Irish Music

Tune : The Brown Chest/The Flowing Tide

The second hornpipe is from Chicago fiddler Una McGlew. Hope she's doing well!

Tune : The Jig Is Up

I wrote this jig with mixed meters while teaching the Irish Ensemble at FSU in 2003. I recently revised it.

Tune : Washington's March

"Washington's March" is a tune recorded by West Virginia, East Kentucky fiddler Edden Hammons on the Smithsonian recording Edden Hammons Vol. 1. The Hammons family were all musical but Edden was the prodigy. Gordon Scott became fascinated with the tune, learned it, and taught it to me. A friend recently asked if I knew the tune. He'd heard a recording of an Irish band called The Immigrants. It's available on thesession.org but this version is more like how Edden Hammons played it. I've included two settings and Edden played it differently every time through on his recording.

Tune : Sinead's Waltz

Gordon Scott wrote this waltz for his wife Jane who he calls Sinead.

Tune : Cold Frosty Morning/Cuckoo's Nest/Cluck Old Hen

These two tunes "Cold Frosty Morning/Cluck Old Hen" work together, both in A Dorian, though from different traditions. If you sandwich "Cuckoo's Nest" in between them it'll vary the tonality a bit. Miriam Wyman and Matt Catalano, Gordon's nephew from Ohio, taught us "Cold Frosty Morning". "Cuckoo's Nest" we got from our student, Cynthia McDermott while directing the FSU Irish Ensemble, and "Cluck Old Hen" Jane learned 'cause she thought it'd be an easy one for beginning fiddle students.

Tune : Pipe on the Hob

Tallahassee has been a sister city with Sligo, Ireland since 1995. Since that time we've had many cultural exchanges. Among the musicians to visit Tallahassee were fiddler Des Collis and box player Michael O'Brien. Jane thought the Sligo setting of "Pipe on the Hob" that Des and Michael played was much more interesting than the setting on thesession.org. Hope you enjoy it!

Tune : Pipe on the Hob

This tune version hails from Co. Leitrim/Co. Sligo via box player Michael O'Brien. He came to Tallahassee with fiddler Des Collis and a Sligo delegation. In my tune collection Tallahassee Irish Tune Book I chose D Mixolydian as the key. I could have chosen D Mixolydian for the A part & D major for the B Part as I've done here. Or I could have chosen D major & simply put in the natural signs in the A part & twice in the B Part. Tomas O'Canainn had a term for this in his book Traditional Music In Ireland. P.

Tune : The Cats of Camazen

At the last First Saturday Session at The Warehouse Pub, The Bothys (formerly Bothy Gals), namely Yvonne and Maddie, played this tune on dualing penny whistles. The melody in the A Part has two longer phrases that wraps around on itself. We looked it up on thesession.org. Here it is with added trebles in the B Part.

Tune : Bus Stop

This is a tune I learned from Kevin Burke's CD OPEN HOUSE. Recently we played it at the Sparrow Music Camp and I couldn't find it in my personal ABC2 files. So, I looked it up on thesession.org but it was not the version I remembered. After listening to OPEN HOUSE Track 1, it came back. It's a great tune that I'm sure you'll find interesting. In the B part in the 7th measure, I prefer playing F natural then F# in the same measure.

 

Tune : Paddy on the Railway

Paddy on the Railway

Verse 1: In eighteen hundred and forty-one,  I put me corduroy breeches on, I put me corduroy breeches on, To work upon the railway.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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