Most of the pieces in the trad repertoire are listed with no authorship (ie, “traditional” or PD). Some are listed with authorship, such as Maire Breatnach’s. However, there seem to be a lot that are in a grey area – Things with titles such as Junior Crehan’s Favorite, Willie Clancy’s Fancy, etc. I’ve seen these listed as traditional, but these guys are either still alive or died recently.
Is this possibly a case of copyright having expired, or traditional tunes with no known title that became associated with these gentlemen.
Another quick one – O’Dowd is credited with several tunes – does anyone know when he lived?
A lot of tunes are being composed by traditional musicians, these most commonly pass into the tradition, like all those other tunes before them.
The name of a player as a title does not mean this person is the composer, it merely indicates the tune was played by him and learned from him and is used for want of a better name.
Junior Crehan’s favourite is actually a tune called the Knotted Cord, a traditional one. He did compose a heap of others like Farewell to Miltown Malbay, the Mist Covered Mountain [which was actually derived from a watltz of the same name, recorded by Jimmy Shand], the West Clare railroad, The Mowing M achine, The Hole in the Boat and a bunch more which I will not list now.
Breandan McGlinchey is supposed to have composed about 80, two of which I know as compositions by him, but I am likely to play more without knowing the composer, they go around. Tunes published by Sean Ryan [the tipp fiddler]like the Glen of Aherlow and the Castle jig, a lot of tuens by Paddy O brien [the tipp accordeon player, not the one Bloomfield was on about]like The New House, Hanly’s tweed, The Swallows Nest and many others go around with hardly anyone knowing who composed them. They’ve become trad tunes and there is little worry about copyrights. Breandan Breathnach has included several compositions by Junior Crehan and Paddy Fahey in his collections, probably without realising it. That’s the way.
as a PS, [forgot that one initially] Dowd’s Favourite was first recorded by Michael Coleman. Coleman often named sets of tunes after people he knew or learned from. The Dowd in question here is likely to be John O Dowd of Knocknaskeagh, Co Sligo of whom Coleman said ‘nobody could play the fiddler better than John ODowd’. The man was born around 1860.
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-03-18 08:22 ]
This is a question I’ve run up against myself, and, as Peter says, there isn’t an easy answer. As a reenactor, it’s important to know when a tune first appeared so that you only play music which might actually have been heard in the period you are portraying. Sometimes it is possible to find references to tune collections that have this kind of information. One such I have used is Ceolas’ Fiddler’s Companion:
. . .Junior Crehan’s favourite is a tune called the Knotted Cord, an actual traditional one. He did compose a heap of others like Farewell to Miltown Malbay. . .
Thanks for the answer, Peter. I’ve been meaning to ask – is Miltown Malbay the same as Miltown (or possibly a suburb)? I was out that way a couple of years ago, trying to hit some of the places celebrated in song and tune, but missed the turnoff for Miltown. The West Coast of Clare was still incredible!
Miltown Malbay is Miltown Malbay, though sometimes we take Miltown for short.
Lots of places here from tune names. I took Teri K this week to look at ‘The Mist Covered Mountain’ from ‘The Hills of Coore’, just around the corner from ‘The last house in Ballymakea’ where Junior Crehan composed all these tunes.
It was a glorious day by the way and no mist in sight.
No Jens, from where we were the Cliffs of Moher blocked the view to that one. And The Twelve Pins were covered in a haze across Galway Bay. Inisheer was there though, in decent view. And we did cross The Stream of the Cats (Struthain a Chait) just before we got to the Crosses of Annagh. That was on our Return to Miltown, where I dropped her off before I returned to my Cottage in the Glen (alternatively, a different one: The Glenside Cottage may apply here).
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-03-18 09:50 ]
