There ar lots of scottish ones, not many irish, chicago reel springs to mind. It's in C. (Though a lot of strummers mistakenly think it's in A dorian just because it resolves to the A and has some accidental F#s)
The nice thing about the tune search on this site is that you can search by tune type and key. So there's a whole bunch of tunes in C and F that can be found there.
I can't think of anything I play in F, but I play a number of things in C, including the Tempest (maybe the best-known one in C that I play...), Rock of Cashel, and a couple of Paddy Fahey tunes.
... thanks Reverend, and that's why, among that bunch of tunes, I'd like to know (a bit) which ones are -in that key- PLAYED sometimes (ex: the Graf Spee...) because they traditional enough. That is not always in the comments.
Yeah, one way you can sometimes tell is by looking at how many times a particular tune has been recorded, and by whom... That might give you a bit better idea. Although, people will often record obscure tunes, just to be different...
But if a tune has been recorded a number of times, that's a pretty good indication. And in the case of the Tempest, the fact that it was recorded by the Tulla Ceili Band is a pretty good indicator...
Yeah, you're right, Will... It's in D dor. I was scanning through my tunebook sorted by key, and didn't really think about it - it is listed as C major, but it's not...
Humors of Westport(F)
Mary's Shoes(F)
Plough and the Stars(F)
The Steeplechase(C)
Old Road to Garry(C)
I'm not sure but I think Devaney's Goat might have originally been composed in C,by Eddie Moloney???????
Yeah, the Steeplechase is the same tune that I call Rock of Cashel... Cool tune, but the wind players don't like it much unless they've got C instruments handy.
Tunes I have played in sessions in C, F or D Minor include:
Julia Delaney
St. Andrew's Reel
The Chicago Reel
The Cloon (off the Molloy / Brady / Peoples album)
The Walls Of Liscarrol
Hitler's Downfall
- and, well, not much else. I add them to the above lists if they're not already there.
Northumbrian pipes are commonly, maybe usually, made to play in C/F. But although I'm in or near their territory, it is a very long time since I've been to a N / pipes session.
The air The Parting Glass, as well as the jigs Bryan O'Lynn's, King Orfeo's. Slip jigs, there's The Humours of Whiskey. O'Connell's Lament is in C, Coming Home with the Girls in the Morning and I'll Buy Boots for Maggie are both polkas usually played in C. Paddy on the Turnpike is usually in C, as is Roslin Castle.
Some G Dorian tunes:
Farewell to Miltown (currently being discussed a few threads up in regards to a Youtube video of Edel Fox playing it in Kilrush)
Eileen Curran
The Rainy Day
The Golden Castle
Dowd's Favourite
The Drunken Sailor
The Bunch of Keys
Galway Bay
Lad O'Beirne's
The Quilty Shore
Some D Dorian tunes:
Porthole of the Kelp
McGreevey's
The Broken Pledge
Paddy Hayes'
Sgt. Early's Dream
The Windy Gap (aka Tuttle's, Mills are Grinding)
There's a neat Lad O'Beirne reel in F (recorded by Sharon Shannon and Josephine Marsh)
Also in F:
The Culfadda
Joe Bane's (barndance)
Kilnamona (barndance)
C Major tunes:
Andy McGann's
The Donegal Traveler
Eileen O'Brien's
Hole In the Hedge
The Leitrim Thrush
Martin Rochford's
My Maryanne
Return to Camden Town
The Rooms of Dooagh (aka Petticoat Loose)
In East Clare and East Galway, some people still enjoy playing D major tunes in C major, G major tunes in F major, A dorian tunes in G minor, etc. That's the local tradition. Paddy Fahey is incidentally from the area.
Eileen Curran, and Rainy Day are originally A dorian tunes, and Culfadda is usually played in G though composed in F. Devaney's Goat was not Eddie Moloney's composition, but was recorded and popularised by him: http://www.cdworld.ie/mp3/172326_000100010010.mp3 It's obviously in D.
"Eileen Curran, and Rainy Day are originally A dorian tunes"
Interesting, Slainte - How do you know that? Actually, I've only ever heard the latter in A dorian and the former only in G dorian, (except when played by a particular whistle player).
"erm... chicago reel in c?"
It hardly bears mentioning that Irish trad tunes do not always fall neatly into one key/mode or another. The Chicago Reel could be described as being in A minor or dorian - both parts resolve onto A. But the A-part begins by ascending and descending the first three notes of the C major scale and, for the backer, is centred very much around a C chord right up until the A minor the last bar. So you could say it starts in C and modulates to A minor.
But the B part contains an F#, so it must be A dorian. Since there are no Fs, sharp, sweet or bitter, in the A-part, for convenience, it would make sense to use the same key signature throughout. Thus, the first 7 bars of the A-part would be C lydian (Could this be that elusive example of the lydian mode that 'doesn't exist' in Irish Traditional Music? )
However you look at (or listen to) it, to my ear, it's no more in A minor/dorian than it is in C major/lydian.
Eileen Curran is an Ador tune, occasionally recorded in Gdor by a few fiddlers from East Clare or East Galway. It's another of many tunes associated with E. Galway flute player Eddie Moloney, who played the flute with all the keys ripped off.
I'm a B/C player. If I play my finger work on a C#D box it changes the written key of the tune, and Vice Versa. For instance if I play Saddle the Pony (Key G) on the aforementioned box it comes out as Key A. If a C#D player plays The Boys of Bluehill (Key D) on a B/C box it comes out in C. That's what happens in many of these cases. Blame it on the box players.
ragaman-your brief but knowing discourse on the modalities of those particular toons has just vaulted you into the hall of mustard page luminaries. Keen observations. Cool. Thank You.
Tunes traditionally played in C or F
Tunes traditionally played in C or F
What are the well-known tunes, that would be originally composed in an unusual key , like C, F, or their minor 'relative' note?
# Posted on September 15th 2008 by protz
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
There ar lots of scottish ones, not many irish, chicago reel springs to mind. It's in C. (Though a lot of strummers mistakenly think it's in A dorian just because it resolves to the A and has some accidental F#s)
# Posted on September 15th 2008 by llig leahcim
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
The nice thing about the tune search on this site is that you can search by tune type and key. So there's a whole bunch of tunes in C and F that can be found there.
I can't think of anything I play in F, but I play a number of things in C, including the Tempest (maybe the best-known one in C that I play...), Rock of Cashel, and a couple of Paddy Fahey tunes.
# Posted on September 15th 2008 by Reverend
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
... thanks Reverend, and that's why, among that bunch of tunes, I'd like to know (a bit) which ones are -in that key- PLAYED sometimes (ex: the Graf Spee...) because they traditional enough. That is not always in the comments.
# Posted on September 15th 2008 by protz
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
Yeah, one way you can sometimes tell is by looking at how many times a particular tune has been recorded, and by whom... That might give you a bit better idea. Although, people will often record obscure tunes, just to be different...
But if a tune has been recorded a number of times, that's a pretty good indication. And in the case of the Tempest, the fact that it was recorded by the Tulla Ceili Band is a pretty good indicator...
# Posted on September 15th 2008 by Reverend
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
Although, things like Paddy Fahey tunes are hard to tell, because it will show all recordings that have tunes named "Paddy Fahey's"
Oh, and I do play something in F. The Humours of Westport
# Posted on September 15th 2008 by Reverend
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
Hughie's Cap (in F)
Kerryman's Daughter (in C)
Pete, do you really play the Tempest in C? I learned it in Ddor from Oisin, who also taught it to Zina.....
# Posted on September 15th 2008 by Will CPT
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
C and Ddor have the same notes, it's just a matter of what is perceived as the tonal center.
# Posted on September 15th 2008 by Forrizzledog
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
Yeah, you're right, Will... It's in D dor. I was scanning through my tunebook sorted by key, and didn't really think about it - it is listed as C major, but it's not...
# Posted on September 15th 2008 by Reverend
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
Humors of Westport(F)
Mary's Shoes(F)
Plough and the Stars(F)
The Steeplechase(C)
Old Road to Garry(C)
I'm not sure but I think Devaney's Goat might have originally been composed in C,by Eddie Moloney???????
# Posted on September 15th 2008 by Tony O'Rourke
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
Yeah, the Steeplechase is the same tune that I call Rock of Cashel... Cool tune, but the wind players don't like it much unless they've got C instruments handy.
# Posted on September 15th 2008 by Reverend
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
Tunes I have played in sessions in C, F or D Minor include:
Julia Delaney
St. Andrew's Reel
The Chicago Reel
The Cloon (off the Molloy / Brady / Peoples album)
The Walls Of Liscarrol
Hitler's Downfall
- and, well, not much else. I add them to the above lists if they're not already there.
Northumbrian pipes are commonly, maybe usually, made to play in C/F. But although I'm in or near their territory, it is a very long time since I've been to a N / pipes session.
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
(I should add, C/F/D Minor are as far as I know the conventional keys in which these tunes are played.)
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
The air The Parting Glass, as well as the jigs Bryan O'Lynn's, King Orfeo's. Slip jigs, there's The Humours of Whiskey. O'Connell's Lament is in C, Coming Home with the Girls in the Morning and I'll Buy Boots for Maggie are both polkas usually played in C. Paddy on the Turnpike is usually in C, as is Roslin Castle.
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by mrkelahan
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
Some G Dorian tunes:
Farewell to Miltown (currently being discussed a few threads up in regards to a Youtube video of Edel Fox playing it in Kilrush)
Eileen Curran
The Rainy Day
The Golden Castle
Dowd's Favourite
The Drunken Sailor
The Bunch of Keys
Galway Bay
Lad O'Beirne's
The Quilty Shore
Some D Dorian tunes:
Porthole of the Kelp
McGreevey's
The Broken Pledge
Paddy Hayes'
Sgt. Early's Dream
The Windy Gap (aka Tuttle's, Mills are Grinding)
There's a neat Lad O'Beirne reel in F (recorded by Sharon Shannon and Josephine Marsh)
Also in F:
The Culfadda
Joe Bane's (barndance)
Kilnamona (barndance)
C Major tunes:
Andy McGann's
The Donegal Traveler
Eileen O'Brien's
Hole In the Hedge
The Leitrim Thrush
Martin Rochford's
My Maryanne
Return to Camden Town
The Rooms of Dooagh (aka Petticoat Loose)
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by GaryAMartin
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
Land of Sunshine (slow reel) and The Robin's Nest (jig) are on C. I love Humors of Westport too, but never know what to play it with.
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by Keith Dubinsky
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
In East Clare and East Galway, some people still enjoy playing D major tunes in C major, G major tunes in F major, A dorian tunes in G minor, etc. That's the local tradition. Paddy Fahey is incidentally from the area.
Eileen Curran, and Rainy Day are originally A dorian tunes, and Culfadda is usually played in G though composed in F. Devaney's Goat was not Eddie Moloney's composition, but was recorded and popularised by him: http://www.cdworld.ie/mp3/172326_000100010010.mp3 It's obviously in D.
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by slainte
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
How about The Whistler of Rosslea in C minor?
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by quinn
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
I have seen a printed version of The Legacy Jig from some collection in F.
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
erm... chicago reel in c?
wouldn't have thought so. I'm a melody player, by the way, not a guitarist...
anyway each to their own.
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by t.b.
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
The Graf Spee in C. Actually, Martin Hayes put that one in a set with The Boys of Ballidosare, played in F, and it works nicely on fiddle.
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by jwvansteenwyk
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
"Eileen Curran, and Rainy Day are originally A dorian tunes"
Interesting, Slainte - How do you know that? Actually, I've only ever heard the latter in A dorian and the former only in G dorian, (except when played by a particular whistle player).
"erm... chicago reel in c?"
It hardly bears mentioning that Irish trad tunes do not always fall neatly into one key/mode or another. The Chicago Reel could be described as being in A minor or dorian - both parts resolve onto A. But the A-part begins by ascending and descending the first three notes of the C major scale and, for the backer, is centred very much around a C chord right up until the A minor the last bar. So you could say it starts in C and modulates to A minor.
But the B part contains an F#, so it must be A dorian. Since there are no Fs, sharp, sweet or bitter, in the A-part, for convenience, it would make sense to use the same key signature throughout. Thus, the first 7 bars of the A-part would be C lydian (Could this be that elusive example of the lydian mode that 'doesn't exist' in Irish Traditional Music?
)
However you look at (or listen to) it, to my ear, it's no more in A minor/dorian than it is in C major/lydian.
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by ragaman
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
And while we're at it, why are there so few jigs in D minor/dorian?
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by ragaman
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
Eileen Curran is an Ador tune, occasionally recorded in Gdor by a few fiddlers from East Clare or East Galway. It's another of many tunes associated with E. Galway flute player Eddie Moloney, who played the flute with all the keys ripped off.
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by slainte
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
The oldest recording I know of Eileen Curran is by piper Tom Ennis, from the 1920s. He ends on A.
# Posted on September 16th 2008 by kilfarboy
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
Did anyone mention the C/Amin version of "The Geese in the Bog"? I've heard it described as a foul (fowl) tune
# Posted on September 17th 2008 by pbassnote
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
I'm a B/C player. If I play my finger work on a C#D box it changes the written key of the tune, and Vice Versa. For instance if I play Saddle the Pony (Key G) on the aforementioned box it comes out as Key A. If a C#D player plays The Boys of Bluehill (Key D) on a B/C box it comes out in C. That's what happens in many of these cases. Blame it on the box players.
# Posted on September 18th 2008 by Free Reed
Re: Tunes traditionally played in C or F
ragaman-your brief but knowing discourse on the modalities of those particular toons has just vaulted you into the hall of mustard page luminaries. Keen observations. Cool. Thank You.
# Posted on September 24th 2008 by hauke