Nice set of tunes Farewell to Whiskey and The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue, but has anyone got a name for the last one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YIrzeY9iwo.
I’ve played it out and tried the ABC search thingie but still no luck with a name.
It’s a quickstep…ragtime… I know the tune to hear it and play it but no name has come as yet… I’ll keep trying… 😏
Two-step…
Could it be on one of the Matt Cunningham CDs? - the later ones in particular?
You mean the ones without names? 😉 I’ve been working through some, as you know, but this doesn’t come to mind. I think it is an American tune. I’ve transcribed it in two different keys and tried doing a search with several bars but to no success as yet… I could swear I do have it on some recording, and maybe even the dots or other ABCs somewhere for it. I keep coming back here hoping someone will find it first…
Thanks for the replies folks. Its nice to know that its not just my general ineptitude at ABC that’s the problem ceolachan !
Hi floss, It may take awhile for me to pin this one down if I can. That was a nice relaxed session, but a weird set, meaning that I don’t quite see why that third tune. I dont think it really fits in that well with the other two, for several reasons, the rag nature being one of them, but it’s a fun tune… My next step is to do it from memory, later, rather than as transcribed from this session, and see if I come up with other bars to use for a search. While I’m short on resources, I do have a couple of things I can check. Curiosity may not do me in completely, but it does tend to drive me on… 😎
Is it I’m Leaving Tipperary (Goodbye Mick, Goodbye Pat) ?
I don’t know Taglione. Is it on a recording somewhere?
It’s "Fred Finn’s Polka." It’s on Niall Valley’s "Beyond Words" recording.
That’s "Vallely", of course.
Yes, that’s the tune on track 12 which it seems he’s called "Fred Finn’s". Curious that. I’d like to know more. I’m still convinced it’s an old rag-type melody, or else it has taken a large part of the melody from elsewhere, over the other side of the Atlantic bog…
Here’s a place where you can click and here a small bit of it:
http://www.tradtunes.com/album_details.php?album_id=2885
& here on site:
Recording: "Niall Vallely: Beyond Words" (concertina)
https://thesession.org/recordings/791
& the man himself:
http://www.irishfiddle.com/finn.html
Does anyone know where Vallely got the name "Fred Finn’s" for it? I talked to Peter Horan about the tune last summer, and I don’t think Peter had a name for it at all — seems odd he wouldn’t have mentioned it if he called it after his old duet partner.
I wish I could hear Fred & Peter’s take on this. Did they ever record it commercially?
As I’ve said, it is very familiar, in my past, but not exactly in an Irish sense… If anything Irish it rings more like something from the dance halls of the 20s or 30s…
Also, if the youtube recording above is AB, Peter plays it AAB. (As does Niall Vallely — er, wait, he just played it AABA’ B’ or something like that. Ick. Also Niall plays around the notes so much that he’s playing nearly twice as many notes as Peter does.)
North Cregg also has this tune and there’s a sample at this site.
http://www.tradtunes.com/album_details.php?album_id=2599
Alan Ng’s irishtune.info and The Fiddler’s Companion also have it as "Killavil Postman" barndance. There’s a 4/4 abc setting here that also can be found at the Fiddler’s Companion site.
https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9609&L=IRTRAD-L&D=0&P=162
Yes ~ exactly… I prefer more melody and less of the twiddling, or in other words, more of the focus on the dance in the tune than the acrobatics of the musician, however impressive… Has Peter recorded it?
The ‘longer’ tune, as you’ve describe it, also makes it sound more along my instinct for it, as something akin to a two-step…
This recent discussion deals with those issues hinted at earlier. I prefer the session’s take on it to Nial’s actually, short or not, but not necessarily in that set…
Discussion: The Power…or The Glory
# Posted on June 4th 2007 by Key Maniac Lad
https://thesession.org/discussions/13997
Good ol’ Key….
Thanks people Fred Finns Polka it is (according to Niall anyway).
However its not the same as the tune linked to that track in the recordings section of this site. What should I do about that?
Ceolachan, I can’t say for certain if Peter has recorded it or not — last I heard it was slated to be on his next album with Gerry Harrington. Rumor has it the album is recorded and to be released this summer, but I haven’t seen a track listing yet, so I don’t know if it "made the cut."
Yeah, the "Killavil Postman" on FC is definitely the same tune, but wow, that’s a bad transcription.
Including another tune also called "Killavil"… 😏
Laitch ~ I’m just back, yes, no wonder I was losing it. I know that name for it, and yes, I think it works better transcribed as 4/4 instead of 2/4, again, more of a two-step or barndance rather than as a polka… And the ‘ballroom’ association too… I still suspect there’s another name for it floating around somewhere… But you’re right Sol, that’s not a very good transcription. Please let me know, let us all know, when the recording is released… Whether or not this gets on it will definitely be worth a listen…good news…
I’m now wondering if there are X-files on this site, ones that go missing. Why? Well, I remember working on this tune, chasing up recordings, trying to find it in old mouldy tomes, seeking another name and an origin, other than the poor postman. Someone had inquired and I’d done transcriptions. Usually that leads to me putting it on site here, and in at least a couple of flavours, such as the two keys and the two time signatures… But I can’t find it anywhere here. It may have gone into the twilight zone when my hard drive fried. This was last year or earlier. No wonder it was so familiar and driving me back here regularly.
Anyway, I’ll see what I can find and if no one else does I’ll add a transcription here ~ again? My mind does play tricks on me though, but I do know I did transcriptions for someone… 😏
Key signature: D & G Major
Submitted on June 6th 2007 by ceolachan.
https://thesession.org/tunes/7317
More will follow in the comments, hopefully…
A good illustration of how a problem can be swiftly solved by collaborative discussion on this forum.
Absolutely lazyhound ! Thanks again folks.
