Paddy Fahey home tapes and new found compositions

I recently discovered that a friend has some recordings I had not known about previously. First, I’m happy to share these and more than happy to find more. Fahey’s music has been a kind of passion hobby for me for a number of years now. This new set of home recordings has Paddy Kelly on a couple and looks something like: Tr1 PF Hornpipe, Tr2 Morning Mist_Ewe Tr3 PF Reel No. 3….Tr19 Old As the Hills, Tr20 The New Custom House.

I think that one tune may be a PF composition I have never seen before because the song character reminds me of some of his other reels. There is a second tune that I believe (less strongly) may also be his. I transcribed both below and hope some of you will check them out and give your opinion. Unless we can identify them otherwise we will never know. I played both into the tunepal app in different keys. The second I found on the Microphone Rambles site and the transcriber named it Gan Ainm (Heather Breeze?) “from a Paddy Canny home recording of unknown origin.” I am far less confident this is a Fahey original.

I could not be sure of the actual keys for these because the pitch of the tape is all over. The first (X:12) I put in Bb because he has a couple reels in this key in which he uses E naturals. The reel is very unusual and you may think I’ve made mistakes. You are welcome to check this yourself. Some of the notes are tweener’s but I tried to use the more conventional note choice when it was not clear. The second (X:9) I put in G Maj based on the similar Paddy Canny transcription I found (included in the ABC text). The third bar has a C to F# that is very odd but PF seemed to really love that kind of melodic color. I took the liberty of taking out the staccato triplets the author (Paddy Canny) used because they throw of the timing of the midi playback.

X:12
T:Gan Ainm (Paddy Fahey?)
R:reel
Q:1/4=160
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:Bbmaj
P:Paddy Fahey version
GA |:Bdfd =ecAc | ~B2AB gf=ef | dBFD EGc=e | dc=Bc dccA |
ABfB dBdf | gf=ef ag=ef | dBFD EGcd | =ecAc B2 GA :|
|:B2cB ABFE | DB,DF BFDF | E2 E2 C=EGB | ecAc BFDF |
~B2 AB GAFE | DB,DF BFDF | ~E2CD EGcd |1 | ecAc B2GA :|2ecAc B3A |]
W:This has characteristics that resemble a Paddy Fahey tune.

X:9
T:Gan Ainm (Paddy Canny’s, The Heather Breeze)
R:reel
Q:1/4=180
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:Gmaj
P: Paddy Fahey version
DG~G2 dGBG | ~=F2 ~F2 cFAF | G2~G2 dGBG | =FGAd gdA^F |
DG ~G2dG~G2 | DEE=F cFAF | =FFDE FGAd | fdAF G2Bc ||
|: dggf gfga | (3_bag af gfdf | =cffe f2fg | afge d=cAc |
dggf gfga | (3_bag af gfde | =fefg a^fgf |1 d=cAF G2A=c :|2 d=cAF GcAF ||
T:Gan Ainm (The Heather Breeze)
R:Reel
S:Paddy Canny, Clare (fiddle)
Z:Bernie Stocks
N:As played
H:Slides on long G’s and F’s in part one, and long ’g3’s in part 2
D:Home tape of unknown provenance
M:4/4
K:C
P: Paddy Canny version from the Microphone Rambles
|: G2~G2 dGBG | F2~F2 cFDF | G2~G2 dGFG | (3FFG Ac fcAF |
G2~G2 dGBG | F2~F2 cFAG | {A}GF (3DDE FGAc |1 fcAF GFDF :|2 fcAF GA_Bc ||
|: dg{a}g^f g3a | (3bag {a}g^f dcAc | df{a}fe {a}fefg | (3ag^f gf dcAc |
dg{a}g^f g3a | ba (3gg^f gfde | ~f2af g^fdc |1 (3Bcd A^F GA_Bc :|2 (3Bcd A^F G=FDF ||
W: Microphone Rambles site has a very similar tune form a Paddy Canny home tape

Don’t mean to be rude, but is the ABC of the first part of the first one right?

Interesting indeed, but I’m afraid Green is right : quite a few corrections to be made, JWiseman. Thanks in advance.

I found a couple things to change but I’m guessing they’re not the one’s you’re thinking of. Can I see your corrected version or are you basing this on what your ears want to hear? If the latter than you really should have thought first before suggesting there was mistake without reference to the audio - especially if you had read my post carefully. This is why I hesitate to post things like this.

Have either of you listened to Fahey before. I don’t mean to be rude either but I am frustrated by the response. I would welcome the skepticism if it was followed by a request for the audio or, you had the audio, and then challenge the transcription but this…no, please try harder. And listen to Paddy Fahey recordings carefully to come to understand his unusual note choices and sense of pitch at the 3rd and 7th. He was amazing.

If anyone else is up to digging a little deeper on this I’d be grateful. I’ll share my corrected transcriptions depending on whether this goes anywhere from here - they were minor.

I’ve just played all the transcriptions using Abcjs Quick Editor (https://editor.drawthedots.com) and they sound absolutely fine to me.

Thanks for sharing the tunes.

I’d love to hear the recordings!

I should have said PM me your email for the audio. I’ll send the ABC for the notation as well. I haven’t done quite half of 20 files. The standards are interesting as well because, although he plays them more conservatively, he still throws in some colorful notes.

If they aren’t copyrighted or anything like that, then you could upload them to a file sharing website.
Probably quicker/easier for everyone involved, you included.

Aside from the obvious (Google Drive), here are a few others:
catbox.moe
gofile.io (uploads disappear after a while if not being used)

Free & easy to use, they generate a URL after uploaded.
No login required.

Thanks for those. Those sharps in the first part of the first tune may have led the previous contributors to query the ABC transcription. But Fahey was a fiddle composer and a very unique one at that, so *very* possibly yours is correct. That said, it wouldn’t be my favourite Fahey tune, just a bit too weird. THAT said, trying to imagine what it would sound like on a fiddle, it might just sound “other-worldly” rather than weird. Hard to know though. Anyway thanks again for your work.

The second tune is a Paddy Kelly tune. A version of this one:
https://thesession.org/tunes/8261

“The second tune is a Paddy Kelly tune. A version of this one” …Thank you for that. There was a lot of confusion on my end about this - kind if a long story.

Below is a link that I’ll leave up for a month or so with:
Hollohan’s dissertation tape
Sean Ryan and PF home recording (23 tracks)

Chris Delaney Field recording 1971 (10 tracks)

Home recording of PF and Paddy Kelly (20 tracks)

My transcriptions of the PF/PK tape - ABC and PDF (Incomplete 13 of 20) His famous jig is interesting because he plays part of it in major and the repeat in minor. I hear this played in one or the other.

A research sheet that has various artist PF recordings and tune reference numbers to thesession tune pages.

Hollohan’s Paddy Fahey transcription section PDF that I converted so the transcriptions read upright.

Artist recording PDF (from sheet) of PF compositions (as many as I could gather)

PDF Paddy Fahey book (from ‘Big Book’) - various transcriptions (including Hollohan’s) of artist recordings of PF tunes. This is contained within my own personal tune book that I call “Big Book”.

I don’t believe any of what I’ve done is restricted by copyright and I believe that sharing this freely can only help Fahey’s legacy. I give freely and only ask in return, if you are able, to share any other home recordings that you think are worthwhile. If you can then please PM me.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UVcIIcWrLS8LbLBjLH1fb3ysHXR5oSNN?usp=sharing

Thank you for this!