Key signature: Gmajor
Submitted on January 12th 2003 by lazyhound.
This tune has been added to 17 tunebooks.
Also known as Fisher's, The Thresher.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Y Dynwr
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: Gmaj
|:d2|gdBG cedc|BGBd cedc|Bbgb Acac|Bbgb Aafa|
gdBG cedc|BGBd cedc|Bdce dfac'|bagf g2:|
|:d2|afdf afc'a|bgdg bgd'b|afdf afc'b|agfe e2d2|
ecGc ecge|dBGB dBge|dafd dcBA|G2B2 G2:||
This is a Welsh harp hornpipe, from the National Library of Wales Tro Llaw collection. Being written specifically for the harp it may not lie particularly comfortably for the fiddle player, but flautists may like to have fun with it. Bars 3 and 4 of the A part and bars 1-3 of the B part are typical of harp writing.
The English translation of the title is "The Thresher".
trevor
# Posted on January 12th 2003 by lazyhound
Cute tune, and very out of place here.
# Posted on January 13th 2003 by glauber
Ummm...more commonly known (at least in an oh-so-similar variant) as Fisher's Hornpipe, and more commonly played in D, or F if you're into annoying the whistle players. And even at that, more common now in the contra dance and old timey tradition than at modern Irish sessions, at least on this side of the pond.
Trevor, I sense that you're not making many friends with your selection of tunes....
# Posted on January 13th 2003 by Will CPT
I think it's a good tune, and hey guys, go easy on trevor. true some people may not like him posting WTM, But then again I see that we have some american tunes in the database, there even more out of place than these.
Dafydd
# Posted on January 13th 2003 by Dafydd Monks
Daffyd, we're not against Trevor, just his insistent posting of non-Irish-session tunes. Agreed--the american tunes are ALSO out of place. That's why some of us are trying to quash all of these odd duck tunes. You allow Mozart or Texas Swing or hardanger tunes at an Irish session, and pretty soon people think it's open to everything. And then the folks who want to play Irish music quit coming. They start another session (as Brad says) on the other side of town. Some of us don't want to see thesession.org go down that road.
Coming from Wales, you don't mind seeing Welsh tunes posted here. Understandable. But I've played Irish music for more than half of my life (and I don't even remember being 13,
, and I've never seen a tune named Y Dynwr in *any* collection or heard it played at any session. When it turns out to be an eccentric (to my non-Welsh ear) version of Fisher's Hornpipe, it strikes me as a confusing, misleading, and ultimately goofy thing to post at a site devoted to Irish trad dance music. I might as well post Orange Blossom Special. Fun tune? You bet. Worth posting? Absolutely. But NOT on this site. I hope I never hear Orange Blossom Special played at an Irish session, or Y Dynwr, either, for that matter.
So: This site isn't a clearinghouse for all genres of traditional music. Lots of us play many different forms of music (I too started in classical), but this is our Irish trad music sanctuary. If I want rock tunes, I go to rock music sites. An interesting welsh tune now and then is okay by me (though maybe not by everyone here), but first establish some credibility by posting 10 *good* Irish session tunes, tunes that you play, that you know like old friends.
Despite all this, we're really a welcoming bunch. Someone less friendly (and I've seen them in action at real world sessions) would've cussed once or twice and kicked the tune out the door before it finished playing.
In short, we're trying to communicate our interests in the music, and a few people apparently aren't getting the message. So the message has gotten increasingly blunt. Let's keep the communication going and see if we can't work through this. You and Trevor and loads of other people are welcome here, but the purpose is to talk about and share Irish trad music for sessions.
Will Harmon
P.S. I think the idea of a Welsh music site is great. I'd go there, hoping to learn more about Welsh music and culture.
# Posted on January 13th 2003 by Will CPT
I think that perhaps I should have made it clearer that this submission was made in order to help a harpist who recently said in a thread that they were looking for harp tunes. This tune is harp writing, and I agree that it doesn't make a lot of sense on the fiddle, even though it is technically playable on that instrument. The tune is apparently of Irish origin, even though it has a Welsh title and has popped up in the Welsh National Library archives. But didn't I say somewhere that musicians have been travelling all over the world for centuries, exporting and importing tunes as they do so? So who can say for sure which came first, Fisher's or this tune?
I'm aware of possibly about half a dozen or so tunes of this genre written specifically for the harp, and I like to think that harpists would enjoy them if submitted. Is it really going to lead to collapse of sessions world-wide if these few Celtic harp tunes are submitted at infrequent intervals over the next few months?
trevor
# Posted on January 13th 2003 by lazyhound
I've just seen the sheetmusic produced from the ABC I submitted and noticed that the apostrophes (') on the high b's, c's and d's in my text didn't actually end up in the ABC code as received by thesession.org. I have now edited the ABC of this tune on thesession.org by hand, and it is now authentic.
I think the problem arises out of the fact that I use Microsoft Word to prepare the ABC transcription and I forgot on this occasion that there have been problems in postings whereby apostrophes have appeared as curious combinations of symbols.
My practice is to transcribe a tune into ABC manually, using Word, then to check the ABC visually, then to listen to the transcribed ABC with ABCmus at about half speed, comparing it with the printed dots at the same time, and then perhaps I might sometimes print out the score with ABC2Win and compare it with the original. I then copy and paste the final version to thesession.org. It seems I shall now have to take careful notice of apostrophes in a tune!
My sincere apologies to everybody for any confusion this may have caused.
trevor
# Posted on January 14th 2003 by lazyhound
I know this is not the place for general discussion, but I have a relevant point to make: If a tune is directed at somebody in particular, and is clearly outside the boundaries of what would be called Irish Traditional Music (the definition of which definitely does not belong in the Tunes section; neither do I possess the intellectual capacity to even attempt to expound on such a subject), you would do better to send it directly to the said person via The Session (or private) email, than to post it here in the tunes section.
# Posted on January 14th 2003 by ragaman
"Is it really going to lead to collapse of sessions world-wide if these few Celtic harp tunes are submitted at infrequent intervals over the next few months?"
Heh, Trevor, I didn't suggest that, now did I? And, even though no one seems to be listening, I keep saying that I (and apparently most folks here) don't care where a tune originated, just that we try to focus on tunes as they're played within the contemporary Irish session tradition (which itself is a relative newcomer to the trad music scene, and perhaps didn't originate in Eire either). To my ear and experience, Y Dynwr doesn't really fit the bill. At the very least, it belongs in the comments as a variant on Fisher's Hornpipe.
I suppose I jumped on it because I've asked you to post tunes that you actually play at the sessions you go to, and I've seen one or two (and learned them, thank you!), but not many. I just think those tunes--which you've had some time to digest and personalize--would likely be more interesting to most of us here.
Given the discussions of late, and knowing that you're a well-meaning, good hearted fellow, I'd just like to reiterate my request. Post a tune that makes your local session sail--something you and your session mates play that makes people at the bar turn around and take notice. All I'm suggesting is do that a few times, and the old guard around here will soften up and will gladly tolerate the occasional Welsh harp piece.
Cheers,
# Posted on January 14th 2003 by Will CPT
The sheetmusic now corresponds to the corrected ABC.
trevor
# Posted on January 14th 2003 by lazyhound
Before & After:
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/872
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/3232
# Posted on June 4th 2005 by ceolachan