The Green Groves Of Erin

reel

Key signature: Amixolydian

Submitted on May 21st 2001 by Jeremy.

This tune has been added to 190 tunebooks.

Also known as Green Groves Of Erin, The Green Groves.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

• 1975 The First by The Bothy Band
• Afterhours by The Bothy Band
• Angelina Carberry And Martin Quinn by Angelina Carberry And Martin Quinn
• Cé by Cé
• Come To An Irish Dance Party by Laichtín Naofa Céilí Band.
• Concertina Music From West Clare by Elizabeth Crotty
• Farewell To Ireland CD 2 (Of A Box Set Of 4) by Various Artists
• Folk Dance Music Of Ireland by Johnny Powell And His Band
• Folktrax 154 - The Sligo Fiddler: Michael Coleman by Michael Coleman
• From Galway To Dublin: Early Recordings Of Traditional Irish Music by Various Artists
• I GCnoc Na Grai by Noel Hill And Tony MacMahon
• In Good Hands by Paddy Murphy
• Ireland's Best Session Tunes CD 1 by Waltons Recording
• Irish Music by Various Artists
• Irish Traditional Music by Paddy Carty
• Le Chéile (Lord Mayo) by Various Artists
• Lord Mayo by Le Cheile
• Mysterious Ireland by Various Artists
• Out Of Their Shell by Céide
• Sligo Ceili by Seamus Tansey
• The Best Of by The Bothy Band
• The Blackberry Blossom by Mary MacNamara
• The Branch Line by Jack And Charlie Coen
• The Dear Little Isle by Inishbofin Ceili Band
• The High Part Of The Road by Tommy Peoples And Paul Brady
• The Humours Of Derrybeha by Pat O'Connor
• The Merry Love To Play by Peter Horan And Gerry Harrington
• The Music Makers: Celebrating 35 Years Of Comhaltas In Leeds by Leeds CCE
• The Spirit Of West Clare by Bobby Casey
• The Thorn Tree by Grainne Hambly
• The Wheels Of The World, Early Irish American Music, Vol 2 by Various Artists
• Tobar An Dúchais by Brid O'Donohue
• Tobar An Dúchais: Solo Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Music From County Clare by Bríd O'Donohue
• Traditional Irish Music From County Clare by Micho Russell
• Traditional Irish Music In America: The East Coast by Various Artists
• Two Champions: Irish Traditional Music At Its Best. by Sean McGuire And Joe Burke
• Vol. 1 Catchin' The Tune by The Irish Tradition
• Weeds In The Garden by Muintir Lewis

X: 1
T: Green Groves Of Erin, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Amix
|:A2 cA eAcA|G2 Bd gdBG|A2 cA eAcA|BGEF GBdB|
A2 cA eAcA|G2 Bd gdBG|ABcdeAAc| BEED EA A2:|
|:eaag eaag|eggf eggf|eaag eaag|edef gdBd|
eaag bgag|eggf afge|dega b2 ag|egfa gedB:|

Most of this tune consists of playing a bar in A followed by a bar in G. In the first part, the G arpeggios can be a little tricky but it's a fun way to practice scales.

The second part is more straightforwrd and has an inherent driving rhythm when it gets up to speed.

# Posted on June 2nd 2001 by Jeremy

Modes make my head hurt

Actually... Am & G Chords.

(Sorry... stop me before I speak again...)

Schy

# Posted on January 7th 2003 by Schy

Apologies and Corrections

I had meant to post a reply to Jeremy's comment, but didn't hit the button apparently and the message didn't post. "Modes make my Head Hurt" was my correction.

Anyway, owning up to my mistakes... I mentioned that I've seen the tune transcribed with all the C#'s replaced with B's (notes not chords). This was true. I then glibly suggested a mode of A dorian in such a case with the same A and G chord structure. Of course I later realized that it would change the chords to Am and G, hence my retraction and plea for someone to shut me up. I'll now start listening to my own advice...

Schy

# Posted on January 7th 2003 by Schy

Is this a single reel

I see the ABC posted for this is in the form AABB. But any recordings I have of the tune are in the ABAB format of a single reel. i.e. Elizabeth Crotty and Tony MacMahon etc. So perhaps it should be played as a single reel.

# Posted on February 12th 2005 by the wounded hussar

I've never heard it played as a single reel, but it's quite probable older musicians prefer playing it with no repeat in each part. Angelina Carberry recently recorded it on banjo, but not as a single reel.

I played this tune in Ador with Leeds Ceili Band for several occasions last year. Here's the transcription of the version with some variations taken from Angelina Carberry's playing.

K: Ador
A2cA eAcA|G2Bd gdBG|A2cA eAcA|BGED EA~A2|
A2cA eAcA|G2Bd gdBG|A2cA eAcA|1 BGED EGBG:|2 BGED EGBd||
ea~a2 ea~a2|eg~g2 egdg|ea~a2 ea~a2|edef gedg|
ea~a2 bgag|edef g3e|dega b2 ag|1 egfa gedg:|2 egfa gedB||

Does anybody else play it in Ador?

# Posted on February 12th 2005 by slainte

Ador !!

I never heard this tune in Amix.

# Posted on February 12th 2005 by gian marco

Chords

I learned this song off of a midi file I found somewhere out there on the WWW.
The chords that fit that melody are:
Am _ _ _ G _ _ _ Am _ _ _ C _ G _ :||

Thats for both parts.

The midi file has 8 parts (instruments) and an alternating bass line that leads me to the above conclusion.

# Posted on March 18th 2005 by bluemandolin

tune

# Posted on March 18th 2005 by Dow

I've been thinking this reel is a fancy variant of "The Gatehouse Maid," probably invented and popularised by fiddlers.

# Posted on July 8th 2005 by slainte

Yamadasan, interesting what you say about the Gatehouse Maid. It's the same chord changes isn't it? Although the melody's quite different. Wonder which came first...

I play this as a single reel in Ador. I think it sounds too repetitive as a double, and I think the Amix was probably one of those O'Neill's transcription errors. My version is similar to Yamadasan's, but not double, and with a nice little box twist in the last couple of bars:

X: 1
T: The Green Groves Of Erin
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Ador
A2BA eABA|G2 (3Bcd gdBG|A2BA eABA|1 BEEF GBdB:|2 BEEF GABd||
eaag eaag|eggf egdg|eaag eaag|edef gedg|
ea~a2 bgag|edef ~g3e|dega bd'ag|eafa gedB||

# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Dow

Oh don't be silly....we should allow the melody players to play
loads of variations to our chord changes !

# Posted on August 29th 2005 by BegF

Around a couple of months ago I was back in Yorkshire. The local Ceili Band have a stage performance once a month in Irish Centre, and I intended to hear them playing there. But many of the musicians were away for some reason, and I ended up playing some tunes with a few people on the stage. We decided to play the set of 3 reels we played together last year, that was The Boyne Hunt/ The Green Groves of Erin/ The Boys of Ballisodare. We played the first tune very well, but a loud PA player played The Gatehouse Maid just after it without noticing she was doing something wrong until the third time around. After managing to go through all the tunes, she said "very similar tunes, aren't they?"

# Posted on August 29th 2005 by slainte

Billy Moran plays Maids of Mt Kisco/The Green Groves of Erin/Boys of Ballysodare

# Posted on April 1st 2006 by kjay_bc_box

Identical Twins

I'd play the Green Groves of Erin/ the Milliner's Daughter: http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1409 It's really funny, I found these two tunes are virtually identical last night. Identical twins of different genders! No wonder both of them are pipers' favourites.

# Posted on May 7th 2006 by slainte

Listen to Johnny Doran's nephew John Rooney and John's son Rarry playing a great piping version of this tune with Leeds fiddlers: http://www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/travellers/downloads/PointerSession/PointerSession12.mp3

From the Travelling Pipers in Leeds: http://www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/_travellers/JohnRooneyRecording.html
Biography of Johnny Doran: http://web.telia.com/~u46103557/jdoran.html

# Posted on July 19th 2006 by slainte

Sorry, that should read "John's son Larry...."

# Posted on July 19th 2006 by slainte

Lovely auld tune

there s something really old about this tune.
love it. i play the second part only once
(if i remember right i first heard it on that brilliant mrs crotty's cd)

# Posted on August 21st 2007 by justabloke

The Green Groves Of Erin (reel)

More similarities. This tune has been said to have derived from a tune called "Miss Stewart of Grandtully" a tune composed by Niel Gow. Grandtully (pronounced "grantly"), incidentally, is in Perthshire.

X:891
T:Miss Stewart of Grandtully
S:The Athole Collection
Z:Nigel Gatherer
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:A
e | AAcA eAcA | =GGBG dGB=g | AAcA eAcA | Eaef cAA :|
B | Aaga eaca | B=gdg B=GGB | Aaga eaca | faef cAAB |
Aaga eaca | B=gdg B=GGB | AAcA dBcA | Eaef cAA ||

One reason, I think, for the similarities in all these tunes is the employment of the "double tonic" device used to emulate Highland bagpipe tunes. There is a music file from a 78rpm recording (1926) by the concertinist William J Mullaly available on the web on which he plays "Green Groves of Erin" going into "The Ivy Leaf" (http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1112), another tune in the same vein. Download it at http://www.archive.org/details/Greengroves
.

# Posted on November 10th 2007 by nigelg