<![CDATA[The Séamus Connolly Collection of Irish Music]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Folk+dance+music--Ireland&page=4&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle&output=rss2 Fri, 29 Mar 2024 05:50:01 -0700 burnsref@bc.edu (The Séamus Connolly Collection of Irish Music) Boston College Libraries Zend_Feed http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss <![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[Dr. Mick]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/683

Story

I have much respect and admiration for National Heritage Fellow Dr. Mick Moloney, a man who has, in my humble opinion, done more to promote Irish music in America than anyone. Through his teaching, music performances, research, productions, recordings, and promotion of young musicians, traditional music in America is on a very strong platform and foundation. I made this tune to honour Mick. I hope I do him justice and that he and I will have an opportunity to play the tune together sometime.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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10-11_Dr_Mick-Reel.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:22 -0800
<![CDATA[Drumnagarry Strathspey]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/723

Story

Tommy Peoples played this tune for me at a recording session at Boston College. The tune may also be found on Tommy's fine albums Traditional Irish Music Played on the Fiddle and Waiting for a Call.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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08-35_Drumnagarry_Strathspey.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:24 -0800
<![CDATA[Drunken Ganger's, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/491

Story

This is another tune that was given to me by accordionist Larry Gavin, who lives in Tulla, in east County Clare. A version of this slip jig may be found in Ryan's Mammoth Collection. It is played here in fine style by the talented Gráinne Murphy.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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05-18_The_Drunken_Gangers-Slip_Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:13 -0800
<![CDATA[Duet, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/440

Story

A hornpipe played with great feeling and understanding by the great accordionist, the one and only James Keane from Dublin and New York. This tune first came to my attention a number of years ago when Larry Gavin performed it at Aonach Paddy O'Brien, in Nenagh, County Tipperary.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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05-33_The_Duet-Hornpipe.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:11 -0800
<![CDATA[Dunboyne Straw-Plaiters]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/602

Story

The reel played here by Jerry O'Sullivan is another tune from the music of Boston's Dan Sullivan's Shamrock Band. Nicky McAuliffe told me that the tune is in P.W. Joyce's collection, Old Irish Folk Music and Songs. Nicky, you are a walking encyclopedia!

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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04-06_Dunboyne_Straw-Plaiters-Reel.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:18 -0800
<![CDATA[Edenderry, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/678

Story

Larry Gavin sent this tune to me on a tape over thirty years ago. Getting a tape of music from Ireland, and more especially from Larry, was always special. I was always assured of getting a new tune or two from my good friend. On this track we hear Joanie Madden playing the version found in O'Neill's 1001 collection, the same version that was played by Larry so long ago. Lar, I still have that tape. Thanks for the memories.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
09-29_The_Edenderry-Reel.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:22 -0800
<![CDATA[Emmet's Double]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/672

Story

Emmet is Seán Óg Nugent's twin brother, and their father Larry Nugent composed this tune (Seán has his own tune in this collection). The young Nugent twins are well-placed to carry on the great family legacy of Irish music.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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09-16_Emmets_Double-Reel.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:21 -0800
<![CDATA[Farewell to Whiskey]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/551

Story

Composed by the legendary Scottish fiddle player Niel Gow in 1799, this tune's title is apparently a reaction to the temporary prohibition of distillation in Scotland due to the failure of that year's barley crop. Played on this recording by master musician Monsignor Charles Coen, it first came to my attention when Ciarán Mac Mathúna, the well-known broadcaster on Radio Éireann, featured it on his Ceolta Tire programme. He had recorded it from Paddy Neil, a concertina player from near Newport, County Tipperary. Paddy's version, in particular the second part, is different from what is usually played. Thanks to Monsignor Coen for learning and recording it for me, and to Nicky McAuliffe from County Kerry for the tune information.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
01-07_Farewell_to_Whiskey-Polka.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:16 -0800
<![CDATA[Father Tom's Wager]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/489

Story

This grand old jig appears in O'Neill's 1001. I first heard the legendary Joe Burke play this tune with the lovely surprise variation in the second part. Thanks to Holland Raper for learning the tune and playing it on her fiddle. She is a former student of Mick Gavin of Meelick, County Clare, and Detroit, and, at the time of writing, a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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05-09_Father_Toms_Wager-Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:13 -0800
<![CDATA[Fiddlemaster, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/722

Story

During one of his short visits to Boston from his native County Donegal, the great gentleman Tommy Peoples took time out of his busy schedule to record this tune for me at The Center for Irish Programs at Boston College. It was a thrill and an honour for me to spend time with this master musician, an afternoon of music that will stay with me forever.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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06-28_The_Fiddlemaster-Strathspey.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:23 -0800
<![CDATA[Fiddler Around the Faerie Tree, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/426

Story

On the aforementioned occasion some forty years ago, Kathleen Lawrie played 'The Fiddler Around the Faerie Tree' for me as a set dance. Kathleen had learned the tune from dancing master Brendan de Glin from Derry. A shorter version of this tune may be found in O'Neill's collection The Dance Music of Ireland, 1001 Gems as a hornpipe called 'The Mullingar Races'. I am delighted that Kathleen agreed to record it again for this collection.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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02-06_The_Fiddler_Around_the_Faerie_Tree-Set_Dance.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:10 -0800
<![CDATA[Figuring it Out]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/681

Story

I tried as best I could to learn this tune from a tape made in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Paddy Gavin in Balbriggan, County Dublin, almost forty years ago. The tape was damaged a little but one could hear a great session of music played that night by the Gavin family and Jimmy Keane from Chicago. At one point on the tape, someone sat down at the piano and begin to pick out the melody of the reel heard on this track, as though composing, reading, or trying to remember it. I loved the tune and what I could make out of it, so I reconstructed it in my own way, whilst trying my utmost to remain faithful to what I could decipher of the original version. After all that and years later, I spoke to Kathleen Gavin, who recalls being at the piano that night sight-reading the tune from a piece of manuscript paper. The tune's origins remain a mystery. Its composer may not like my reconstruction, or how I played it on this track, nor the title that Kathleen has suggested. Please know though, whoever you may be, that we certainly like your tune or composition, and we thank you for it.

P.S. It has come to our attention that this tune is a composition of Leitrim fiddle player and multi-instrumentalist Joe Liddy. He titled the tune "The Sweat House."

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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10-04_Figuring_it_Out-Reel.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:22 -0800
<![CDATA[First Slip, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/484

Story

On that night in Ennis in the home of my brother Martin and his wife Pauline (see ‘John Egan’s’), I thought I had captured Kevin Crawford playing a slip jig called 'What Care I For The Minister?' However, in the confusion, commotion, and mayhem that ensued when we realised that the tape recorder had been unplugged, it turned out that the slip jig Kevin played that evening was one called 'The First Slip'.

Featured here on this track, this melody also appears in The Dance Music of Willie Clancy, a collection compiled by Pat Mitchell and published in 1976. Everything turned out just fine, as it happens: 'The First Slip' is a wonderful melody, and I was able to get my friend Kathleen Guilday to play 'What Care I For the Minister?', found elsewhere in this collection.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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04-20_The_First_Slip-Slip_Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:13 -0800
<![CDATA[Fleadh at Tulla, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/467

Story

At a county Fleadh Cheoil in Tulla, County Clare, in the late 1950s, I recorded fiddle player Paddy Canny and accordionist Mattie Ryan playing this tune in a duet competition. Here, Kevin Crawford joins me in playing this single jig.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
02-28_The_Fleadh_at_Tulla-Single_Jig.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:12 -0800
<![CDATA[Flee as a Bird]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/437

Story

A two-part version of 'Flee as a Bird' is another tune which I recorded from Julia Clifford and her son Billy in the early 1960s. It can be heard elsewhere in the collection. Here, a longer setting of the tune, which can be found in Ryan's Mammoth Collection, is performed by the wonderfully talented Kimberley Fraser from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. Kimberley spent a few days with Sandy and me in our home in Maine, and we had lots of laughs and great music.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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05-12_Flee_as_a_Bird-Hornpipe.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:11 -0800
<![CDATA[Flee as a Bird]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/443

Story

And here is Julia and Billy Clifford's version of 'Flee as a Bird', which they recorded for me that night so long ago in Tralee, County Kerry. (Kimberley Fraser's version of this tune is here.)

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries
06-20_Flee_as_a_Bird-Hornpipe.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:11 -0800
<![CDATA[Flowery Hills of Scotland, The]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/576

Story

According to Nicky McAuliffe, Michael Coleman and James 'Lad' O'Beirne, master fiddle players from County Sligo, recorded this reel on a 78 RPM recording machine in Mr. O'Beirne's home on November 5, 1941. I have not had the opportunity to hear that old recording, but Brendan Bulger's playing on this track reminds me of the lilt and swing of yet another County Sligo man's music, that of flute player Eugene Preston, from whom I learned the tune.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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01-22_The_Flowery_Hills_of_Scotland-Reel.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:17 -0800
<![CDATA[Fly by Night]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/433

Story

I first heard this hornpipe in the early 1960s, played by Mr. Kieran Kelly, a wonderful accordionist from near Athlone, County Westmeath. The tune has been recorded by a number of musicians and has been given different titles, including 'The Low Level' and 'Fly by Night'. Settings of this hornpipe in two different keys may be found in Ryan's Mammoth Collection, where one is named 'Best Shot'. As my friend Peter Catto of Brookline, Massachusetts, cleverly suggested, 'When you fly by night, your best shot is to not fly at a lower level!' The tune is played on this track by Boston's own fiddle player, Brendan Bulger. Brendan gives the hornpipe a bouncy lift, clearly imparting his own unique musical imprint.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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04-11_Fly_by_Night-Hornpipe.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:11 -0800
<![CDATA[Flynn's Reel]]> https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/684

Story

This is the first tune that Eamon Flynn composed over forty years ago. He plays it for us on accordion with our mutual friend, Miss Helen Kisiel, on piano. The tune may also be heard on Eamon's CD recording Down by the Glenside.

Publisher

Séamus Connolly
Boston College Libraries

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10-12_Flynns_Reel.pdf
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Fri, 12 Feb 2016 08:43:22 -0800