Nearly all of the two part ITM dance tunes have a B part that is higher pitched than the A part. The length and structure of the tunes are set because they’re dance tunes, but I was wondering if anyone knows the history of why the B parts are nearly always higher pitched?
Thanks,
Bob
Something I’ve noticed myself - I think it’s just to avoid an anticlimax. Dropping from higher to lower seems somehow negative.
Not sure how this works with three part tunes.
I agree. I think it has something to do with making the dance rise in
energy as the tune presses on. Try to imagine yourself dancing to a
tune that does the opposite: “Cliffs of Moher” starts very high, and
gets lower in the B part. The tune feels like it’s winding down; (it’s
probably a good one to end a dance set on).
Another question is: when putting together sets for dancers, is it
common to raise the key between songs, to further heighten the
energy? e.g., do two tunes in D, then the last one in G?
Set dances (quadrilles) have a specific number of steps in each movement. They are not necessarily of the length of the standard tunes, so sometimes an A part gets repeated to fit. See the 6-cassette tapes from NPU called Music for the Sets and the two accompanying books (The Yellow Book and The Blue Book) for a better explanation and good examples.
For regular ceílí dancing, there is no cast in stone rules as to how many tunes would be put together, nor how many times each tune is played. In older times it was often the one tune played over and over. The two or three parts in the tune provided a bit of contrast, as well as complimented each other. When tune sets are put together now, they are usually chosen to provide the same bit of contrast to avoid a monotone, but should still compliment each other.
djm
Yeah, but the question is specifically about the raising of the octave
between A and B, and the possibility of raising the tonal center from
one song to the next. Have you noticed this raising the energy at
dances?
Some tunes are livelier than others. Some tunes have a livelier A part or B part. The excitement builds not just with the tunes chosen, but how they are played. When the musicians are really in sync with the dancers, they can build tension by holding a note a little bit longer, or push the dancers through a spin by slurring a note. I think it has more to do with how the tunes are played than what specific tune is chosen.
djm
Well, assuming that most of the time one part is higher than the other (see above for reasons why that might be so), perhaps one question is, is the high part usually second traditionally, or do we tend to decide parts must be second because they are high?
For instance, the earliest recording I’m aware of “Dunmore Lasses” starts (and ends, I think) on the high part, even though today people usually think of the low part as the A part of the tune. (It also plays the high part single and the low part double!) Other tunes, like 'Dick Gossip’s" and “The Convenience”, are played with the low part last by some people. I don’t know where these trends came from, but it seems plausible that things used to be more fluid, and today people just automatically assume the low part must be first because that’s what they’re used to…
Interesting point. When we repeat the tunes, it may get muddied for a
listener which is the A and which is the B part.
Although, some tunes are probably more pliable than others…
I can’t imagine playing Star of Munster starting on the B part.
It may be muddied for the performer, too.
I mean in a very practical sense: how do you tell (by listening) if Tom Morrison’s “Dunmore Lasses” is BAABAABAAB or ABBABBABBA? You could think of it as once through the B part as an introduction to tune, or you could think of it as ending on the A part.
To use a non-Irish but trad example, I think of Rufus Guinchard as playing “Payne’s Choice” BBAABBAABB and “Up the Southern Shore” AABBAABBAA. Both end on the same part they started on. The only reason I think of the parts that way is I learned both those tunes from Kelly Russell’s notation, and those As and the Bs correspond to how he wrote down the tunes. (Actually, in the case of “Payne’s Choice”, Kelly didn’t break it up into parts in any obvious way, and it’s a crooked tune, and I never understood its structure until I heard Rufus play it. Rufus starts halfway through what Kelly wrote down.)
Who knows how Rufus understood the tunes, what he thought of as A and B, or even if he thought of them that way at all?
Incidentally, on “Payne’s Choice”, Kelly’s notation starts with the high part. That means that Rufus played it low part first, then high part and ended on the low part…
PS I glanced at a few pages out of O’Neill’s, and it looked like one or two tunes out of every two page spread started with the high part, and perhaps another one or two didn’t have a part which was clearly the “high” part.
It’s convention.
Yup. Probably Shriners. 
djm