For no good reason, I’m posting this transcription from the playing of Liam O’Flynn at a concert given in NYC in Oct 1971. It is meant to be played in ABCMus (yeah, yeah Alan, I know what you’re thinking) using the Concertina midi voice and NO rhythm setting. A sheet music version can be generated by pasting this into the Tune-O-Tron on www.concertina.net.
It is not quite note-for-note, due to certain transcription issues, but it is close. And even the computer does a nice job of capturing Liam’s lively playing.
X:1
T:Old Joe’s
S:Liam O’Flynn Wash.Sq Methodist Church,NYC Oct 1971
N:Also variations from Univ of Penn, 1972
N: Accent the e in bar 4 (and repeats of this phrase) with a brief pop
N:Fnat grace on bar 5 is a slide (whelp actually)
N:For the slide to dotted crotchet F in bar 29 approach from a hard e,
N: pinky down, off the leg, slide up to f, and put the chanter down,
N: as well as the two bottom fingers
N:For best results in ABCMus, leave Rhythm blank, use concertina MIDI
Z:Eric Smith 10/3/2004
M:6/8
L:1/8
Q:3/8=120
K:Dmaj
|:{a}fAA {B}AFA | {c}BAF A{B}A{G}A | ((3Bcd)B {c}AFA |{c}Bcd {a}ede |
{=f}fAA {B}AFA | {c}BAF A{B}A{G}A |1 ((3Bcd)B {c}AFA | Bdc d2 e :|2 B{c}B{A}B {c}AFA | {c}Bdc d2 e ||
|: f{a}f{e}f efe | dBA {_e}d2e | {afe}f2a {b}afe |fa{g}a ((3bc’b) a |
|1((3.f.g.a)f efe | dBA {_e}d2e | fAA {B}AFA | {c}Bdc d3
|2 f{a}f{e}f efe | dBA {_e}d2e | fAA {B}AFA | {c}Bdc d2 e ||
{a}fAA {B}AFA | {c}BAF A{B}A{G}A | B{c}B{A}B {c}AFA |{c}Bcd {a}ede |
{=f}fAA {B}AFA | {d}BAF A{B}A{G}A | ((3Bcd)B {c}AFA | {c}Bdc d2 g |
{a}fAA {B}AFA | {c}BAF A{B}A{G}A | B{c}B{A}B A{B}A{G}A |{cBA}B2d {a}ede |
{=f}f3 A{B}A{G}A | {c}BAF A{B}A{G}A | B{c}B{A}B {c}AFA | {c}Bdc d2 e |
|: f{a}f{e}f efe | dBA {_e}d2e | {afe}f2a {b}afe |fa{g}a ((3bc’b) a |
|1((3.f.g.a)f efe | dBA d2e | fAA {B}AFA | {c}Bdc d3
|2 f{a}f{e}f efe | dBA {_e}d2e | fAA {B}AFA | {c}Bdc d3 ||
Doh. I just looked down at my print-out of this jig and noticed I made a few, ahem, mistakes. So I corrected them and replaced the stuff above. Sorry for any confusion. If I find any more, I’ll point them out.
I don’t know the recording, but since you’re gone to the trouble to try and transcribe very explicitly (including explicit graces instead of roll indications, etc.), there are a few things in the transcription which while perhaps not impossible seem unlikely. For instance:
|:{a}fAA {B}AFA
Hmm, starting on a second octave A grace? Are you sure that wasn’t a {g} instead?
|{c}Bcd {a}ede |
In this bar the second octave {a} is more believable. Still unusual.
e | {afe}f2a {b}afe |
Zowie.
|1((3.f.g.a)f {a}efe |
Since this is a very literal transcription, I’d leave the stacatto mark off that second octave g; very unlikely that he really closed the chanter between g and a. Or is it the ‘a’ we should leave it off of? I forget what the consensus is on that, notation-wise, but strictly speaking it’s unlikely that both g and a are truly stacatto.
Bill - thanks for taking an interest. There are places in the transcription where I took liberties. However, none of the bits you point out are these.
Yes, the initial octave ‘f’ is cut with an ‘a’, and in all of the subsequent occurences where the pick-up note is a ‘g’ (not shown at the beginning of the transcription). The other fs are preceded by the ‘whelping’ slide from the ‘e’.
Regarding this bit: |{c}Bcd {a}ede |
the ‘e’ is actually popped while being graced; not in a Paddy O’rafferty way but in a Willie Clancy accent-the-beat way – ie very short pop.
And now e | {afe}f2a {b}afe |
I’m so glad this caught your attention. This is correct as written. This is one of the “tight” short rolls I’ve discussed ad infinitum elsewhere. And in this case, it is very tight, as Liam was wont to do in those days.
Finally, |1((3.f.g.a)f {a}efe |
This is a typical FGA triplet, so I’m not sure why you would find this amiss? Regarding the “staccatoness” of it, Harry (in the Technique) thread analyzed these correctly, so the staccato marks are in fact a short-hand for the various degrees of plosiveness. However, there isn’t anything unusual in this (although the ‘a’ cut on the ‘e’ is suspect).
Now execution of some of these things can be a problem depending on the fingering habits of an individual piper.
You can do that from a g pickup, but very very few chanters will do it from a cold start. That’s why I took issue with it at the start of the tune.
Regarding this bit: |{c}Bcd {a}ede |
the ‘e’ is actually popped while being graced; not in a Paddy O’rafferty way but in a Willie Clancy accent-the-beat way – ie very short pop.
Still not sure I believe it going straight from the back d.
And now e | {afe}f2a {b}afe |
I’m so glad this caught your attention. This is correct as written. This is one of the “tight” short rolls I’ve discussed ad infinitum elsewhere. And in this case, it is very tight, as Liam was wont to do in those days.
The usual meaning of “tight” includes chanter closures, which would not normally be possible around the a or b notes above. If by tight you are referring to the various rhythmic variations, your notation makes sense to me. Thanks for confirming that Liam does actually grace with the {a} in this ornament, that’s interesting.
Finally, |1((3.f.g.a)f {a}efe |
This is a typical FGA triplet, so I’m not sure why you would find this amiss?
My point is that the usual notation for a stacatto second octave FGA triplet is inaccurate, there are not chanter closures around all three of the notes in the triplet. This has been discussed by Pat Mitchell and others in the context of DMWC and also the Patsy Touhy recordings, where in numerous places he (Touhy) is tricking the ear into hearing three stacatto notes where there are actually not that many chanter closures.
in the case of the ‘f’ roll, “tight” is Denis Brooks’ word for it, as he distinguishes it from “open” and “old” versions.
And you are quite right about the staccato notation on the triplets, but this is the usual way of writing them. I would’ve long-handed them, as I did the rolls, but abc doesn’t have commas a la Mitchell and Small.
On the ‘a’ cut of the popped ‘e’, because of the popping, it’s impossible for me to be sure it’s a ‘a’, but it’s how Willie Clancy typically did it, so seemed reasonable to put that.
Regarding the amount of chanter closure, the best way to get the feel of this is to remove the reed from the chanter and pop air through the fingerholes. If you don’t finger it cleanly, putting one finger down before the next one comes up, the air whooshes out, instead of popping out.
OK, makes sense (especially the last comment). I’d be interested to hear the recording.
I don’t think you’d actually need the Mitchell and Small comma in that triplet, BTW, because lack of chanter closure between g and a is what I’m on about. As I said in the beginning, the only reason I was being picky is because you were being painstaking to record the actual graces being used as opposed to the usual shorthand for ornaments.
Thank you for being picky and challenging the transcription. If I had any point at all to posting this (other than sharing a wonderful piping jig) it was to show that regarding piping, shorthand transcriptions can strip the rhthmic nuance out of the setting of a tune.
The amount of chanter closure between the g and a is pretty much the same as that between the f and g. Only one finger comes up at a time for each note, including the g.
This is not peculiar to this tune. Any FGA tight triplet is played with raising one finger separately in succession, just as it is with any of the other tight triplets (excepting E which gets two fingers).
Or if you meant “amount of chanter closure is pretty much the same”, yes there is variation in lengths of the notes but no two fingers are up at the same time. This is true even of the ‘comma’ version of staccatto.
I should be able to send you a clip. I’ll give it a go later on.
when I was listening to that clip, it occured to me that in the bit | fa{b}a(3bcb a | that he isn’t actually cutting the a with the {b}. Rather it sounds to me like he ‘taps’ with a lower note. This would be done on the ‘a’ by bouncing the ring finger down.
So I think | f a {g} a … is probably more accurate, and I think would be more in keeping with LO’F’s practice of putting the accent in the proper place.
I have edited the transcription above to reflect this change.
Changed the b cut on the a in the second part to a g pat.
Also, the “slide” on the dotted crotchet f sounds better if approached from a hard e, pinky down, off the leg, slide up to f, and put the chanter down, as well as the two bottom fingers. (I tried this after reading Peter’s post elsewhere).
The tight (not closed!!) roll on B is a bit interpretive, because in fact LOF hits a bad note here.
Actually some phrases are taken from another performance as well, at Univ of Penn in 1972, so this isn’t really just one setting.
Eric, have you tried pasting this into Tune-o-Tron yourself? If you did you would see that it does not like your abc code. It wants a repeat symbol at the end of your |2. xxx | sections. Everywhere that you cut with a natural grace, it goes off key for the rest of the bar. Please give it a whirl.
I just now copied from the above post and pasted into the ABC Convert-A-Matic, hit submit, and it spits out a proper sheet music version with no problems or griping. So I’m not sure what the trouble might be.
I then hit PDF_Sheet_Music and print it.
???
If you meant the MIDI play back, that’s crap and I don’t use it.
Now it does give an error message in ABCMus, but that doesn’t affect the playback at all.
Then by all means download ABCMus. It’s free and works great. Just be sure to turn off the ‘jig’ setting for rhythm and switch the Midi voice to concertina (or something else reasonable). I’ll think you’ll like the results. You’ll be able to slow down the tempo in the Playback window in ABCMus.
Thanks for taking the time to do the transcription and for sharing. I for one find them to be very useful when I am learning a tune and interesting references to style. Hope to see more.
James
