<![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=Rabata%2C+Nicole+&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle&output=rss2 Thu, 28 Mar 2024 10:54:29 -0700 burnsref@bc.edu (The Séamus Connolly Collection of Irish Music) Boston College Libraries Zend_Feed http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss <![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[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[Frank Neylon's]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/656

Story

Flute player Frank Neylon lived in Boston when I arrived there in 1977. I loved listening to his beautiful, distinctive North Clare style of playing, and to the unusual tunes that he had brought with him to America. This is another of the tunes that he recorded for me on the long-playing record that I produced in Boston in 1981 (see 'Leamanagh Castle'). I played Frank's recording for Nicole Rabata, from Portland, Maine. She listened a few times and played along with Frank, capturing elements of his style, and said, 'Do you want me to record it for the book?' I'm glad I said yes. Enjoy Nicole's playing.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

View all items by

08-05_Frank_Neylons-Reel.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:21 -0800
<![CDATA[Lagan River, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/534

Story

David Curry's broadcasts from the BBC studios in Belfast were eagerly awaited in my home. He broadcast many fine tunes, including this one, which Nicole Rabata and I arranged for flute and fiddle. Not having the tune's original title, I have named it for the river that flows through Mr. Curry's hometown of Belfast.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
10-08_The_Lagan_River-Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:15 -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[Magic Slipper, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/571

Story

Flutist Nicole Rabata joins me to play 'The Magic Slipper', a polka I learned from Boston accordionist Billy Caples. Mr. Caples was a well-known musician who had his own orchestra during the Dudley Street era of music and dancing.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
09-27_The_Magic_Slipper-Polka.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:17 -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[North Road, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/669

Story

My young friend Meghan Mette composed this reel. I was delighted that she asked me to play it with her, along with Nicole Rabata on flute and Kevin McElroy on mandolin. She tells us how the tune came about:

'I wrote this tune for Séamus first and foremost as a "thank you" for all of the musical wisdom he has imparted to me. However, it is also a tale of the many afternoons spent in Séamus' music room, learning, listening, playing... Some days we just sat and listened to old albums on the wonderful sound system, the notes vibrating through the varnished floorboards and bouncing off the walls...

My favourite afternoons, however, were when it was just the two of us, sitting side by side, playing tunes for the fun of it; maybe Séamus would think of a special ornament he wanted to show me or a specific tune that was fun to play in a different key. I often enjoyed just sitting back and observing Séamus when he went on a rant of tunes. I was, and still am, mesmerised by the fluidity and grace of his fingers as they tickle the fingerboard, his bow flying over the strings, his mind at obvious peace. These are my favourite images, frozen in time, Séamus in another world entirely, just playing because he loves it so. When I play "The North Road", it reminds me of these moments...'


Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
09-10_The_North_Road-Reel.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:21 -0800
<![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[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