteenth century. Played throughout Ireland, it is sometimes thought to be a Connaught reel. Though it has been suggested that the tune was once a hornpipe, it has been played as a reel for over a hundred and twenty years. It was recorded by the accordion player John J. Kimmel and appears on Early Recordings of Irish Traditional Dance Music (1915). The Bothy Band play the set “Salamanca > Banshee > Sailor’s Bonnet” on their eponymous 1975 album. It is also on Kieran Hanrahan’s Kieran Hanrahan Plays the Irish Tenor Banjo (1998).

The background on this tune is pretty confused. There are three main lines:

The first is that it is named after the 1859 bay thoroughbred mare Salamanca bred by Mr. W. Blake, and dam of Pero Gomez in 1866. Some people will refer to Salamanca as a racehorse, but “she was no great performer, nor with the exception of Pero Gomez, has the mare been very successful at the stud” (The Sportsman, p. 342, 1869).

The second comes from Brendán Breathnach’s Ceol Rince na hÉireann, vol. 2 (1976), who wrote that it is named after the Battle of Salamanca (1812) in which the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon’s Marshal Auguste Marmont’s army. Wellington commanded about 50,000 British, Portuguese, and Spanish troops including the 27th Foot, Inniskilling Fusiliers, and the 83rd Foot, the Royal Irish Rifles. After the battle Wellington promptly marched for Madrid, forcing King Joseph Bonaparte (Napoleon’s older brother placed on the Spanish throne) to flee with his government.

The third is that is that it’s named after the most famous of the Irish colleges in Spain, the seminary in Salamanca which opened in 1593 as El Real Colegio de Nobles Irlandeses. It was governed by Jesuits until 1767, and thereafter by selected Irish secular clergy, presented by the bishops of Ireland and confirmed by the King of Spain. The students attend lectures at the University of Salamanca, which is by charter is open to students from all the provinces of Ireland, with the majority coming from the southern and eastern provinces. In the early seventeenth century Father White, S.J., was unwilling to receive students from Ulster and Connaught on account of the Nine Years’ War (1594-1603), and in reaction the exiled Irish chiefs, Hugh O’Neill and Hugh Roe O’Donnell, presented a remonstrance on the subject to the King of Spain. They prevailed, at least in part. Later, the Bishop of Armagh held the office of rector from 1781 to 1812, and rendered valuable service to the Duke of Wellington during the Battle of Salamanca mentioned above. There are, at present, about thirty Irish students at Salamanca who attend lectures at the diocesan seminary, which has taken the place of the theology faculty of the university. The college is mainly supported by ancient endowments, subject to the control of the Spanish Government.

As to which of these is correct, I have no idea. I do know that it is in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883), it is tune #1348 in O’Neill’s 1850 (1903), #603 in O’Neill’s 1001 (1907), and #134 in the Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 1 (1912).

For the ABC click Salamanca Reel

Salamanca Reel, slow tempo (Dave Agee, slow tempo)

Salamanca Reel, med tempo (Dave Agee, fiddle)

Salamanca Reel, the dots

Salamanca Reel (D)

Posted in ABC format, Dots, Irish Tunes, MP3, Reel, Slow Session, Tune, Tune Comment, Very Popular | Tagged Irish Banjo, Irish Reels, Irish Traditional Music, Learning Irish Music, O'Neill's Tunes, Recordings of Irish Music, Session Tunes, Teaching Irish Music, Tune History | Leave a comment

Julia Delaney’s (Ddor)

By Eddie | Published January 1, 2015

The Bothy Band, first album, (1975)

Julia Delaney was the sister-in-law of our beloved Captain Francis O’Neill — she was the sister of O’Neill’s wife Anna (née Delaney). The tune is from around the turn of the last century, and most likely composed in the Chicago area. The reel “Julia Delaney’s” (or just “Julia Delaney”) was the fourth track of the Bothy Band’s 1975 eponymous album, with Tommy Peoples playing solo to start. It has been recorded many times since. James Kelly and Zan McLeod do a very cool fiddle-bouzouki version on the fourth track of their CD Ring Sessions (1996), with Zan playing melody the first couple of times through and Johnny “Ringo” McDonagh on bodhrán. A recent accordion-bouzouki version is on James Keane’s Heir of the Dog (2012), which he describes as being at “more of a kitchen-style tempo,” with Eamon O’Leary playing zouk accompaniment and Tom English on bodhrán.

Fire in the Kitchen (1998)

It’s popular at sessions in the States, and sessions in Québec, where it’s known as “Le Reel Des Sorcières” (“The Witches’ Reel”). For instance, André Brunet plays this tune with his brother Réjean in their band Les Frères Brunet; and from 1997 to 2006 he played with the well-known La Bottine Souriante which did a powerful rendition of this tune. For those unfamiliar with La Bottine Souriante, they are to traditional Québécois music what The Chieftains are to Irish music. In fact, if you want to hear them, as well as other traditional Québécois musicians, you might want to pick up the compilation CD (recorded by the Chieftains) entitled Fire in the Kitchen (1998) — actually, the Chieftains were touring Canada and ended up recording informal live sessions with every one of the “guest” musicians on the CD.

A (much more difficult) version of this tune in D is #1401 in O’Neill’s 1850 (1903) and #643 in O’Neill’s 1001 (1907). The more common, and more popular version of this tune is #51 in Tony Sullivan’s Sully’s Irish Music Book (1979), and in Phil Rubenzer’s Midwestern Irish Session Tunes (2000).

For the ABC click Julia Delaney’s Reel

Julia Delaney, slow tempo

Julia Delaney, med tempo

Julia Delaney, the dots

Julia Delaney (Ddor) with some alternate chords

Posted in ABC format, American Tunes, Dots, Irish Tunes, Irish-American Culture, MP3, Reel, Slow Session, Tune, Tune Comment, Very Popular | Tagged ABC format, Irish Bouzouki, Irish Reels, Irish Traditional Music, Learning Irish Music, O'Neill's Tunes, Recordings of Irish Music, Session Tunes, Teaching Irish Music, Tune History | Leave a comment

Brian Boru’s March (Aaeol)

By Eddie | Published December 8, 2014

Irish Music, 1915

The march entitled “Brian Boru’s” is in jig time (6/8), and while its origin is unknown it dates to at least the 1840s, but could be considerably older. There are accounts of various kinds of dances using this tune, and some seem fairly complex reaching a hey-day perhaps around the 1860s. Nonetheless, as a march it would be a cavalry march, as horses march clop-e-ty clop-e-ty (in 6/8 time), rather than hup-two-three-four (in 4/4 time), unless they’re standing on their hind legs, of course. It is usually played in in Aaeol (Am) or Edor, and has from two to perhaps as many as six parts. The one here is the three part version. The most common two-part version just uses the first two of these three parts. I might add the fourth part later since the two, three, and four part versions are most common — the four-part version is #1801 in O’Neill’s 1850 (1903), and #96 in O’Neill’s Irish Music (1915).

Brian Boru Plaque

The tune is named after the historical figure Brian Boru (c. 941–1014 C. E.), who achieved the status as the first High King of Ireland around the year 1000, though he never did, in fact, have control of all other kings on the island. The total population of Ireland at the time was around half a million, and there were an estimated 150 kings in control of various sized domains. As legend has it, Brian Boru died on good Friday during the battle of Clontarf (23 April 1014).

In concerts before the turn of the twentieth century “Brian Boru’s March” would sometimes be played as a story-piece (like the multi-part “Foxhunter’s Reel”) in which the performer would provide a commentary on the scenes going on behind the music. This kind of music & story entertainment was very popular, and would often be the high-point in a performance. The account given in a New York newspaper of Patrick Byrne (c. 1784-1863) playing a large house concert in 1860 caught Francis O’Neill’s eye, and he quotes it at large in his Irish Music: 400 tunes arranged for piano and violin (1915).

For the ABC click Brian Boru’s March

Brian Boru March, slow

Brian Boru March, dots

Brian Boru’s March, 3-part version

Posted in ABC format, Dots, March, MP3, Slow Session, Tune, Tune Comment | 1 Comment

Convenience Reel (D)

By Eddie | Published December 8, 2014

Olcan Masterson

Also called “Boys of Sligo” this three-part reel is worth knowing, whether you like it or not, as it is played in many sessions. It is a fairly simple tune, with lots of repeating phrases. The third part is probably the trickiest of the three. As such, the tune lends itself to variations, and there are many — e.g., compare Seamus Eagan’s version with the Abbey Céilí Band version. It was written by Belfast flute and whistle player Olcan Masterson, who moved to Westport, co. Mayo, as a young man and is also an authority on both the geography and the history of western Ireland. Masterson taught the tune to the flute player John Skelton in 1977, at an impromptu session during the All-Ireland Fleadh in Ennis.

John Skelton, photo by Paul Wells

John Skelton has been called “The English Garrison Keillor” by American newspapers and is surprisingly more famous for his work on the Green Linnet label with The House Band in the late 1980s through the 1990s than he is for playing the music of Brittany on the Bombarde. Importantly, “The Convenience Reel” was first recorded by Skelton with his previous band Shegui on Around the World for Sport (1980), where he gave it the title “The Convenience Reel.” That title seems to have much to do with the circumstance of the session in which Masterson passed it on to Skelton. As a “convenience” is a euphemism for that celebrated invention predictably but erroneously attributed to Thomas Crapper, the story is that the fateful session in Ennis was held one rainy day in or near a lavatory. It became a “must-be-played” tune in the early and mid-1980s, where it was most often called “Convenience Reel,” as opposed to “Knock on the Door” or “Don’t Come In” or “Hey, This One’s Occupied!” Now, as tastes change, since the 1990s there has been a growing interest in more complex tunes with unexpected changes — well, at least there’s an interest in saying there’s an interest in more complex tunes. Consequently, this tune has lost some of its must-play status over the last few of decades, but will still show up often enough in sessions to be on a medium-sized list of, say, one hundred tunes. By the way, it is #30 in Dave Mallinson’s 100 Essential Irish Session Tunes (2001).

For the ABC click Convenience Reel

The Convenience Reel, slow tempo

The Convenience Reel, med tempo

The Convenience Reel, dots

Convenience Reel, Reel in D

Posted in ABC format, Dots, MP3, Reel, Slow Session, Too Popular, Tune, Tune Comment | Leave a comment

Tar Road to Sligo (D)

By Eddie | Published November 5, 2014

Tar Road to Sligo, turn left ahead

Coach Road to Sligo, from Ballina

This is tune #836 in O’Neill’s 1850 (1903), #99 in O’Neill’s 1001 (1907), and is also in Phil Rubenzer’s Midwestern Irish Session Tunes (2000). It is another tune made popular by Michael Coleman in the early part of the 20th century and the Bothy Band in the latter part. On their eponymous first album, The Bothy Band (1975), they pair this tune with Paddy Clancy’s, with the result that at many sessions this the expected jig set when “Tar Road” starts up. It is in the jig family which includes “Fasten a Leg in Her,” “Rose in the Heather,” and “Wandering Minstrel.” The tune is also called “Coach Road to Sligo,” and Sligo fiddler James Morrison (1893-1947), a.k.a. “the Professor,” was born in Drumfin, which is on the main road into Sligo from Ballina in co. Mayo, and the road is still called “Mail Coach Road” . . . though it is paved now.

For the ABC click Tar Road To Sligo

Tar Road to Sligo, slow tempo (fiddle, Dave Agee)

Tar Road to Sligo, med tempo (fiddle, Dave Agee)

Tar Road To Sligo, jig in D

Posted in ABC format, Dots, Jig, MP3, Slow Session, Tune, Tune Comment | Leave a comment

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