When we say a single reel is not repeated, we mean there are 8 bars of A part followed by 8 bars of B part. Some tunes (like “Rolling…”) can be written with 4 bars of A part, repeated. But that’s 8 bars total, ie, a single reel.
or
Some people play it doubled, I’m pretty sure. There are a number of reels that some people play single and some double, and I’m pretty sure “Rolling…” is one of them. (Other common examples are “Castle Kelly” and “The Mountain Road”.)
By the length. Single reels, by my definition, are eight bars without the repeat. Double reels are sixteen bars without the repeat.
…or maybe that should have been “measures”. I forget terms; I just count and play when all’s said and done. Just so long as everyone knows what I meant…
Yep, I just checked. I meant “measures”. Sorry if I caused any confusion. Theory and terminologies are not my strong suit. I know what rallentando means, though.
I think bar and measure can be used interchangeably. But I might be wrong.
I think that by this definition I have not seen any double reels. I have just come across a few in my tutorial books and they are eight measures long in total without the repeat. Since I have seen the music for and listened carefully to such a small amount of ITM this is not surprising.
The terms “single” and “double” as used for reels seem to vary in meaning from place to place. That is interesting.
As a total beginner I’ll just add one more little insane thought. Some time ago I remember hearing someone say that polkas were hard to play just right—it took something special to make them sound like polkas. In the place that brad’s teacher comes from and in Newfoundland, as mentioned by colomon, where it sounds like what is called the “single” reel looks just like a polka but is supposed to sound different, maybe for those people there is some difference in how the tune is accented and it can turn out to be a “polka” or a “single reel” depending on how it is played. Since I can play neither, please just excuse this.
Just to be clear – in Newfoundland, they don’t call polka(-like) tunes “single reels” – it’s just “single”. As in, say, “We learned three singles in Christina’s class this year.”
Newfoundland terminology is all weird:
Singles are polka (-like).
Doubles are (single?) jigs.
Triples or step tunes are reels.
And (shades of other threads) all of these types include crooked versions.
My mind is reeling now, in a state of confusion combined with the fact that I was trying to understand what a crooked tune was, it has become a singularly doubling crooked confusion.
BUT! I like this conversation, nothing to contribute to it though, listening is good…ah…reading…
Peter, just because he uses the terminology differently than you do does not mean he is “wrong”. Like it or no, people do routinely use “single reel” to mean “a reel that is normally played single.”
Glancing at a google search on the term, it looks to me like maybe dancers use your definition, while musicians who are more detached from dancing typically use ours? (Though I’ve played for a lot of group dancing, and never had a request for a single reel – is it just a step dancing thing?) Or maybe it’s an Ireland versus North America language difference?
As for taking up more time, what Nano obviously means is a single reel (our sense) has to be played twice as often to get the same amount of dance done, and you have to take this into account if you are working out what to play for, say, 168 bars of dancing.
I’ve never heard of “The Beauty Spot”, and I learned “The Otter’s Holt” double, but other than that, those are all what Peter would call reels played single.
Note that reels played single are not necessarily 4 bars repeated – they can be 8 bars not repeated, with the second 4 bars not the same as the first. See the first part of “Trim the Velvet” as an example.
Ah, the Beauty Spot, one of my favourite tunes, but those four measures don’t exactly repeat in either the A or B parts; the tune is more complex than that. I would call The Beauty Spot a standard “double” reel.
How about this, why don’t we just call them all “tunes” and leave it at that?
O’Neill’s doesn’t categorise “single reels” at all (single jigs are there but he never refers to slides). I have never heard the expression “double reel.” I thought a single reel was a tune in 2/4 time but which didn’t have the characteristic sound of a Kerry polka. Jackie Daly called Ger The Rigger a single reel, yet this tune is frequently referred to as a polka, though (to my ear at least), apart from the rhythm, it doesn’t sound like most other polkas. Jimmy Allen’s has the same rhythm as Ger The Rigger but you wouldn’t call it a polka in a million years. I think “single reel” is an expression so confusing that I think it’s best avoided.
Well I was not specifically referring to how I tought of the term but more as of how I see it in use, as I said there is a limited use of the term single reel for a for played in Sliabh Luachra. Reels played single are never specifically referred to as ‘single reel’ but as a ‘reel’. There are otehr reels that on the the spur of the moment you may want to play without repeats, you’d say ‘we’ll play it single’ never ever ‘let’s play a single reel’.
When we play for sets, and I have played for sets very often (as in hundreds of nights) mostly with the man Stve named above: Jackie Daly. Irrespective of what the dancers were up to we’d play ‘reels’ One part, two part five part whatever, repaeated or not, never would there be a thought of ‘single reels’. It’s just not a term I have ever come across among musicians in Ireland to indicate a reel with it’s part unrepeated.
Round these parts “let’s play a single reel” would mean playing one of those reels which is normally played single. If we wanted to play a reel normally played double as a single, we’d say “we’ll play it single”, or perhaps, “let’s make it into a single reel” or something to that effect.
I don’t think we’d normally use the phrase “double reel” – the only time it would come up would be if it was in specific contrast to a reel played single. And if someone requested a reel, you wouldn’t hesitate to play a single reel – they’re still considered reels in good standing (if perhaps a bit simple).
[quote=“Cynth”]I got sort of curious about what on earth Leather Away with the Wattle could be refering to. Maybe you know this, but the explanation of the title is sort of funny.
One of the trees sacred to the Druids was the Rowan, or Mountain Ash, also referred to as the ‘Quickbeam’.
In a quote from ‘The White Goddess’ by Robert Graves;
"It’s round wattles, spread with newly-flayed bull’s hides, were used by the Druids as a last extremity for compelling demons to answer difficult questions - hence the Irish proverbial expression ‘to go on the wattles of knowledge’, meaning to do one’s utmost to get information.
Around here if there’s question about whether a tune should be played singly or doubly we generally just describe its structure as “ABAB” or “AABB”, “ABC” (or in the case of “The Last Pint” ABABCABABC – eek!), etc.
That seems to keep the parts clear in most cases. From there we just have to learn the tune – well, you know, the way it’s supposed to go.
That’s interesting. Actually, wattles are interesting. I read a bit about the trimming of willow trees to insure a good supply—I think this was about how things were in England. They were trimmed at different stages depending on what item the person needed to make—thin and spring, thick and stiff—so they were let grow for varying numbers of years and people kept track of that. Craftsmen would work in the woods making all sorts of things. Maybe because it was such a common material, even though mostly now days people have not even seen wattles, the word is used in so many different contexts—from sort of sacred to quite lowly. I did weave a very small wattle fence once out of some brush trimmings and found that there were definitely some things to know about doing it properly. It was not a good fence. I’ve strayed, sorry.
