Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

The Dance Of The Honeybees

barndance

Key signature: Dmajor

Submitted on June 9th 2001 by Will CPT.

This tune has been added to 130 tunebooks.

Also known as Dance Of The Honeybees.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

Blackwater by Altan
Each Little Thing by Sharon Shannon
Far From Home by Blackthorn Band
Gaoth An Fhomhair - Autumn's Wind by Samhradh
House Party by Máire O'Keefe
The Fiddle Music Of Donegal - Volume Two by Various Artists

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Dance of the Honeybees

This tune is acutally a barndance or "german," rather than a reel, from the Altan cd Blackwater. I don't own the cd, but have heard Altan play this in concert. There's lots of room for variations--moving the triplets around between measures 1 and 2 (and also 5 and 6), or playing some of the "GFG" phrases as turns or even just a simple G2 G.... Barndances are proof that lift or lilt is as important as drive in any players quiver of skills--the difference between "lively" and just fast. Dance of the Honeybees goes well at a moderate, jaunty pace, lightly, and with as much attention to the spaces between notes as the notes themselves.

# Posted on June 9th 2001 by Will CPT

Dance of the Honeybees

This tune is a composition by the great Co. Leitrim fiddler and composer, Charlie Lennon, and I think he should be given credit for it.

Kenny Hadden

# Posted on June 12th 2001 by Kenny

Waltz and Hornpipe

Prof. Lennon actually wrote two pieces called Dance of the Honeybees that go together. The first is a slow waltz that is been played by Sharon Shannon on "Each little Thing". The second is the hornpipe.
Maire O'Keefe plays both together on her CD "Coisir - House Party".

I like to play it together with "The Wee Rabbit" by Deanta's Rosie Mullholland as the second tune.

# Posted on July 9th 2001 by Ah, Surely!

I like to play this with The Mountain Top. The key change between the two tunes grabs the attention of most listeners.
Trevor

# Posted on September 25th 2003 by lazyhound

The Dance of the Honey Bees

This is the variation I've been taught and play:

AG||:F2EF DFAF|GAFG E2EF|GFGA (3Bcd ed|cded cAGE|
F2EF DFAF|GAFG E2EF|GFGA (3Bcd ed|1 cAGE D2 (3AAG:|2 cAGE D2 (3ABc|
|:dAaA fAdA|(3Bcd AF DEFA|Beed efed|cdef (3ggg fe|
dAaA fAdA|(3Bcd AF DEFA|Beed cded|1 cAGE D2 (3ABc:|2 cAGE D4||

Trevor

# Posted on September 26th 2003 by lazyhound

Dance Of The Honeybees

Trev, that sounds like the version on Altan's "Blackwater".

# Posted on September 26th 2003 by Dow

Will, why is it that you call this a barndance? Isn't it just a straightforward hornpipe? On my liner notes for Blackwater, it says it's a "hornpipe composed by Charlie Lennon". I'm not correcting you or anything, I'm just asking cuz I don't understand the difference.

# Posted on July 11th 2004 by Dow

I've been getting the same puzzled look from Zina lately. As far as I know, Mr. Lennon himself thinks of this tune as a hornpipe. But I play it smoothed out quite a bit--not as much as a reel (as some people play hornpipes), and still with a hint of the dotted rhythm, but more like a barndance. I'm sure that makes it perfectly clear :-|

Dance of the HBs also lacks that characteristic hornpipe ending of three quarter notes in the last bar of each part.

I dunno--just sounds too quaint as a full-on hornpipe.

# Posted on July 11th 2004 by Will CPT

Too quaint? LOL. Hornpipes don't have to have that 3-note ending though do they? I play this tune with quite a lot of swing, but then my setting's quite different from yours Will. I remember posting a discussion a while back asking what barndances were as opposed to hornpipes, and didn't get much of any use out of the thread, apart from one comment from Brad who tried to explain it to me. What I now understand to be a typical "barndance" is like a hornpipe with less notes in and with that 3-note pattern all over the place - not just at the end, like for example Vincent Broderick's "Around The Fairy Fort". Do you play that one? If that's what a barndance is, then I think I've nailed what the difference is. If not, then I'm stumped...

# Posted on July 11th 2004 by Dow

Hornpipe / barn dance

Dear Chums

I think the discussion on this tune shows up the problems that arise when one starts to forget that this music is DANCE music and the best tunes (even the modern compositions) are those that speak to people as dance tunes rather than as melodies - no matter however clever or pyrotechnical.
The hornpipe is a very ancient dance form and most of it is now forgotten in the mists of time. Most hornpipes used in traditional dancing are used for various Set Dances. The Barn Dance tune has a quality that would be hard to define but is immediately recognisable to those who enjoy that dance form. The word 'lift' was a good clue. Charle Lennon definitely wrote his tune tune as a hornpipe but it is definitely a cracking tune for a barn dance. A march, jig, hornpipe, reel or other forms can all be used for barn dances. Marches or jigs can be used for the Gay Gordons. And so on.
It's a matter of clearly distinguishing between the musical form and the dance form that it is being used for. The same melody could be played in different ways for a reel, a rant, a hornpipe or a schottische. It's amatter of having feeling for what the dancers need. What a dancer prefers and what a musician prefers in a tune do not always coincide. Not all well know professional fiddlers could play five hours for dancing. Their repertoire often avoids the real dance tunes as the insistent regular rhythms become boring to them.
Never play in a band with clever bassists, drummers or rhythm guitarists. They want to vary things too much to keep themselves awake and develop their virtuosity. If they all happen to take off at the same time then the dancers fall over or stand around in puzzlement.
Toodlepip.
Pierce

# Posted on February 20th 2007 by pierceroche