Key signature: Dmajor
Submitted on January 3rd 2003 by Trevor Jennings.
This tune has been added to 239 tunebooks.
Also known as McLoughlin's Fling, Staten Island Ferry, The Staten Island Ferry, The Staten Island.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Staten Island
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: Dmaj
|:A2|FDFG A2A2|dfed dcBA|B2GB A2FA|G2E2 E2AG|
FDFG A2A2|dfed dcBA|d2d2 efge|f2d2 d2:|
|:fg|a2fa g2eg|f2df ecBA|=c2c2 efge|=c2c2 efge|
a2fa g2eg|f2df ecBA|d2d2 efge|f2d2 d2:||
A well-known tune from the New England Fiddler's Repertoire.
# Posted on January 3rd 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Hornpipe/Reel
This is one of those tunes like "The De'il Amang the Tailors" which gets played as a reel in Scotland and England, and a hornpipe in Ireland. I guess that since hornpipes were originally unswung, that style would be how it was originally played.
# Posted on January 3rd 2003 by Dr. Dow
Trevor, I don't mean to be rude or ungrateful (though I will be blunt), but I'm starting to seriously question the value of posting tunes from this New England sourcebook you cite. Staten Island Hornpipe is a widely known session tune, but this setting doesn't do it justice, at least not in the context of Irish dance music. If someone were to learn it from the setting you give here, they'd be hard pressed to pass it off at most sessions I've been too--it would mark them as unfamiliar with the Irish tradition. And it's not just a matter of simplifying the life out of it, because to my ear the Irish trad structure has been stripped out of this version as well.
Given that Jeremy started this site to concentrate on the dance music of Ireland, I for one would prefer to see settings from more credible source materials--preferably trad players themselves. While there’s nothing stopping me from posting what I think is a “better” version, the fact is that the first setting posted is the one that shows up as sheet music and a sound file, so it becomes the de facto official www.thesession.org setting. In my mind, that begs us to be selective about the tunes we post—they ought to be playable, session-ready settings. Variations, idiosyncratic settings, simplifications, highly embellished versions, and historically or geographically interesting settings are all well and good, but better off in the comments section, as addenda to the main setting. Ideally, I think, the main setting here should be recognizably close to what’s commonly played at sessions by musicians familiar with the tradition. Of course, this is just my opinion, and perhaps a minority one. But I’m concerned about the quality of the tune archives we’re building here as a tool for people hoping to learn tunes for sessions (hence the site’s name, eh?).
As an example, I'll post here a version of Staten Island I learned off a session-wise uillean piper. If I were to post Staten Island, it would look more like this, perhaps with some of the triplets left out (but included as variations in the comments section).
T: Staten Island Hornpipe
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: Hornpipe
K: D maj
AF|:DEFG (3AAA FA|dfec dcBA|GABd AFDF|G2 E2 E2 AF|
|DE (3FFG ADFA|dfec dcBA|(3GGG Bd efge|1 eA (3cBA d2 AF:|2 eA (3cBA d2 (efg|
|:a2 fa g2 eg|fedf ecAB|=c2 c2 efge|=cBcd efge|
|(3aaa fa (3ggg eg|fedf ecAc|(3ddd fd efge|1eA (3cBA d2 (3efg:|eA (3cBA d2 AF|
# Posted on January 5th 2003 by Will Harmon
Ooops...sorry about all the word processing garbage (honest, I'm not cussing at anyone
. And I didn't mean to sound as harsh as it came out...I have nothing against Trevor or anyone posting their tunes here. Was just hoping out loud that we could be careful and selective, even asking others for more developed and "streetwise" settings of tunes.
Or maybe I'm just being elitist...if so, I apologize.
# Posted on January 5th 2003 by Will Harmon
I agree Will, one should do a little more research rather than just plucking a tune out of a book. It's obvious that some people don't understand that.
# Posted on January 5th 2003 by Mad Baloney
To me, posting a tune straight out of a book without first making it your own by playing it on your instrument for a good long spell is akin to playing the same tune straight from the book at your local session. In most circles, you'd be booted out the door. I don't want to boot anyone out the door, but I'd like to see more discretion in how tunes are posted here.
# Posted on January 6th 2003 by Will Harmon
This is a commonly played Scottish setting for the tune.
# Posted on January 7th 2003 by Kenn
Now a discussion in a thread near you...
This seems to be going off the topic of Staten Island, so I've started a Discussion called "The Real Tune?" In the interests of keeping this chat to Staten Island, let's continue there.
Meanwhile, Will, there's a problem with your second ending for the A section; it's missing a 3 before the efg. Also there's a
problem in the ending for the B section; I don't think the final AF should be there. This isn't an aesthetic thing; it's just to round it off.
---Michael B.
# Posted on January 7th 2003 by MichaelBolton
Yep, Michael, I missed the 3 for that efg triplet. As for the AF at the end of the B part, I'm following one standard way of doing music notation, where the pick up notes are given both in an anacrusis *before* the repeat symbol at the start of each part, and to fill out the internal timing of each last bar. Sure, there are other ways to show this, but my way works as well, including in the music transcription software I use. It's just habit now, a convention I'm accustomed to. Sorry if it throws you off.
# Posted on January 8th 2003 by Will Harmon
Thanks Trevor for posting this tune. Your trad version in the original Scottish style is the only one I have ever heard at sessions in my area.
# Posted on January 11th 2003 by Dr. Dow
New England Swings like a pendulum do - meaning without the 'skip'
Old time New England, playing 'hornpipes' for contras and quadrilles, this would be played straight, no 'skips', and at a leisurely 120 beats a minute, 'approximately', to avoid that stinky old bowser 'dogma'...
# Posted on August 15th 2004 by ceolachan
Staten Island Ferry - origin of title - tune?
Recently, someone told me this is an Irish tune and that there is a Staten Island in Ireland. I had always assumed it was an American tune named after the American Staten Island ferry. I didn't think there was a Staten Island in Ireland, but because I really don't know everything I was reluctant to accuse my informant of BS-ing me.
I went to Irish sessions in Chicago for years and never heard the tune played, but heard it played in performance by a band that did both Irish and American music, so just assumed it was one of those American tunes that had it's roots in the British Isles or Ireland.
So I thought I'd check on the Good Old Session site to see if anybody else has discussed this. Does anybody know if this can really be considered an Irish tune?
# Posted on July 18th 2006 by SusannaHaslett
This tune appears in the middle of Great Big Sea's recording of "Lukey" on their album "Up", but transposed down a string, in G major.
# Posted on January 4th 2007 by Tall, Dark, and Mysterious
I play this set
De'il among the taylors/Staten Island/Mrs McLeod's (in A)
# Posted on February 1st 2008 by mehitabel23
^^hey that's mine!
# Posted on February 3rd 2008 by D.J.F.
^^No, it's mine!!!
I've never played Staten Island with you!!! Or De'il among the tailors!! I nicked this nice little set off a kiddy at my school who went to a scottish fiddling summer school in the outer hebrides. So there, Mr DJF. Maybe it's just a good set.
# Posted on February 29th 2008 by mehitabel23
Didn't you hear me play the set when we played in front of the Tate in London???
It is a good set
# Posted on February 29th 2008 by D.J.F.
I remember you playing Mrs McLeod's but not the first two. How funny...we must play this set next time I see you!
(saw Lucas yesterday, ran away from a school trip in London to meet him at the Angel, haha)
# Posted on March 12th 2008 by mehitabel23
Aah I remember now..I played Mason's Apron. Saten Island then Mrs Mcleod's in A!
But it's usually De'il Among the Taylors, Staten Island, Mrs Mcleod's (In A) for me
I think it's in a book by Edward Huws Jones...the Ceilidh Collection I think?
# Posted on March 13th 2008 by woD
Oh my god! So true!!! That kid must have got it out of the book!
Mystery solved?
(and I think you may have just mistakenly revealed your true identity?)
# Posted on March 13th 2008 by mehitabel23
Like we didn't guess already
# Posted on March 13th 2008 by Dr. Dow
Dow = Sherlock Holmes
# Posted on March 13th 2008 by D.J.F.
Sherlock Holmes = Dow
woD = semloH kcolrehS
(is my maths correct?)
# Posted on March 13th 2008 by mehitabel23
Discussion: The REAL tune?
# Posted on January 7th 2003 by MichaelBolton
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/1222
# Posted on March 13th 2008 by ceolachan
"New England Fiddler's Repertoire"
by Randy Miller and Jack Perron, with an Introduction by Newt Tolman
Third edition, 2008, by Randy Miller and Robert Bley-Vroman
The new 3rd edition marks the 25th anniversary, 1983-2008, of the publication of this essential tune book for the contra dance musician.
http://www.randymillerprints.com/Index/Index.html
http://www.randymillerprints.com/NEFRbook.htm
# Posted on March 13th 2008 by ceolachan
Discussion: Submitting Tunes to the Session.org
# Posted on March 21st 2005 by Will CPT
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/6149
# Posted on March 13th 2008 by ceolachan
Staten island
Jimmy Shand (of White Heather Club fame) recorded an eightsome reel set consisting of the The de'il amang the taylors, Staten Island, Speed the plough, The wind shakes the barley in that order. It would have been recorded about 1958 and became the best known eightsome reel set that would have been played by most schools for the next 20 years. This probably explains the popularity of the tune in Scotland and its connection with De'il amang the taylors.
# Posted on March 25th 2009 by drbob4