As many of you know, the tune “Páidín O Raifearta” comes in various flavors. There is the widely known and played version in the key of D. There is also the version in G that was popularized by Willie Clancy. Mick O’Brian also has performed this G version.
Congregation…please turn to pages 64 and 65 of your hymnals: “The Dance Music of Willie Clancy” now…
What I am curious about is the structure of this G version. If you are using the D version as a reference, then this G version is contructed: B,A,(a new or variant part), and then C. It would make more sense to play the B part first.
Any idea why this G version is contructed and played this way?
Would it be taboo to play that B part first? 'cos I really, really want to.
There is also a third distinct (two-part) tune by this name, recorded by Tim Collins (Dancing on Silver), Charlie Piggott and Gerry Harrington (The New Road), and the Mulcahy Family (Notes from the Heart), among others. I vaguely remember someone mentioning that there is a fourth tune as well.
I don’t think it matters where you start that G version; there’s a pretty rich tradition of people starting tunes with the B part, whether by mistake or intention.
Have a listen to Páidín Ó Raifeartaigh as sung by Peadar Ó Ceannabháin for the setting in G (see www.grafxsource.com/MCS/Sampla_3.html for details). Without checking, I think this is the setting that Mick O’Brien recorded.
Yep. But he sings Páidín Ó Raifeartaigh at the end of the set. Not on the sample, though. You’ll have to get the album, or find someone to sing it for you.
I’ve heard the Mulcahy Family version of this tune, and liked it very much. There seems to be four parts at first glance, but the forth seems a variation of the first. I can’t see any reason why you couldn’t start with the second part of this version, heck, players have been re-ordering parts of tunes for eons.
In the same book “Dance Music of Willie Clancy”, Pat Mitchell notated two versions of the “Dublin Reel”, ( turn now to pages 58 and 59, and please stand …)
one in D and one in the unlikely key of C, which Clancy worked out nicely without resorting to the use of F natural. Lends a nifty darker tone color to this tune on the chanter.
Here’s an odd thought. Perhaps the C and G versions of these tunes were handed down from his concertina playing parents?? Many D tunes are easier in C on concertina, and if you have a C/G instrument in would oblige one to play D tune this way. Hmmm.
I don’t know – the C version of the Dublin Reel sounds to me more like something Clancy would have come up with himself by experimentation, and it feels like it was made for the pipes…have a listen to him playing it:
Ceadach, do you still have that Clancy tape I made for you over a decade ago? Loads of great music on that if I recall, equally as drool producing as the above version of the Dublin Reel posted above.
Ceadach, do you still have that Clancy tape I made for you over a decade ago? Loads of great music on that if I recall, equally as drool producing as the above version of the Dublin Reel posted above
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Oh yes and many blessings upon you for it. Stunning stuff. That tape has kept me piping thru divorce, injury, etc. It is held with great veneration in the household! I even made a backup copy should it meet a bad end. I do think you are right, Willie is playing flat chanter on that tape ( I think about a B ??) but tonight I’ll take it out and check.
P.
It is held with great veneration in the household! I even made a backup copy should it meet a bad end. I do think you are right, Willie is playing flat chanter on that tape ( I think about a B ??) but tonight I’ll take it out and check.