King Of The Fairies

hornpipe

Key signature: Edorian

Submitted on January 1st 2002 by Jeremy.

This tune has been added to 692 tunebooks.

Also known as Bonny Charlie, Dance Of Love, King Of Fairies, King Of The Faeries, The King Of The Fairies, King William Of Orange, Prince William Of Orange, Rí Na Sideog, Set Dance, Setdance.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

À L'Olympia by Alan Stivell
Ceilidh by Bun' Ber E
Champions Of Ireland: Flute by Grainne Kelly And Ciaran Madsen
Champions Of Ireland: Harp by Various Artists
Craic'd! by Atlantic Wave
Dancehall Sweethearts by Horslips
Dancing Through Ireland by Various Artists
Déanta by Déanta
Flute For The Feis by John Doonan
Ireland's Finest by The Dubliners
Leahy by Leahy
Learn To Play Irish Fiddle: Polkas, Jigs And Slides ~ DVD 1 by Kevin Burke
Less Travelled by Woad
Milestone At The Garden by Irish Fiddle Masters From The 78 RPM Era
One More... by Caa A Dram
Rakish Paddies by Rapalje
Riding Towards Life by Evergreen
Rince: Complete Irish Dancing Set - First Steps And Beyond by Various Artists
Sligo Fiddle (Disk 1) by John Vesey
Step Into The Beat: Modern Irish Dance Music by Ellery Klein And Ryan Lacey
Swarbrick 2 by Dave Swarbrick
Sweeney's Dream by Kevin Burke
The Ancient Music Of Ireland by Various Artists
The Best Ever Traditional Irish Pub Session Volume Two by Various Artists
The Dubliners In Concert by The Dubliners
The Final Round CD 1 by Kevin Joyce
The Hurricane by Donagh Hennessy And Mark Crickard
The Luck Penny by Seamus Bugler
The Princess Royal: Dance Music From South Armagh by The Nine McCusker Brothers And Hugh Savage
The Sligo Champion (CD 2) by Michael Gorman
Tom McHale: All Ireland Whistling Champion At Boyle by Tom McHale
Traditional Irish Dance Music by Various Artists
Traditional Irish Dance Rhythms by Various Artists
Traditional Music Of Ireland by Various Artists
Up In The Air by Danu

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Technically, this is a set dance. I've notated here as a hornpipe because I feel that the hornpipe "swing" best suits this tune.

You could play it more like a polka if you prefer. In fact, Horslips played it both ways when they recorded their, um.... "interesting" version of this tune

# Posted on January 1st 2002 by Jeremy

Oo, I like this one

I think it's the modal feel to it. Yummy.

# Posted on January 6th 2002 by cat

Included in O'Niel's Dace Music of Ireland

# Posted on January 20th 2003 by Ryan

This is a favorite of mine!

I learned my setting from the playing of the great feis fiddler Billy Furlong. He has a private label recording out titled "Strings for the Sets". I play it on anglo concertina where it falls very nicely.

# Posted on March 30th 2003 by DanielB

Repeats in 'King of the Fairies'?

I love this tune but I have never heard it played (knowingly) either in a session or on a recording. Looking at the 'dots' there are repeats after both the A part and the B part. Is this the way that it is normally played? I feel that because the B part is 16 bars it is almost more natural to return to the A part after one run through of the B part rather than playing it again.

Apologies - this sounds like that Marx Bros sketch - do you know it? 'There ain't no Sanity Claus (sic)...............'

Reading the comments in the tunes section it says that the tune is actually a dance - maybe that is why there are 32 bar of the B part? Anyway just wondered how it is normally played?

Thanks in advance. Keep the music strong .............. Bob

# Posted on November 29th 2003 by drbodhran

Bob, King of the Fairies is, as Jeremy mentioned, one of the set dances (it's considered a "non-traditional set" for modern stepdancers, which means that a stepdancer would dance choreographed set to it rather than one that's been handed down), and in competition dancers dance first the step, which is the A part, and then the set, which is the B part. (They need an intro of the first A, too, so you'd play the first A three times.) Because of time constraints, they usually only dance the right foot of the B, so if you're playing for a dancer's set, you'd play AAA, B.

There's no real reason that this is a crooked tune (meaning, a different number of measures in one part than in the others) -- it may have been a song first or something. Many of the traditional and non-traditional sets ARE crooked.

HTH -- Zina

# Posted on November 30th 2003 by Zina Lee

Zina. Thanks for that. You certainly know your stuff. So if the tune were to be played in a session (without dancers) what would the most usual fomat be? Would it be AA, BB or AA, B or AAA, B or some other peculiar combination? Or does it just depend on who is leading the tune? As I said in my original posting AA,B AA,B seems to sound best to my 'unscholarly' ears. KTMS - Bob

# Posted on November 30th 2003 by drbodhran

King of the Fairies

At one of my sessions it is the tradition to play this tune at around 11pm, first slowly a couple of times, then double speed or faster.
The reason for the tradition is that it was the favourite tune of the very attractive landlady of the pub who used to request it and come and sit with us as we played it, and then she'd feed us some sandwiches. She left the pub some while ago for another job but we still play the tune at 11pm in the hope she will magically reappear. So far she hasn't :(
Trevor

# Posted on November 30th 2003 by lazyhound

Bob -- no, it would be played AABB AABB by most sessions, although I know what you mean. (And it's always best in any new-to-you session to listen carefully as you play to make sure that you're following what they do -- Castle Kelly is one of my favs for that -- "one A? two As? one B? two Bs?") Wait til you hit one of the set dances that are something weird like 17 measures or something -- plays with your brain. The Blackbird is 7.5 measures on the A part, for instance, and that's weird to play at first too.

I'm a stepdancer, you see, so I know about it from that angle, is all. Everything is a mystery until you know about it, right?

Zina

# Posted on November 30th 2003 by Zina Lee

I like this tune but i have heard it being played differently by my friend on the accordian.

# Posted on December 7th 2003 by McKinney11

Good set

this tune sounds great played as a hornpipe after the rights of man

# Posted on August 7th 2004 by peverill lass

I have some great harmonies if anyone wants them

# Posted on November 4th 2004 by snowyowl

post them! ( the harmonies )

# Posted on November 4th 2004 by gian marco

Interesting recorded versions

This is a favourite tune of mine, and no mistake. I think I first heard it played by Ted Furey - sorry, I have the track on a tape, but not sure of the source album (can anybody help, it had John Wright playing on some tracks?). He plays it with huge attack - his King of the Fairies is one dangerous little bugger!

Then there's the way Michael Gorman played it - it goes beyond mournful - it's almost spooky. Interesting implied harmonies in the double stopping are partly responsible, I'd say. (Michael Gorman - The Sligo Champion. Topic Records)

Meath fiddler Frank O'Higgins recorded it with another set dance - The Ace and Deuce of Pipering - and they go really well together. His recording is more fun and "dancey" but far from twee - with some pretty edgy harmonies. A quicker tempo. (Milestone at the Garden - Rounder Records)

Kevin Burke also recorded it in 1973 (Sweeney's Dream - Smithsonian Folkways Recordings). He plays it really slow. I love his playing, but wouldn't say this track is his finest hour. However, I heard him play it live recently and liked it much more.

To my mind, the worst thing you can do here is think sugarplum fairies or tinkerbell. I've heard one or two folk bands do this over the years and nearly found myself reaching for a sledgehammer to smash up their little tinkling instruments. (I'm sure if Ted Furey's rightful King of the Fairies had been there he would have busted up the joint.)

# Posted on November 12th 2004 by kris

The Jam

Kevin Burke told me a story about being asked to do a 20 min set once with Johnny Cunningham for a radio show (Folk on 2 ?) at a festival. They were a bit the worse for wear and completely unrehearsed, but they wandered onto the stage with a vague plan to start with King of the Fairies. They ended up playing it for the full 20 minutes and had a great time. (I wonder if it was ever aired....)

# Posted on November 29th 2004 by kris

Jig or set dance?

Is King of the Faries just a jig or is it a set dance?

# Posted on January 27th 2005 by fiddlekitty

King of the Fairies

This is one of the first tunes I ever learned...off of Eileen Monger's little-known harp recording, 'The Lilting Banshee'...is that wonderful album still in print?
She plays it as a gentle hornpipe, along with uileann pipes, and segues right into the title song (a jig). They work well as a set.

I can't think of another time that I've heard a tune done with harp, uileann pipe, and bodhran -- interesting mix of instruments, but quite fetching!

# Posted on February 12th 2006 by drperm

Wow!

this song is enchanting, how I wish the D tin whistle had just one more c note on the bottom, but so far, (only on the very first line as I've only discovered this song and began learning in within this half hour) I have managed to get away with subsituting a d instead of a c. still, there's just something missing but I think it'll be okay, what is your opinion?

# Posted on June 13th 2006 by llamanator

"The King of the Fairies" ~ Kevin Burke

You can also find Kevin Burke teaching this on DVD #1 of a pair:

"Learn to Play Irish Fiddle: Polkas, Jigs & Slides" ~ 90 minutes
Homespun Videos / DVDs
ISBN: 1-932964-44-4

http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/2060

# Posted on June 21st 2006 by ceolachan

"King Of The Fairies" ~ to B, or not to B ~ do B, do B, doo...

# Posted on June 21st 2006 by ceolachan

In the 6th bar, the C# should be a C. With this in mind, the key signature should be E Minor (only one sharp) and so it's in aeolian, i.e natural minor. Not modal at all.

This is how I know it, but maybe there are other versions.

Cheers,

# Posted on July 13th 2006 by theperthvan

"The King of the Fairies"

Yes, you're right about the one measure, my screw up in the notation, it should have read:

~ | EzE>F GzG>A | B>AG>B d3 =c | ~

However, all other c's are meant to be sharp, c# / ^c... So, only one sharp in the whole tune, one out of 7... But let's add another take on this with more c's & C's just for the hell of it:

# Posted on July 13th 2006 by ceolachan

That should have read as I'd meant to say, only one =c and 7 ^c's... And in this alternate madness ~ ^c & ^C = 24...

# Posted on July 13th 2006 by ceolachan

That's not to say I don't have the key signature wrong... ;-)

# Posted on July 13th 2006 by ceolachan

..yeah!

Man, you ol boys are right on with these tunes...

But you gotta get help with the titles. I can't play this one down at the local bar without a brawl starting. I mean, King o the FARIES... comeawn...

# Posted on July 23rd 2006 by RSteve

How about "King of the Fairies" followed by a set with "How Do I Keep my Maidenhead" ~ just worrying that some guy in leathers with chains connecting both tits is going to ask you what the name of that tune is... Damn, you tell yourself, I must have walked into the wrong pub...

# Posted on July 23rd 2006 by ceolachan

King Of The Fairies (hornpipe)

One way round the title problem is to give it in Irish. My copy of "O'Neill" tells me that the Irish name of this tune is "Ri Na Sidheog". This should get you off the hook if you say you haven't any idea what it means if anyone asks. And it will be more convincing if you pronounce it all wrong - not difficult if you pretend not to know the language :-)
I've always been under the impression that "Maidenhead" is a town in Berkshire, England, so presumably it won't change much when translated into Irish. Anyway, why would anyone want to keep Maidenhead? ;-)

# Posted on July 24th 2006 by lazyhound

The King Of The Fairies: I think it is a depressing, dull, horrible tune...

I have a hearty dislike for this tune.
I've never heard it played by any of the maestros mentioned above. But in the hands of even good players, it often seems to flounder along like someone or something in lead boots in a sea of porridge; in the hands of less good, it slumps into the musical dragnet like an unspeakably obese invisible corpse, practically reversing time. For me to hear it is to sit in a cage of sullen gloom till it is over. Not a "dag" tune, rather an exemplar of highly respectable structure, it seems designed to depress and imprison.
Back c.1980, the fringes of the world were visited by unusual numbers of rather sweet, serious German girls wandering about on a personal quest, one that sometimes involved Ireland and ITM. Two landed in the village I was living in. One acquired a fiddle and started to practise, you've guessed it, TKOTF. Was it dire, doesn't begin to describe the sounds from down the street. But that was only a pimple on the bottom of my life in the unwilling company of this tune. (I wonder where she got to - might be on this website, for all I know..)

# Posted on September 30th 2006 by nicholas

Hmmm...

Come on, don't hold back, Nicholas! Give us your real opinion!

Hey, I'm sure you'd just love the tune with F naturals, D sharps and G sharps--really gets the fairies howling!

# Posted on September 30th 2006 by muspc

The King Gets Butch

The word was that if you played this 3 times in a row at a gathering, the King of the Fairies himself would appear. If he liked the party he'd make it even better. If not, he'd exchange his regal garb for bike leathers. Maybe Nicholas has some bad party experiences locked away there in racial memory. Do any of the dancer's know this one? Maybe someone could go round and cheer Nicholas up by performing it all night under his window. It might just be a healing experience (okay, maybe not for Nicholas)!

drperm's right about Eilleen Monger's Lilting Banshee. Lots of steel strung harp and dulcimer. She's English but struck up a friendship with Julia Clifford and her husband and plucks out a few of the better known polka's, as well as a very slow, quite stripped down version of the South Wind. It's quite a meditiative album, although I can't understand why anyone would be temped to record anything without a fiddle on it.

Dave Swarbrick does a good version on Swarbrick 2.

# Posted on October 1st 2006 by Ger the Rigger

"Scollay's Reel" ~ the Shetland reel take on it

Key signature: E Dorian
Submitted on December 5th 2006 by litestikpilot.
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/6463

# Posted on December 5th 2006 by ceolachan

King of the faries- speed-wise

How fast should king of the faries be played

# Posted on December 12th 2006 by N.P.

Re: King of the faries- speed-wise

Faster than Kevin Burke played it on Sweeney's Dream, IMHO. Somewhere I have an old record of, I think, Eugene Leddy's Co. Cavan Ceili Band, and they do it with a nice hornpipe bounce.

# Posted on December 12th 2006 by dwdeacon

Re: King of the faries- speed-wise

I read the comments on the tune (http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/475) Some commented that it is a set dance, which would imply to me that it should move along. Others said they play it slow at first and speed up (after three times, the king himself may show up and, if pleased with the rendition, improve the party). Others said they play it slow, mournful, even spooky. I like spooky on a low d whistle.

# Posted on December 12th 2006 by feardearg

Re: King of the faries- speed-wise

I think you play it however you want to. I play it at my local session and if it's getting late and people are getting fed up because they haven't had a chance to perform (ooh! I used the P word!! How very dare I?!) then I give it a bit of a kick, but not too fast, so everyone can join in. If I'm playing it in a band I go at top whack and make it a right bow burner!

# Posted on December 12th 2006 by bowburner

Re: King of the faries- speed-wise

I play it around 70-80 bpm, I think. It does sound very haunting at that speed on a fiddle.

# Posted on December 12th 2006 by Ben314

Discussion: Set Dances

# Posted on December 9th 2006 by justwhistle
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/11972

Oh the erosion of tradition & its understanding ~ dear 'feardearg', i isn't 'set dances' in the sence of polkas, slides, reels, jigs and the sometimes speed crazed mayhem that can be 'sets of quadrilles', as Johnny O'Leary himself used to bewail ~ "King of the Fairies" isn't that species of 'set dances'... The earlier use of the tag, and the only use when applied as a 'tune form', is for tunes used for step dancing, and the steps and dance itself, usually solo, used to accompany it. So for the 'King' here there was usually percussive accompaniment, meaning feet, tapping away to and following the melody. With that in mind, if you were playing it for a dancer, you'd take it as they needed it, which is usually relaxed and with that hornpipe definition ~ swing, or as someone mentioned earlier, 'bounce'...

Outside of playing it for dancers we also had fun with it, and sometimes do as someone else mentioned, take it slow ~ and sometimes overly jazzy, Tommy Hayes comes to mind, bless him, and then we might really rock on and give it the goose... Or, if we had someone that was obviously being irritated by it, like nicholas, what joy, we'd dig in and see what was required to get the most excruciating reactions from our victim... :-P

# Posted on December 13th 2006 by ceolachan

king of the fairies tab ?

Seasons Greetings
Can anyone direct me to tab music for the above on tenor banjo or fiddle/ mando please ?
Many thanks and a Happy New year
Paul

# Posted on December 28th 2006 by pajic

Re: king of the fairies tab ?

Is this the one?

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/475

# Posted on December 28th 2006 by John Culhane

Re: king of the fairies tab ?

At the MandolinCafé:
http://www.mandolincafe.com/tabarc.html
Search for fairies. You'll get two versions, one of them by Aidan Crossey, member of this site.

# Posted on December 28th 2006 by lars

Re: king of the fairies tab ?

I know I get much the same reply when I complain about ABC, but my answer would be "Learn to read music ". Only a small amount of the tunes you will hear in this style of music will have been rendered into tab, but if they're on this site they'll be in notation, and often variations posted in ABC too.
It also occurs to me that King of the Fairies is one of those tunes that I never learnt by reading in any way, I just heard it enough and suddenly it was there under my fingers. I've even had tunes that I hadn't thought about for years suddenly come out of the instrument without effort. If you just immerse yourself in the music and keep playing you'll find you know more than you realise.

# Posted on December 28th 2006 by Guernsey Pete

Found tab

Thanks for the directions ,
I got some of it from playing along to the file on this site , but I only have a couple of days to fil in the gaps . Thanks again
Paul

# Posted on December 28th 2006 by pajic

Third part from Lancashire

The following is a a third part to The King of the Fairies , learned from singer, fiddler and English concertina player, Ruth Jepson from Lancashire. She heard it at Preston Folk Club and believes it is only played in the Preston area of Lancashire (although she, myself and a whistle player intend to unleash it on the Mid-Wales traditional music scene shortly).

K: Em
efed B2B2|efed B2B2|fgaf A2d2|fgaf A3z|
b2gb a2fa|g2eg f3z|edef gfed|e2ff2g2z2|
efed B2B2|efed B2B2|dcBA cBAG|FGAF D2EF|
GFGA BABd|edef g2e2|dcBA BAGF| E 3(DEF E3z||

I have put it in E minor, since all the Cs are natural. Incidentally, I have heard the first two parts played without any of the Cs sharpened.

# Posted on February 17th 2007 by ragaman

Maybe it is my ears, but this sounds like a 'recent' addition, not necessarily complimentary...someone's fancy in other words...

# Posted on February 18th 2007 by ceolachan

Someone should threaten nicholas with this... ;-)

# Posted on February 18th 2007 by ceolachan

"this sounds like a 'recent' addition"

I don't kow. It definitely sounds 'English' - but then, the whole tune could well be English in origin. It sounds a bit like the second part of Scully's/Scollay's Reel. I suspect that there have been a couple of different B-parts (after all, the A-parts to King of the Fairies and Scollay's are almost identical) floating around for a while and, at some point, someone decided to put all three parts together - that could have been 'recently' or not.

BTW, C, do you know Ruth Jepson? A Lancashire lassie living in Mid-Wales - very nice singer.

# Posted on February 19th 2007 by ragaman

Don't like this tune?

I believe that all who don't like this tune MUST hear it played by Leahy... it's an absolutely masterful rendition.

# Posted on May 6th 2007 by flyboy04

I second that... actually, Leahy is the reason I looked this tune up. I just started playing it... it's a song that emerges out of nowhere in my mind. I must like it.

# Posted on August 6th 2007 by Jeffery

Beautiful tune.....

I for one really like this tune, used to be one of my fav's to watch at dance competitions. A good example of this tune and someone dancing is "Feet of Flames" where Michael is playing it on flute,

# Posted on November 10th 2007 by peter1209