The Session >> Tunes >> The Wise Maid (reel)

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

The Wise Maid

reel

Key signature: Dmajor

Submitted on May 25th 2001 by Jeremy.

This tune has been added to 832 tunebooks.

Also known as All Around The World, Doherty's, Tinker Doherty, Wise Maid.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

X: 1
T: Wise Maid, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
|:DE|F2FG FEDE|FAAB AFED|d2eg fdec|dBAG BEED|
F2FG FEDE|FAAB AFED|d2eg fdec|dBAG FD:|
|:FA|d2AG FDFA|dfaf gfeg|fedf eAcA|dfed cA A2|
BAGB ADFD|dfaf gfed|Bdce dBAG|FGEF D2:|

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments
The Wise Maid sheetmusic
Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

This tune is quite often played together with Cooley's reel.

This tune isn't easy. In fact it's quite a finger twister, but it's worth perservering with. Not only is it great practice for your finger memory, it's also a beautiful tune.

I don't really have an suggestions for ornamentation. If you can find a spot where you can throw in a roll or a triplet, go ahead, but I find the tune hard enough to play "straight".

# Posted on June 2nd 2001 by Jeremy

I just learned this tune today and it seems to have bits and pieces in it that sound like other tunes. The A part sounds like Maid Behind the Bar for a little bit and in the B part I hear Hand Me Down the Tackle and also a bit of Cooley's.

No wonder people say this stuff all sounds the same. :o)

# Posted on May 29th 2004 by Andee

Oops, I meant to say elsewhere in the A part, not the B part....

# Posted on May 29th 2004 by Andee

Ornaments etc

There's a great setting of this tune in the collection Trip to Sligo. Although it's quite similar to the one here, it seems to suggest/lend itself to ornamentation really well. Some rolls are written in, but you can see where others would fit nicely, as well as where you would want to play cuts.

# Posted on August 10th 2005 by kris

With some small variations and ornaments.

T:Wise Maid, The
T:Doherty's
M:C|
L:1/8
R:reel
K:D
|:DE|~F3 G FEDE|FAAB AFED|d2 (3efg fdec|dBAF BE ~E2|!
~F3 G FEDE|FAAB AFED|d2 (3efg fdec|dBAG FD:|!
|:FA|d2 AG FDFA|dfaf gfeg|fAdf eAce|dfed cA~A2|!
BDGB ADFA|dfaf gfed|(3Bcd ce dBAG|FAEA D2:|

# Posted on June 25th 2006 by philmoz

Wise Maid

This is my all-time favorite reel. Thanks for posting it. I especially love it when Planxty plays it at the end of the Jolly Beggar.

# Posted on August 4th 2006 by ltrane

Whistle and pipes

I wouldn't know about fiddle, but this tune plays itself pretty well on the whistle and pipes.

# Posted on September 10th 2006 by uilleannpiper

Planxty?

I learned this tune by the first Album of Planxty, is the reel played after Jolly Beggar.Is it true or my memory wrong?Because I didn't find it in the recordings .

# Posted on June 8th 2007 by daddeddad

Follow it with Jenny's Wedding for a nice old fashioned set.

# Posted on September 20th 2007 by Rudall the time

Wise and foolish maidens?

I've wondered sometimes about the title of this reel, and whether it has anything to do with the parable of the 5 wise maidens and 5 foolish maidens, the wise ones who kept oil for their lamps, as they slept, whereas the foolish ones didn't. So the wise ones were ready for the coming of the lord...ahem, as it were.
I don't know how this would go along with today's health and safety legislation though.
http://biblebrowser.com/matthew/25-3.htm

# Posted on September 20th 2007 by Rudall the time

Joe Cooley plays The Wise Maid on YouTube

This is a priceless video from 1973: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCiqPCA_MRA&NR=1

# Posted on November 6th 2007 by dbritton

The wise maid

Just learning to play this tune myself on the Banjo and it sounds deadly. attempting to throw in a few tripplets....

# Posted on February 27th 2008 by TORMEMJ

it's a great banjo tune but Jeremy's right, it's a finger twister..... I find all Cooley's common ones are a bit like that.

# Posted on March 9th 2008 by camwebby

The Wise Maid as played by Daimh

Should you be looking for the Tune from Moidart to Mabou then it is this one:

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/7335

# Posted on September 19th 2008 by No Cause For Alarm

Cape Breton fiddlers are guilty of misnaming a few tunes.

# Posted on September 19th 2008 by slainte

Ok Slainte, but what has that got to do with anything?

# Posted on September 19th 2008 by No Cause For Alarm

Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. There's nothing wrong with two different tunes sharing the same title, but sometimes this happens when a few musicians get confused almost at the same time.

Just think about a version of an Irish jig "Contentment is Wealth." It's been recorded and played as "The Golden Keyboard" by Cape Breton fiddlers. But, "The Golden Keyboard" is actually the title of a *reel* composed in the last century. I believe some old C.B. fiddlers mixed up the titles of the two Irish tunes, and the mistake got fixed.

I just want to suggest the same might be true with the tune a few C.B. musicans recorded as "The Wise Maid."

# Posted on September 20th 2008 by slainte

Ahh but Daimh are not a few Cape Breton musicians. The piper is from Cape Breton. The fiddler is from San Francisco. The banjo player is from Dublin and the rest are Scottish. They all live in the Highlands and they would have probably got the tune from Iain MacDonald of Glenuig. It was called The Wise Maid in the old collections. Anyway I don't really want this discussion again. It went on forever on the comments section of the tune we are discussing anyway. There is more than one Irish tune that has been called the Wise Maid also, never mind the Scottish one.

And don't worry Slainte, I didn't think you did mean any offence, It is just a good job that no Irish musicians are guilty of getting a tune name wrong!! :-)

# Posted on September 20th 2008 by No Cause For Alarm

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