<![CDATA[The Séamus Connolly Collection of Irish Music]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=46&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Connolly%2C+S%C3%A9amus&page=2&output=rss2 Thu, 28 Mar 2024 08:27:23 -0700 burnsref@bc.edu (The Séamus Connolly Collection of Irish Music) Boston College Libraries Zend_Feed http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss <![CDATA[Old as the Hills]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/501

Story

Jack Coen gave me the name for this jig, which can be found as a two-part tune in A major in the O'Neill's 1001 collection. I first heard the tune played by 'The Man of Many Tunes', Larry Gavin. I also heard a version of it performed by Mr. David Curry and his orchestra in a radio broadcast when I was still living in Ireland. A classical musician, David Curry took traditional tunes in the public domain and arranged them for orchestra. Maine flute player Nicole Rabata and I play David Curry's four-part setting of 'Old as the Hills'. We transposed it to the key of G major, the key that Larry Gavin played it in many years ago.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
06-15_Old_as_the_Hills-Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:14 -0800
<![CDATA[Billy Caples' Barndance]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/411

Story

This barndance is another tune from the repertoire of Boston accordionist Billy Caples. I am joined by Nicole Rabata playing flute and Kevin McElroy playing the tenor banjo. Gabriel Donohue later added his piano playing to the track.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
06-32_Billy_Caples_Barndance.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:10 -0800
<![CDATA[Joy of My LIfe]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/505

Story

This well-known jig is performed on this track by yours truly, Séamus Connolly. With help on the banjo from my friend Kevin McElroy, we offer this grand two-part jig as a way to invite musicians to play this tune once again. The interesting second part of the tune comes from the fiddle playing of Thomas Power from Doonbeg in County Clare.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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07-02_Joy_of_My_Life-Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:14 -0800
<![CDATA[Brave Irish Boys, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/545

Story

Irish céilí dancing was very popular in the late 1950s and early '60s, and dancers loved the idea of dancing to the music of different bands. In the late 1950s I was invited to join The Ormond Star Céilí Band, one of a number of bands that were formed around the banks of The Shannon and Lough Derg. The Ormond Star counted among its members many fine musicians, including All-Ireland champion button accordionist Paddy Ryan from Coolbawn, Nenagh, County Tipperary, and fiddle player Liam O'Connor, originally from Brosna, County Kerry. Liam taught me many tunes, including the one played on this track by my friend Nicole Rabata on flute, with myself on fiddle. Just for the record, The Ormond Star did travel to Dublin to make a long-playing recording – exciting times for me as a teenager.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
07-06_The_Brave_Irish_Boys-March.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:16 -0800
<![CDATA[Leamanagh Castle]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/639

Story

Flute player Frank Neylon had a repertoire of fine tunes associated with his native Kilnaboy in north County Clare. Frank was living in Boston, Massachusetts, when I arrived there from Ireland in the 1970s. He was well-known and respected by all as a gentleman and a fine musician. He made some 78 RPM recordings with the County Kerry fiddle player Paddy Cronin, and he was featured on a long-playing record that I produced of musicians living in and around the Boston area in 1979. I asked Nicole Rabata to learn this reel from Frank's flute playing. For want of the tune's real title, I took the liberty of naming it after a landmark in Frank's home area.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
07-07_Leamanagh_Castle-Reel.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:20 -0800
<![CDATA[How Are You, Sandy? (Sandy Connolly's)]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/508

Story

It meant much to my wife Sandy and me when Bill Black, our friend from Cape Cod, sent us a tune that he composed in her honour entitled 'How Are You, Sandy?' Bill later sent the tune under the new title 'Sandy Connolly's' when she left us to go to her eternal reward. Thank you, sir, for caring so much. Sandy was very moved by your thoughtfulness. My friend Kevin McElroy joins me on this track.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
07-15_How_Are_You_Sandy_Sandy_Connollys-Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:14 -0800
<![CDATA[Man at the Helm]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/650

Story

I made this tune to honour the late Larry Reynolds of Galway, my friend for many years. Larry took me under his wing when I arrived in Boston in the 1970s. As president of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in Boston, he guided the organisation from strength to strength. Larry always gave a great welcome to any musician young or old who came to visit or live in Boston.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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07-23_Man_at_the_Helm-Reel.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:20 -0800
<![CDATA[Shandon Bells]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/510

Story

Having lived in the beautiful and historic city of Cork in the 1960s, I often think back to the happy times I had while beginning to find my feet in the big world of city life. The clock tower of St. Anne's Church has special meaning for me because the Bells of Shandon often chimed as I walked past the church. Whenever I hear the wonderful poem 'The Bells of Shandon', penned by Francis Sylvester Mahony, it is with deep affection and recollection that I think of the Shandon Bells. Mahony's words are very meaningful to me, and I quote from his poem here for all to read:

'With deep affection
And recollection
I often think of
Those Shandon Bells
Whose sounds so wild would,
In the days of childhood,
Fling round my cradle
Their magic spells.
On this I ponder
Where'er I wander,
And thus grow fonder,
Sweet Cork, of thee.
With thy bells of Shandon,
That sound so grand on
The pleasant waters
Of the river Lee.'

The grand old jig 'Shandon Bells', the first in O'Neill's The Dance Music of Ireland, 1001 Gems, is played on this track by Nicole Rabata on flute and myself on fiddle. We play it as a four-part tune. I played it many times as a two-part jig in the city by the River Lee. I first heard the two extra parts played by David Curry and his orchestra. They are two parts well worth hearing and preserving for posterity.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
07-24_Shandon_Bells-Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:14 -0800
<![CDATA[Thomas Power's March]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/546

Story

Another tune from the playing of Thomas Power from Doonbeg in County Clare. On this track, I am joined by Kevin McElroy on bodhrán and Nicole Rabata on flute to perform our interpretation of the march.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
07-28_Thomas_Powers_March.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:16 -0800
<![CDATA[Bells of Congress, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/550

Story

The Bells of Congress were presented to the United States by the Ditchley Foundation of Great Britain in 1976. A replica of the bells in London's Westminster Abbey, they are rung in honour of the opening and closing of Congress, and on state occasions and all national holidays. The Old Post Office in Washington houses the Bells of Congress and a guided tour of the building by the National Park Service is worth taking.

In the 1980s, as part of a musical delegation to Washington, D.C., representing the State of Massachusetts, I had the honour of visiting the Old Post Office and hearing the bells ring. When in full peal, the bells can take up to three and a half hours to complete their continuous performance. However, my composition on this track takes only a few minutes. I am joined by Gabriel Donohue on guitar.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
07-29_The_Bells_of_Congress-Planxty.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:16 -0800
<![CDATA[My Meitheal Class]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/513

Story

A week-long Irish music school known as Meitheal is held every year in Limerick. The five-day immersion in Irish music is directed by flute player Garry Shannon. As a teacher at the summer school, I had an assignment to work with a group of students who were interested in learning how to make up tunes. The music of composers Liz Carroll, Josephine Keegan, and Phil Cunningham from Scotland were used as examples. Students were asked to study the approach and methods used by these well-known composers. 'I'm not too sure where this is going to go', I said to myself. 'Music, I believe, happens when one is least thinking about it." However, after much listening, discussion, agreement, and collaborating, the students composed this tune. A talented group of young musicians – concertina players, accordionists, and other instruments all performing together – a wonderful sight to hear and behold! I have no fear for the future of Irish music. Nicole Rabata, a young flute player from Portland, Maine, joins me on this track. Listen and enjoy.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
07-33_My_Meitheal_Class-Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:14 -0800
<![CDATA[Remembering Curly]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/401

Story

Paula, a fiddle student in one of my classes at the Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp, asked me to 'make a tune' in honour of her late father, Curly. Paula really wanted to play something new at the student concert which was to be held at the end of the week of classes. I agreed at the time, but somehow managed to forget her request until one afternoon, I awoke from a nap in a panic. I had only then remembered my promise to Paula, and then panicked more. Never having known Curly or anything about him, it was not easy to make a tune for him. However, I did take out my fiddle and gave it a few strokes. Happily, I began to get some ideas into my head of what 'Remembering Curly' might sound like. With some shape to the tune, Paula was able to play it at the concert.

A more complete version of the tune is heard on this track, with my good friends the late John McGann playing guitar and Gabriel Donohue on keyboard. John was very involved with the transcription of the tunes for this project but, alas, he left us too soon. So in John's memory, perhaps 'Remembering Curly Remembering John McGann' might be a perfect title for this tune. Thanks, John, for all the music, stories, laughs, and friendship.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
07-37_Remembering_Curly-Air.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:09 -0800
<![CDATA[Kilfenora Barndance, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/412

Story

This tune was one of the ones that I did not know on that tape sent to me over fifty years ago by Kitty Linnane, then leader of the famous Kilfenora Céilí Band (see 'Come to the Fair'). Indeed, many of the tunes on that tape were new to me. I had my work cut out for me, having to learn all of them for our upcoming tour of England. I am delighted that Tara Lynch (of the famed Kilfenora name) joined me on this track. It felt like home having Tara play with me. Thank you, my friend.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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08-06_The_Kilfenora_Barndance.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:10 -0800
<![CDATA[Queen of the Faeries]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/695

Story

I learned this set dance from the playing of Larry Redican. Its first few measures seem to be related to the melody of an old tune – also a set dance – called 'The King of the Fairies'. And so, 'here's me' (an old Irish expression) playing 'Queen of the Faeries'.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
08-07_Queen_of_the_Faeries-Set_Dance.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:22 -0800
<![CDATA[Just Because It's You]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/731

Story

My dear friend Cindy Polo wrote this lovely tune in memory of her Dad. In her own words she tells us how it came to be:

'My first attempt at Irish fiddle playing was at a music camp in 2008, a violin novice, where I had the opportunity to learn from Séamus Connolly. He suggested that I could create a tune if I thought about a meaningful event. The tune played here by Séamus was my first attempt at composing music. It is in waltz time, and I wrote it in memory of my father, Edward Thomas Keane. As a young child, we would waltz across the living room, me riding on his feet. In later years there were father–daughter dinner dances and the dance at my wedding. We had our last waltz in 2001, the weekend before he died in the World Trade Tower on September 11th.'

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
08-08_Just_Because_Its_You-Waltz.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:24 -0800
<![CDATA[Don't Get Me Anything]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/520

Story

My friends from Winnipeg, Canada, Alice Bérubé and her sister Jeannine, visited with Sandy and me a few years ago. Both of them play fiddles and they enjoy getting together to talk, laugh, and play music. They meet once a year, as Alice lives on Prince Edward Island and Jeannine three thousand miles away in Vancouver. We played music in my house for a few days and had much fun. On the day of their departure, they told me that they were going to go shopping for a gift for me. I appreciated their kindness, but told them, 'don't get me anything!' I left the house to do some errands and when I returned my friends were nowhere to be found. I somehow thought I heard fiddle music in the house but did not know where it was coming from.

A few days later, after my friends had returned home, a fax came to my house with a tune written on manuscript paper. It was a jig that the ladies had composed while up in my attic. They had somehow found their way up there. Unfortunately, on the day the fax arrived my machine was running low on ink. The lines on the paper all ran together on the tune's second part, and I was unable to make it out. At Sandy's suggestion, I sat at the kitchen table to compose a temporary replacement for it.

I next met the ladies a year later at the Northeast Heritage Music Camp, and we began to play the jig, but with a few surprises and laughs as our two competing second parts clashed against each other! I had to explain to them what had happened to their original second part, and my addition was demoted to a third part. We recorded it with help from Ken Perlman on banjo and Pete Sutherland on piano, two fellow teachers at the camp. Thanks, ladies, a nice gift, better than 'anything' from a shop.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
08-14_Dont_Get_Me_Anything-Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:15 -0800
<![CDATA[David Grady's]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/524

Story

I love slip jigs and I enjoy playing them. Patrick W. Joyce collected this one from David Grady, a flute player from Ardpatrick in County Limerick, but he did not get the tune's name. 'David Grady's' sounds good to me. Mr. Joyce's collection was published in 1876. I have it in my library, and my copy once belonged to a Bríd O'Callaghan from County Limerick. She signed the book in 1961, when she was 16 years old. I wonder where she is now. Wherever you are, Bríd, this tune lives on and I play it here for you.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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08-26_David_Gradys-Slip_Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:15 -0800
<![CDATA[Ger Brooks' Polka]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/569

Story

My next door neighbour when I was growing up in Killaloe was known to me as Mister Brooks. He loved to play the accordion, and he had many fine polkas in his repertoire. The polka I play on this track was one of his favourites. In almost sixty years of playing and listening to music I have yet to hear someone else play it. Happy memories of a wonderful neighbour and of his wife and family.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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08-32_Ger_Brooks_Polka.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:17 -0800
<![CDATA[Crooked Hurricane, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/525

Story

My good friend Cindy Polo made this tune and dedicated it to another friend, Randy Bridgman. I enjoyed playing this tune with Cindy and Gabriel Donohue. In Cindy's own words, she tells us about 'The Crooked Hurricane':

'What else to do while the power is out in the middle of a hurricane? Fiddle and fiddle! I composed this tune as Hurricane Irene battered eastern North Carolina in 2011. The hurricane did not travel as expected. Its unusual pattern of travel was described as crooked. The tune too is crooked in the style of some Canadian fiddle tunes. I dedicate the jig to my friend Randy Bridgman, a native of Newfoundland. This tune is also crooked, somewhat like the shape of many of the trees in my garden when the storm subsided.'

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
08-34_The_Crooked_Hurricane-Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:15 -0800
<![CDATA[Miss Chrysandra Walter]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/403

Story

Writing the stories of these tunes brings back many memories. When Sandy, my late wife, was diagnosed with kidney cancer, my life was turned upside down. We were so happy together and loved doing and planning different things: places to see, friends to visit, recordings to make. To help and encourage young and talented people, and to travel, were part of our dreams. After I left Chrysandra at the hospital, late at night whilst driving home I thought of how good she was to me and how she wanted to make my life comfortable and easy. She always said, 'When you are with me, Baby, all you have to do is breathe'. She gave her whole life to me and, until the day she left us, was dedicated to me and to her beloved National Park Service of the United States of America.

Anyway, as I drove home that night, many tears flowed like a river and the pain hurt, but the beginning notes of this tune came to me. As I sat in her hospital room for the next few days I worked on the air, writing it on the corners of the local paper 'The Boston Globe'. The end result is what you have on this track. It is played by my friend Bonnie Bewick Brown, a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Bonnie also arranged 'Miss Chrysandra Walter' for cello and viola and invited her friends to perform it, and they did so beautifully. I am forever grateful to Bonnie for this wonderful arrangement and for all the help she gave to me on this project. I know Sandy would be very proud of this tune and how it was played. My dear wife and friend Chrysandra will be forever remembered by me, and through this tune her memory will live on!

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
09-01a_Miss_Chrysandra_Walter_full-Air.pdf
09-01b-d_Miss_Chrysandra_Walter_Parts-Air.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:09 -0800