I recorded this during a ceili in Warwick recently. The MC said it was a tune from Brittany. I’m trying to find out the name.
The associated dance was very slow, it involved everyone standing in a circle facing in, linking small fingers. The step was: “step-pause-step” to the left, then a pause for two beats, with accompanying slow hand/arm movements. The MC came down, joined the circle, and released her left hand so it was a long line instead of a complete circle. She then began moving to the left slightly inside the ‘circle’ forming a spiral, which slowly got tighter. After once or twice around she turned around at the centre of the spiral and started drawing it back out on itself, so some people were facing each other while moving to their respective lefts.
Captivating tune, and intruguing dance. Here’s the link:
It’s an An Dro. Breton tunes, like Sliabh Luachra polkas, tend not to have names except maybe after the place they’re from. This is a pretty common one. Nice tune.
The recording is a little slower than the an-dro is usually played and danced, but that’s probably because they were teaching it.
The steps really should be: left-right-left, pause (with the right foot in the air), right. In Breton circle dances you always lead off with the left foot.
I’m one of the world’s worst dancers, but living with a woman from southern Brittany (where the an-dro is from), I’ve managed to learn how to do this one and a few other simple ones (plinn, gavotte, hanter-dro, and trikot). If you’re ever in Brittany be sure to go to a fest-noz, where these and other dances will be done into the wee hours of the morning…it’s very hypnotic.
If it’s the An Dro which Laurence Nugent recorded, then it’s been popular in the North of Ireland for more than 20 years. I heard Davy Maguire and some other Belfast musicians play it at the Lorient Festival in Brittany in 1983. I’m also have a feeling that Desi Wilkinson recorded it on one of “Cran’s” CDs. Not 100% sure about that, but he certainly did used to play it.
I met with a musician in TO, whose opinion of this is quite different. What he told me was that basically, older musicians were/are very jealous of their music. As such, they wouldn’t teach the tunes. And because they wouldn’t teach the tunes, they never got a chance to tell the names to those who learned 'em anyway. so it isn’t that they don’t have names, it’s just that the names they have, have been lost or forgotten.
Now, I could be remembering this quite wrong, so forgive me if that’s the case.
yes, desi recorded with cran on album lovers ghost. it is some kind of break in gaelic song staimpi on that album. great album and grat song too.
i also have chance to hear davy maguire few years back in italy to play this tune.
marin
I think I posted an ABC of this tune at the session.org under “the wren”. Great tune. We’ve played this blazing fast, but I’ve heard it played WAY slow recently, and I think I like at the slower pace- a lot more stately.
