The Planxty Songbook 1976.PDF redux

Whistle
1

Dear all,

I learned about this rare gem the other day at the China2Galway Planxty tribute website, so went hunting for more info and found this thread in the Post-Structural Pub dating back to 2009: http://forums.chiffandfipple.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=66760&start=0

I have already bothered the OP as well as a few others. I have been very courteously informed that the file in question was lost in hard drive crashes ages ago. I figured that rather than keep PM’ing people who undoubtedly have better things to do with their weekend than writing me, I’d just throw it out here and see if anyone still has it and would be willing to share. If so, I would then make it available to the Forum; if our mods don’t want that splashed over the site, I’d accept individual requests by email.

My feeling is that, even though copyright in the USA lasts into perpetuity, this publisher likely doesn’t even exist any more, and it was probably never published in the States anyway. You’d be doing an old Planxty fan a huge favor!

Thanks for any info, cheers -
Michael.

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The use of the book is limited, the notations of the tunes in it is, well, unusual. If you’re into that sort of thing, Andy Irvine’s ‘Aiming for the heart’ is nicer to have.

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Heh heh, unusual eh? Mr. Gumby, now I’m even more intrigued. Probably shouldn’t be though, because it sounds like you’re saying iffy transcription, which having heard countless ABC tunes and seen some of the stuff people put out on the web as their interpretation of a song, I know there’s a lot of laziness and/or borderline tone-deafness going on out there. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for the advice on “Aiming for the Heart”, still available on Amazon.

4

Ìt’s the reels, The Dogs among the Bushes in particular, that look they’ve been transcribed by someone thoroughly unfamiliar with Irish music. Hornpipes and polkas are dealt with a bit better. The slip jigs however appear in 6/8 and Cúnla is written in Dflat (with five flats, which means you can basically ignore that and read the notes as if written in D. Bur still).

Anyhow, I can’t help you with a PDF although I have the book (but no scanner).

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D flat? Is there a head-scratching emoticon? Oh, here we go: :confused:

Well, you’re a gentleman with a well-earned reputation for sharing what you can, so I thank you for that and for your informative replies!

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No, its not as confusing as that - The Kid on the Mountain is given in 3/8 !

The individual pages say copyright 1973 or 1974.

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Ah, nice emoticons. I’ll remember to use the second one on - heh - Celtic New Year as my Smithwick’s cap says.

I absolutely respect your choice in this David. Here’s a bit from the Wikipedia article on UK copyright:

The publisher’s (separate) copyright, in the typographical arrangement of a printed work, lasts for 25 years from the end of the year in which publication occurred. This protects a publisher’s copyright in all printed works: including books, magazines, newspapers, and other periodicals.

Author’s copyright is much longer of course.

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“Aiming for the Heart”, still available on Amazon.

I hadn’t realised they re-printed it. I have a German hardback edition from 1988.

No, its not as confusing as that - The Kid on the Mountain is given in 3/8 !

Ooops, you’re right. I missed that, I was lookign at the Wet Phis.

Mine is copyright 1976 by the way. I wouldn’t worry, they never saw anything from their recordings or publishing rights from that time anyway so you’re not hurting them.

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I know it, saw the documentary. Some understandable bitterness there.

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My scanner is in a drawer and doesn’t come out often. I have put the book in the drawer, but don’t hold your breath - it could be months.

Title page say “This album copyright 1976” so maybe sheets were available before that.

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That’s a very kind offer regardless of how long it might take David, thank you. There are at least 9 other people I haven’t heard from in that original thread that might have the PDF, so who knows, might show up yet. I guess judging from some of the things we’ve heard it might not be all that wonderful, but I’m sort of a Planxty fanatic so it isn’t so much for the quality of the transcriptions as just a cool thing to have. A bit of Planxty history if you like.

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They’re the dates of the recordings. Phil Coulter owned the rights to those. He sold them a while ago and didn’t feel obliged to offer them to the musicians.

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It probably stings that Planxty are so magnificent and himself such an utter sellout creator of disposable pablum.

No offense meant, mind. :laughing:

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I have the book in front of me now.

Each song is copyright either 1973 or 1974 by Mews Music LTD, Alembic House, 93 Albert Embankment, London SE1.

The notation of the songs seems ordinary to me, appearing in various keys, probably the keys they appear in on the recordings.

The instrumentals are often strange, as Gumby said.

The set of polkas is written in 4/4 rather than the usual 2/4, in the usual key.

The slip jig Kid On The Mountain is written in 3/8 rather than the usual 9/8, in the usual key.

Oddly An Phis Fhliuch, another slip jig, is written in 6/8! Every fourth bar, the beat falls at the start of a bar. The transcriber obviously is clueless about the meter.

Hewlett, Humours of Ballyloughlin, Fisherman’s Lilt, and Cronin’s Hornpipe are written in an ordinary way.

Jenny’s Wedding is written in 2/4 rather than the usual 4/4.

Dogs Among The Bushes is very strange! Not only in 2/4 rather than 4/4, the barlines are offset one eighth-note from where they should be.

Cunla, with the drones playing Db, and the chanter playing in five flats, was evidently thought of as being played on what uilleann pipers would call a C# set of pipes… but on the album it’s in D. I wonder if Liam O Flynn had a C# set that he used for that song at some point. (On the album the key does sound a tad high for the singer.)

My wife has a large collection of Irish songbooks published in the 1970s, many bought when she was there. Most were published in Ireland. A strange feature of these books is that their Tables of Contents/Indices are not alphabetized, but instead present the tunes in the same order they happen to appear in, in the book. This Planxty book, published by Commercial Colour Press, London E7, likewise has this feature, however the tunes appear in the book itself in (mostly) alphabetical order.

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evidently played on what uilleann pipers would call a C# set of pipes, what

It wasn’t. The transcriber was a ‘legit’ musician (why do you keep insisting on calling them that?) who hadn’t a clue (see also the first bar of the last part of Humours of Ballyloughlin that includes a low C and two bars on the E crann has the poor person so confused the tuen changes to 9/8 for two bars.)

17

Very strange. The original recording (Well Below the Valley) is clearly in D. Maybe the transcriber had a slow turntable. Or a slow ear. :astonished:

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Thanks Richard, it really sounds mostly like a curiosity than anything. A collectible curiosity though. :slight_smile:

I too heard Cunla on The Well Below the Valley as D as well; was just listening and accompanying on my bouzouki. Thought maybe it was pitched up when mastering or something, you never know…

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you never know.

Well, the tone of Flynn’s concert pitch pipes is very recognisable and that’s what he is playing on that track. A C# set would have sounded very very different, even when spun up to D.

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I am happy to accept the judgement of your ear, sir! :slight_smile: