This is a tune I learned in Drumshanbo… if anyone could help me identify its name. The flutist called it geese in the bog, but it’s certainly not geese in the bog I know of.
it’s in Em:
"Em"Bee ged|Bee GBc|Bee ged|eAA ABc|Bee ged|Bee G2B|BAB GED|EAA ABc|
"Em"Bee ged|Bee GBc|Bee ged|eAA ABc|Bee ged|Bee G2B|BAB GED|EAA ABc|
"G"deg g3|eaa ged|deg ged|eAA ABc|deg g3|eaa ged|BAB GED|EAA ABc|
"G"deg g3|eaa ged|deg ged|eAA ABc|deg g3|eaa ged|BAB GED|EAA ABc|
Thanks !
Philip
Sounds like a quite unique version of geese in the bog to me. I know a few other versions as well that sound more common, but there are similarities. It’s a lovely setting by the way.
it could be an out of the blue version, but it really sounds like another jig to me. Esspecially with those scale changes in the B part.
Hi there Trip-
Ah Drumshanbo. Only this summer, and it seems like a lifetime away for me.
Meanwhile … That’s definitely Geese in the Bog. But are you sure you’ve got it right? It’s close, but there are quite a few places where the usual ‘C’ is replaced with a ‘B’. And yet it still feels to me like it’s in Am/C, the way it is usually. After all, the rest of the notes, especially in the B part, look pretty much like the normal ones to me.
Who was the flutist?
Hi Ben!
The Am/C G.i.t.Bog would start with a C and then end at Am for the last bar, same for the B part mostly.
The flutist was Finbar McGreevy…
Finbar! Now that is odd. I’ve played Geese in the Bog with Finbar and, when he played it with me, he played it perfectly normally. Strange …
You didn’t record him playing it, did you?
sure I did otherwise I’m not sure I’d remember the tune so well !
Any chance of sending me it? I’d love to hear Finbar playing this version. I’ll PM you my e-mail address.
Here’s my theory, Trip. I assume that there was a backup player (guitar or zouk) on your recording, and those chords are affecting your interpretation of the tune as Em.
As Ben said, there are really only 2 notes different between this setting and the “standard” setting: 1. B instead of c in the A and B part, and 2. d instead of c in the B part. Change those back and you have the standard setting again. Or play CMaj/Am chord patterns over the tune instead of Em/GMaj, and it sounds “normal” again, with a few altered notes.
In other words, it’s not that strange or different at all, just a slight variant, unless you allow the chording to interfere with your perception.
So I have to ask: Who was the backup player? Someone familiar with Finbar’s setting and deliberately altering the harmony? Or a random session player who might have been playing the wrong chords? That sort of thing can happen at sessions where the players don’t know each other.
Honestly, I’d have to hear the recording to speculate any further …
There was no backup player in the recording…
Finbar was playing it by himself, and quiet frankly, that B instead of a c - maybe seems like just one note, but that note is making all the difference… B e B e and d g d g in this melody setting is an obvious Em and Gmaj progression. You cannot play a Cmaj chord and expect it to fit in the B e B e setting… same as you wouldn’t play Am or any other minor chord to fit the d g d g setting.
That’s how I hear it, maybe you can offer alternative chords for this jig… ?
did you try with tunepal?
Tunepal would get it, all right, Othannen. It’s called “Geese in the Bog”.