Hello
When Willie Clancy played ‘The West Wind’ he left the last part out until the final time that he played, i.e. AB AB ABC. I heard Micho Russell playing ‘Over the Moor to Maggie’ the same way.
Is there a particular reason for the way that they played those tunes? Nowadays these tunes are played in ordinary format ABC ABC ABC.
Anybody any ideas?
Regards
John Moran
There are always these things that leave you wondering. Bobby Casey always played a thrid part to ‘Old Hag you’ve Killed Me’ but only the last time around. I am not sure there’s a hard and fast reason for this sort of thing.
In Casey’s case I sometimes wondered it was because he was the only one I ever heard playing that part and he just threw it in last time around to let you hear it was there. there’s Clancy playing unusual third parts to the Falx in Bloom, the cameronian, on the tapes we have he might jsut have played them for someone as a demonstration, likewise Ennis playing thrid parts t oDrowsy maggie and other tunes on one tape I have.
Kitty Hayes sometimes plays a third part to’The Ship in Full Sail’ which I think is in O Neill’s, most people don’t play it (it’s not all that great an addition to the tune)and she only throws it in sometimes and only the last time around, I don’t think for any other reason than having it and wanting it out, get it out of the way.
Another explanation for leaving out a part first tiem around could be not liking it, leaving it out the first few times. Personally, I dislike the fourth part of the Gold Ring and never repeat it though I won’t leave it out altogether, like some people leave out the last part of Col Fraser, for a while I only played that second time around.
Just leaves you wondering why people have gone into playing the second and third part of The Trip to Durrow as one, ending up playing AA BC BC rather than AA BB CC. The third part of that tune by the way first apppeared in Ceol Rinnce vol 1 and I have heard Breandan Breathnach tell it was Tommie Reck wh ogave it to him as an alternative second part to the tune, Breandan decided to include it in Ceol R. as a third part and it took off from there.
I wonder if maybe it has to do with the way tunes nowadays are strung together, whereas in the past they often only played only one tune by itself. Adding the third part off and on would break the tune up a bit more in that case. Just a thought.
djm
Which Gold Ring, Peter?
You can always recycle the parts…An Buachaill Dreoite’s first part is pretty much just a riff, I liked the second part and play it with some of Clancy’s Gold Ring. Other parts of that I fit into Ennis’s version. Hours of fun. A bit more self-conscious than the old method of forgetting stuff I suppose.
I’ve a friend who played with Joe Cooley - your CD’s in the works, too, never fear… - Joe only played three parts of the Monaghan Jig - same as Ennis I notice - so he refuses to go near the fourth part. I played him Coleman’s old record of that. Four parts there. So is it trad or is it Memorex?
Nothing wrong with an extra part so long as it’s worth a darn. Who came up with that third part of the Boy in the Gap? That sucks! Much too sunshiney.
I tought you’d figure that 
, the garret barry one ofcourse.
i always played only three parts of the monaghan, was put on the spot on sunday though. Paddy Taylor did the Boy in the gap but Micho made it famous. Your tapes should be done by the end of the week and i did get the Cooley one fromm somewhere else. SUnshine? We had the left overs of hurricane Frances for the weekend.
Do any of you guys ever play the sixth part to Kid on the Mountain?
The only one I ever heard play it was Andy McGann, on a solo performance (with Felix Dolan) at Milwaukee Irish Fest about 3-4 years ago. Got everyone’s attention. He played it both (or all three) times, though. It’s in ONeill’s, BTW. There’s not much to it, but I like it 'cause it sorta rounds the tune out. Goes down even lower that the A part.