Key signature: Adorian
Submitted on May 21st 2001 by Jeremy.
This tune has been added to 213 tunebooks.
Also known as Fintan McManus's, Guns Of The Magnificent Seven, Return Of The Magnificent Seven.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Guns Of The Magnificent Seven, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Ador
|:EAA2 ABcA|EAFA GAEA|EAA2 ABcd|egdB BAA2:|
|:ABcd eAA2|gedB BAGB|ABcd eaaf|gedB BAA2:|
|:egdB A2|egdB GABd|eBdB Aa2f|gedB BAA2:|
This is an odd tune, but great fun to play, especially at high speed. It was written by bouzouki-player, Fintan McManus (http://zouki_1.tripod.com/).
No, that's not a mistake at the start of the last part. It really does skip a beat like that. It might sound weird at first but once you get the hang of it, it really seems to fit.
For fiddlers, instead of constantly hopping to the open A string in the first part, try dragging the bow across both strings for variation.
# Posted on June 2nd 2001 by Jeremy
Guns of the Magnificent Seven
I can remember hearing Fintan play this tune for us for the first time in Gary Hastings' house in Portrush, county Antrim way, way back in the late 70s. Myself and Gary may have been responsible for giving the tune its name, though I always called it "Fintan McManus" reel. Years later, I was amazed to see it referred to by this title on a Seamus Egan recording. Such is the power of the oral tradition. I still call it after Fintan however.
# Posted on March 1st 2002 by LongNote
The Guns of the Magnificent Seven
I know of a different tune that gos by this name which is a fun balls out A major tune. Anyway, who were the "Magnificent Seven"?
# Posted on September 6th 2002 by Brad Maloney
Is this a quiz?
"The Magnificent Seven" is a 1960 Western directed by John Ford. The movie starred Yul Brynner as a mercenary hired to protect a Mexican farming village from its annual invasion by bandit Eli Wallach. Elmer Bernstein 's wrote the theme music (you had to have heard the "Marlboro Man" commercials) Brynner's character rounds up a bunch of (then) young unknowns -- Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, and Brad Dexter -- to help him protect the town. Back then, everybody had their favorite of the seven.
There were two sequels and a host of knock-offs. http://allmovie.com/cg/x.dll?p=avg&sql=A30854
It was based off the classic Japanese 1954 film "The Seven Samurai" directed by Akira Kurosawa. If you like movies, start with this one and then watch the other one to see what got changed. http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/17/10_samurai.html
Zina
# Posted on September 8th 2002 by Zina Lee
Mag 7
I was thinking along the lines of the Gilford Four or the Birmingham Six. I wasn't thinking along the lines of spaghetti western movies - that's why it sounded familier, but couldn't recall it.
Thanks
# Posted on September 8th 2002 by Brad Maloney
guns of the magnificent seven
Hi,
how is one to count the beat in the rythmically unusual part of the tune both for playing the melody and backing it.
thanx,
H
# Posted on January 11th 2003 by hhold
Re: guns of the magnificent seven
Listen to a recorded version and do what they do. See Altan's Island Angel. first track. They call it Fintan McManus'.
# Posted on January 12th 2003 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Re: guns of the magnificent seven
See also track 7 on "I won't be afraid any more" by Nomos.
# Posted on January 12th 2003 by Concertina Player
Re: guns of the magnificent seven
Oh aye, we had lots of fun with this tune in the old days when nobody played it except those of us who knew Fintan and had learned it from him. It was always a good laugh to watch what it did to unsuspecting accompanists. It caught them all no matter how good they were. More fun was to be had at melody players' expense by slipping in a extra few notes at the end of the first part of "Rolling in the Ryegrass".
# Posted on January 12th 2003 by LongNote
Re: guns of the magnificent seven
We've played this tune for a long enough time to have it go out of circulation and back in again. Even included it a a few gigs now and then, at peril of throwing ourselves off.
Here's an approximation of the timing for the C part. The beats in parenthesis are sustained notes:
|egdb A2 eg|dBGA (3Bcd eB|dBAa4 f||gedB BAA2|
Counted:
|1234 1(2)34|1234 1234|1234 (123)4|1234 123(4)|
This should get you close enough, but listening and playing along is bound to be better than counting this out. Either slow the tape/cd down, or find someone who knows it and can play it slow and steady for you. Good luck.
# Posted on January 12th 2003 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Re: guns of the magnificent seven
Seamus Egan does a nice job of it on banjo, on the 2nd track - same track as the Convenience Reel, on his first album, which he recorded when he was 16!
# Posted on January 13th 2003 by Nick Splease
Will, I always thought the whole point of it being called "Guns Of The Magnificent Seven" was that it had a bar of 7 beats in the last part, split into 3+4. Because the top "a" in the 3rd bar is held on for 4 in your analysis, that beat isn't skipped and it becomes normal 4/4 time - maybe it was a typo. I would analyse this as though a new bar starts everytime there is an "e" in the melody, so you get one bar of 3 beats and 3 bars of 4:
M: 3/4
|:egdB A2|
M: 4/4
|egdB GA (3Bcd|eBdB a3g|(3efg dB BAA2:|
So you could back it something like:
|:(3/4) Am / / |(4/4) Am / G / | Am / Em / | Em / D / :|
Or you could substitute Am chords for a major, making Amix for a change.
# Posted on January 13th 2003 by Dow
Mark, I learned the tune off someone who learned it from another who learned it.... I ended up playing my version along with an Altan recording of it, and the timing meshed with theirs, so I figured I was on the right track. It works out to be in 4/4 timing, but the beat moves around across the bars, sort of like a bluegrass shuffle bow pattern.
Your version also seems plausible, and no doubt people play it that way. I have no idea which is closer to Mr. McManus' intent. Maybe Long Note can enlighten us.
# Posted on January 13th 2003 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Origins of the Title
Peering back through the mists of time to the Gary Hastings' house in Portrush, county Antrim, late 1970s, I believe I had happened to see this mediocre sequel to the classic western a day or two before I heard Fintan play the tune on the bouzouki for the first time. And I believe I boozily suggested it with Gary's approval. I don't remember us referring to it ourselves by that title. At least I didn't call it that and I still don't. And that's how it got it's name. Sorry, it's as banal as that, though I must say I prefer Dow's theory. Maybe I should not have revealed the truth when a much better truth was available. I got a New Year's email from Fintan. He has been gigging with Peoples and Laurence Nugent and is working on a CD of his own compositions.
# Posted on January 13th 2003 by LongNote
LongNote, I like all the deniability you built into that story--like you might not have been there at all, if it happened to be incriminating that you were indeed there, heh.
But does that mean you agree with the measure in 3/4 time? Or is it a roving beat, still in 4/4 time?
BTW, it's good to know you're still lurking out there. Post us a tune!
# Posted on January 13th 2003 by Miss Lonelyhearts
First Recorded by Me?
Alas, Will, I am an illiterate with no musical schooling just about able to read the dots if I know what kind of tune I' m looking at. So, I am unable to post tunes -- just criticize those who do. Sure isn't that the way of it? However, I have seen tunes on Norbeck's site where I am quoted as the source. Also tunes from others who I am pretty sure learned them from me or private recordings provided by me. So, I have done a good wee bit of spreading the music around. A propos "The Guns", I can lay claim to being the first person ever to have recorded it under the title "Fintan McManus' ". Way back in Jan or Feb 1983 with an Irish-Swedish band I was playing with. We privately produced a cassette of songs and tunes for sale at our gigs and set-dancing weekends. Even if I do say so myself, the music still holds up well after 20 years. We were a damned good band. We paired it with, as we called it, "Sweeney's Dream" which we later discovered was actually called "Maudebawne Chapel". We were also the first to record, on the same tape, "The Miller of Draghan (Drohan)" and it was a very long time before I heard anyone else play that tune besides ourselves. They may have gotten it from us. I believe Frankie Gavin got the tune from our banjo player Jorgen Astner. I got "The Miller" from county Antrim fiddler Deirdre Shannon back in the late 70s.
# Posted on January 14th 2003 by LongNote
Ahh, the Miller is a great tune, still not played enough. But it does get played even here in Montana USA. I learned it from a De Dannan record. Funny how far the ripples spread....
# Posted on January 14th 2003 by Miss Lonelyhearts
I should quote my source for my version of the 3rd part: a minidisc recording of a flautist at a session in Melbourne, VIC. I hope I haven't misled anyone about the timing etc...
# Posted on January 15th 2003 by Dow
Couting the Guns
I've been working on the Guns for a while now, and I think I have a reasonable solution for the C part (for bodhran players, anyway).
Count (with "and" in between each, parens implies emphasis)
(1)23 (1)234 (1)23 (12)345
The tricky part is not figuring out the measure of three, but how to get back on to the 4/4 timing after you play it as three. The final two measures are played in 4/4, but the accent in the third measure is on the one and then again around the 4 (it's either the 4 or the "and" after the 4), so playing it as if there's another measure of 3/4 and then a measure of 5/4 works better than 3/4 4/4 4/4 4/4 to my ear.
Just a thought.
# Posted on September 9th 2004 by dirtyheel
Any one aware of the Mick Coyne album?
This tune is credited as syncopation??? I know it as MacManus'
But what is the correct name for the second tune in this set (its credited as magnificent 7.....but it isnt - I'm useless with names!
cheers
# Posted on May 25th 2005 by Hugo Chavez
Guns Of The Magnificent Seven
I've been working on learning this Tune, does anyone know where the name came from? I know there was a movie with this name
BenS
# Posted on July 18th 2008 by Ben Shaffer
Re: Guns Of The Magnificent Seven
well, I looked under the Tune search and got my answer
BenS
# Posted on July 18th 2008 by Ben Shaffer
Re: Guns Of The Magnificent Seven
I believe that's called 'using your bleeping intitiative', isn't it ?
# Posted on July 18th 2008 by wolfbird
Re: Guns Of The Magnificent Seven
When I first Learnt it I Heard it called
THE GUNS OF NAVARONE.
http://www.soundlantern.com/UpdatedSoundPage.do?ToId=329&Path=GUNS+OF+NAVARONE.m
Have it here in my Sound Lantern,,
I even heard the great box player Paddy O'Brien ask for it from
us in Miltown by that name,,He said I'll get that tune before I leave Here, {Miltown} = He likely did ,,lol..But then I heard my friends in ALTAN call it - The Guns Of The Magnificent Seven.
And its been that ever since,,See if that link works - if not post me you email and I'll send it to you...
jim,,,
# Posted on July 18th 2008 by FIDDLE4
Re: Guns Of The Magnificent Seven
Its a Fintan McManus tune....He wrote it a few years back..He is a bouzouki player from Fermanagh in the North of Ireland. But now lives in Co.Cavan.
The band Nomos also did a nice version of the tune..
All the best,
Seanie McGrath.
# Posted on July 18th 2008 by seaniemcg
Re: Guns Of The Magnificent Seven
There were 7 of us at the Willie Week. Since then we have sung nothing but "The Magnificent Seven". Altogether.....
Dant, dant,da-dant,...........
# Posted on July 18th 2008 by bodhran bliss
Re: Guns Of The Magnificent Seven
Seanie McGrath.
Thanks for this Imfo - Now I know this tunes sorce,,, Ta..!!
I can remember Fintan McManus when he Knocked
About with Carian Curran a girl Marie ?-concertina- Oh and Gabby,,
They use to play a lovely Low Jig then = Fintan's ???
Now I only ever here it played up high or in a different Key,,
I liked those Fermanagh musicians ,, They where nice people
to be , with,,
jim..
# Posted on July 18th 2008 by FIDDLE4
Re: Guns Of The Magnificent Seven
Nice to get a good word about Fermanagh, lots of great musicians here, oh!, by the way, we've got a game on Sunday, we're gonna win, we're gonna stuff youse boys from orchardland. Its gonna be a Full Force Gael, Like A Hurricane or, to quote another Fintan tune, The Wind That Blows.
# Posted on July 18th 2008 by strayaway
Re: Guns Of The Magnificent Seven
It gets played in Bmin round here (well 50 miles north), not sure where that development came from? Australia perhaps? I think the third part sounds stronger in Bmin, but that may be (is) a hopelessly subjective opinion.
# Posted on July 19th 2008 by pavlf
Fintan McManus's reel set as a jig
If anyone's interested, here's my setting of this great reel as a jig:
http://malcolm.schonfield.free.fr/zik.php?tune=fintan_mcmanus_jig&lang=en
# Posted on June 16th 2009 by GoPlayer