Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
.... write down the names of all the really common SINGLE reels that ye know. please do as i have heard a single reel being played in loads of sessions and tv programs but have never had the opportunity to ask or find out what its called. It seems to be played everywhere (herd it at willy clancy, and on the tv program they made about the 2005 fleadh) and ITS DRIVING ME MENTAL!!!!!
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
We play Newfoundland tunes called singles but they are not reels. They are a lot more like Kerry Polkas. 'Costal Memories' and 'Mussels in the Corner' are two we play. I think Running the Goat is also a single but i'm not sure.
I don't expect this is what you are after and I'm curious to find out about single reels.
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
There's a major ambiguity in the question. When some people say "single reel", they mean a normal reel where all the parts are 8 bars instead of the "normal" 16. I think most of the people here are answering in this sense.
Other people (including irishtune.info) use "single reel" refer to a funky different tune type more like a polka. I don't really know much about this, but I know that it's out there. irishtune.info probably has more on it, though I'm not 100% they actually know as much as they think they do. (I do know that I'm not qualified to know, so it's hard to figure out how much Alan knows.)
Ever since I learned about the second sort of "single reel", I've wondered if there was a connection to Newfoundland singles. I know that people from there I've talked to insist they are different than polkas. Perhaps they are an evolution of the second sort of "single reels"?
PS Everything I can find quickly says "Running the Goat" is a set dance -- but I don't know if they mean the entire set of tunes called "Running the Goat" is a set dance, or the tunes which make the set up (the first of which is called "Running the Goat") are set dances. Confusing terminology.
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
There's a lot of reels in O'Neill's (the big yellow version) where you get 4 bars with a repeat and then an 8 bar section, so those are (I assume) single reels, except that some of them now seem to be played with 8 bar repeats instead, maybe because they are played at such breakneck speed that you need repeats to stop you running out of tune, a bit like having sprint races on a short pier. Ones not mentioned above: Templehouse, Bank of Ireland (now mostly played double), Jolly Tinker (lots of 4 bar repeated sections - great tune), Connemara Stockings, Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel, The Grey Daylight (catchy tune!), Ships are Sailing (now mostly doubled). It's not Gravel Walks you're thinking of is it, because that's usually 8 bar sections with the last bit repeated?
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
If we are doing those mini repeated four bar reels, you can add the Fairy Reel to the list. Also, isn't the High Road to Linton a single reel? (Or to make Gary happy, the FR and the HRTL).
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
Sol - I appreciate yr confusion, A lot of players these use terms distinguish between bar counts (he,he, I said bar) but none of the dancers do, they'll say "we need an 8 bar reel" or such.
Frank Roche published an article in the very early 20th c. that included a paragraph lamenting the loss of distinction between single and double reels. He states that single reels are simpler, faster, and appropriate for ladies (Bearing in mind that said "ladies" wore A LOT of clothes) Double reels are described as slower, more intricate, and favored by men (probably hard-shoe).
Language can change a lot in 100 years. Maybe the distinction was lost and has gained the current meaning, but it doesn't sound at all like he's talking bar counts.
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
It's not at all a theory, there absolutely are two completely different meanings attached to the term "single reel", and both are currently in use, even in this thread.
Again, check out irishtune.info. That list of five tunes from it given above is what you get when you ask for the the top ten single reels, because he only has five listed in the database. It is, in fact, the least common tune type he lists. (By contrast, he's got 1,389 reels in there, and you'd better believe that a lot of them are "played singley", with 8 bar parts instead of 16.)
My confusion is in just how the second sort of single reel is defined. Like the distinction between slides and single jigs, I know there is a real distinction there, but I do not know what it is.
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
I don't pretend to have a firm answer, but recently I heard some dancers introduce some dances as double and treble jigs, but it didn't have anything to do with the difference between normal jigs and slip jigs--both were 6/8 dances, and the difference had something to do with the pace, and the type of steps used. So I think there is some sort of dance terminology floating around out there that I do not understand.
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
The Crooked Road (to Dublin)
Within a Mile of Dublin
The Red-Haired Lass
The Monaghan Twig
Sean sa Cheo
The Glass of Beer
The Bucks of Oranmore
The Boys of Malin
Trim The Velvet
Rip the Calico
These, by the way, are single reels of the type with 8- as opposed to 16-bar parts (although most of them have more than two parts). We still don't actually know what Galwayfiddle meant by 'single reels', but in my experience the term is most commonly understood to mean the above.
I left out of the list The Sailors Bonnet, and a few other reels, which have one part played 'single' and the other 'double'.
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
if we post all the single reel names you still will be none the wiser - if you haven`t asked the name what's the point of us writing all these down how about posting a few notes to make it a bit easier.?
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
There are interesting and helpful notes in the Shaskeen tunebook "The Crossroads Dance", and on page 9 he says that "tunes with 8-bar parts played once or 4-bar parts repeated tend to be of greater antiquity than most", but a lot of them became doubled to accompany step dancing. "Nowadays" he says, these are known as "single reels" but in County Clare "single reels are what others might know as polkas".
Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
.... write down the names of all the really common SINGLE reels that ye know. please do as i have heard a single reel being played in loads of sessions and tv programs but have never had the opportunity to ask or find out what its called. It seems to be played everywhere (herd it at willy clancy, and on the tv program they made about the 2005 fleadh) and ITS DRIVING ME MENTAL!!!!!
please help
tanks a bunch
galway fiddle
# Posted on March 28th 2006 by galway-fiddle
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
We play Newfoundland tunes called singles but they are not reels. They are a lot more like Kerry Polkas. 'Costal Memories' and 'Mussels in the Corner' are two we play. I think Running the Goat is also a single but i'm not sure.
I don't expect this is what you are after and I'm curious to find out about single reels.
# Posted on March 28th 2006 by McMandolin
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
gf,
A few pretty common ones that come to mind are:
Drowsie Maggie
Toss the Feathers
Last Night's Fun
Ten Pound Float
# Posted on March 28th 2006 by Keith Dubinsky
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
Irishtune.info gives the top 5 most recorded single reels as:
Ger the Rigger
The Little Bag of Spuds
Pigtown Fling
Anything for John-Joe
Biddy Martin’s
I think Rolling in the Barrel and The New Policeman are pretty common single reels, too.
# Posted on March 28th 2006 by fidkid
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
Maid Behind the Bar/The Barmaid used to be "it" around here.
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by Bren
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
Wind that Shakes the Barley
Mountain Road
Coachman's Whip
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by Jode
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
The one you're thinking of must be the Killavill Fancy (Eileesh Brogan)
Or maybe not...
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by Ottery
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
I think Kitty's Gone A-Milking, Black-haired Lass, and Maids of Mitchelstown are usually played as single reels.
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by GaryAMartin
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
Banks of Dublin
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by Why Bother?
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
There's a major ambiguity in the question. When some people say "single reel", they mean a normal reel where all the parts are 8 bars instead of the "normal" 16. I think most of the people here are answering in this sense.
Other people (including irishtune.info) use "single reel" refer to a funky different tune type more like a polka. I don't really know much about this, but I know that it's out there. irishtune.info probably has more on it, though I'm not 100% they actually know as much as they think they do. (I do know that I'm not qualified to know, so it's hard to figure out how much Alan knows.)
Ever since I learned about the second sort of "single reel", I've wondered if there was a connection to Newfoundland singles. I know that people from there I've talked to insist they are different than polkas. Perhaps they are an evolution of the second sort of "single reels"?
PS Everything I can find quickly says "Running the Goat" is a set dance -- but I don't know if they mean the entire set of tunes called "Running the Goat" is a set dance, or the tunes which make the set up (the first of which is called "Running the Goat") are set dances. Confusing terminology.
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by Sol Foster
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
rolling in the rye grass
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by AlBrown
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
Here on the internet, we abbreviate that RITRG. Get with the program, Al!
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by GaryAMartin
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
There's a lot of reels in O'Neill's (the big yellow version) where you get 4 bars with a repeat and then an 8 bar section, so those are (I assume) single reels, except that some of them now seem to be played with 8 bar repeats instead, maybe because they are played at such breakneck speed that you need repeats to stop you running out of tune, a bit like having sprint races on a short pier. Ones not mentioned above: Templehouse, Bank of Ireland (now mostly played double), Jolly Tinker (lots of 4 bar repeated sections - great tune), Connemara Stockings, Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel, The Grey Daylight (catchy tune!), Ships are Sailing (now mostly doubled). It's not Gravel Walks you're thinking of is it, because that's usually 8 bar sections with the last bit repeated?
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by RichardB
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
If we are doing those mini repeated four bar reels, you can add the Fairy Reel to the list. Also, isn't the High Road to Linton a single reel? (Or to make Gary happy, the FR and the HRTL).
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by AlBrown
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
Come West Along the Road
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by Rosh
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
Sol - I appreciate yr confusion, A lot of players these use terms distinguish between bar counts (he,he, I said bar) but none of the dancers do, they'll say "we need an 8 bar reel" or such.
Frank Roche published an article in the very early 20th c. that included a paragraph lamenting the loss of distinction between single and double reels. He states that single reels are simpler, faster, and appropriate for ladies (Bearing in mind that said "ladies" wore A LOT of clothes) Double reels are described as slower, more intricate, and favored by men (probably hard-shoe).
Language can change a lot in 100 years. Maybe the distinction was lost and has gained the current meaning, but it doesn't sound at all like he's talking bar counts.
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by Owell Mabee
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
It's not at all a theory, there absolutely are two completely different meanings attached to the term "single reel", and both are currently in use, even in this thread.
Again, check out irishtune.info. That list of five tunes from it given above is what you get when you ask for the the top ten single reels, because he only has five listed in the database. It is, in fact, the least common tune type he lists. (By contrast, he's got 1,389 reels in there, and you'd better believe that a lot of them are "played singley", with 8 bar parts instead of 16.)
My confusion is in just how the second sort of single reel is defined. Like the distinction between slides and single jigs, I know there is a real distinction there, but I do not know what it is.
# Posted on March 29th 2006 by Sol Foster
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
I don't pretend to have a firm answer, but recently I heard some dancers introduce some dances as double and treble jigs, but it didn't have anything to do with the difference between normal jigs and slip jigs--both were 6/8 dances, and the difference had something to do with the pace, and the type of steps used. So I think there is some sort of dance terminology floating around out there that I do not understand.
# Posted on March 30th 2006 by AlBrown
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
The Crooked Road (to Dublin)
Within a Mile of Dublin
The Red-Haired Lass
The Monaghan Twig
Sean sa Cheo
The Glass of Beer
The Bucks of Oranmore
The Boys of Malin
Trim The Velvet
Rip the Calico
These, by the way, are single reels of the type with 8- as opposed to 16-bar parts (although most of them have more than two parts). We still don't actually know what Galwayfiddle meant by 'single reels', but in my experience the term is most commonly understood to mean the above.
I left out of the list The Sailors Bonnet, and a few other reels, which have one part played 'single' and the other 'double'.
# Posted on March 30th 2006 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
if we post all the single reel names you still will be none the wiser - if you haven`t asked the name what's the point of us writing all these down how about posting a few notes to make it a bit easier.?
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by jodyphysio
Re: Could you all please take a minute, think and then....
There are interesting and helpful notes in the Shaskeen tunebook "The Crossroads Dance", and on page 9 he says that "tunes with 8-bar parts played once or 4-bar parts repeated tend to be of greater antiquity than most", but a lot of them became doubled to accompany step dancing. "Nowadays" he says, these are known as "single reels" but in County Clare "single reels are what others might know as polkas".
# Posted on March 31st 2006 by RichardB
Omg
This is exactly what I wanted!!!!Thanks so much --for the list of single reels!
Bobbi
# Posted on April 19th 2007 by bobbi