Tune Notes - Winter 2023
Reel, D major
Also known as The Maid Of Athlone.
Recording: The Bothy Band - Out of the Wind, Into the Sun (1977). Also, Garvin Hill - The Fiddle Music of Mickey Doherty from "Traditional Music of Donegal = Archive recording from the National Folklore Collection" (Recorded in 1949) (Released in 1990).
Reel, D major (AB)
Often played with "The Enchanted Lady" as on The Bothy Band's Out of the Wind, Into the Sun.
Jig, D major (AABB)
Composed by Brendan Tonra, a Boston area Sligo fiddler.
Recording: Martin Mulvihill - The Humors of Glen (1986)
Double Jig 6/8, E mix (AABB)
Also known as "My Brother Tom" (variant), as number 996 in O'Neill's Music of Ireland and number 211 in O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland.
Recordings: James Kelly, Paddy O'Brien, and Daithi Sproule - Is it Yourself (1979), and on Truth Be Told by our own Justin Bonar-Bridges (2014).
According to Paddy O'Brien, the odd tune title "The Horse's Leotard", originated when he and James Kelly were producing that recording together. James made the title up off the top of his head just to have something for the jacket. He said there were other tune names on the recording right out of James' imagination as well.
Jig 6/8, G major (AABB)
Also known as "The Priest's Leap", "Red Stockings", "Rough Diamond".
-- The Traditional Tune ArchiveOften one of the first Irish jigs a young musician is taught in some areas. It was frequently played by New England contra-dance bands, perhaps due to the influence of Boston-based Irish-American accordion masters Jerry O'Brien and Joe Derrane. The tune appears in William Bradbury Ryan's Ryan's Mammoth Collection (Boston 1883) under the title "Rough Diamond".
Polka 2/4, A mix (AABB)
Also known as "Groves Of Gneeveguilla", "The Groves Of Gneeveguilla", "Maol Mountain", "Murphy's Delight", "Queen's".
Recording: Pádraig O'Keefe, Denis Murphy, and Julia Clifford - Kerry Fiddles (1977)
-- The Traditional Tune ArchiveMaol is a village in the Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork/Kerry border. Alan Ward, in his booklet "Music from Sliabh Luachra", references the tune and remarks that "Maol Mountain ('Sliabh Maol') and Maol Bog are north of Lisheen." Influential regional fiddler Pádraig O'Keeffe named the tune "Top of the Maol" because if he looked northeast from his home in Glountaine Cross he could see the top of Sliabh Maol.
Polka, G major (AABBCC)
Also known as "Din Tarrant's", "The Glen Cottage Polka No. 1", "The Humours of Ballydesmond", "Kitty Wants A Soldier", "Knocknaboul No. 1".
Recording: Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford - The Star Above the Garter (1969).
Scartaglen, or Scartaglin, is a village in the Sliabh Luachra area of County Kerry, Ireland, approximately 13 km west of Ballydesmond.
Slip Jig 9/8, D mix (AB)
Also known as "Wink and She'll Follow You", "Last Night's Fun", "Paddy Be Aisy"
Recording: Paddy O'Brien, Nathan Gourley, and Daithi Sproule - Bright and Early (2014)
Slip Jig 9/8, A dorian
Also known as "The Arra Mountains", "Arragh Mountains", "The Arragh Mountains", "Arras Mountain", "Mount Arragh", "The Mountains Of Arra"
(composed by Paddy O'Brien the elder, of Tipperary)
Recording: Paddy O'Brien, Séamus Connolly - Banks of the Shannon (1973)
The Arra Mountains (Irish: 'Sliabh an Ara') are situated in Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
Slip Jig 9/8, D major
Also known as "Barney Brailagan", "Barney Brallaghan", "Barney Brallaghan's", "Barney Bralligan", "Barney Bralligan's", "Barney Brannigan's", "Blewitt's", "Blewitt's Jig".
Cameron's Selection of Violin Music (Glasgow 1859) calls it "Blewitt's Jig" and gives the composer as J Blewitt.