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The Irish Fiddle Book: The Art Of Traditional Fiddle Playing

By Matt Cranitch

  1. Notes Of The Open Strings: A, D, G, E
  2. The Connachtman’s Rambles
  3. The ‘Cut’
  4. The ‘Double Cut’
  5. The Connachtman’s Rambles
  6. The Hag’s Purse
  7. The ‘Roll’
  8. The Rambling Pitchfork
  9. The Rose In The Heather
  10. The High Part Of The Road
  11. Give Us A Drink Of Water
  12. Mick Duggan’s
  13. Denis Murphy’s
  14. The Brosna
  15. The Scartaglen
  16. The Top Of Maol
  17. Seán McGovern’s
  18. Dálaigh’s
  19. The Lakes Of Sligo
  20. The Top Of Maol
    The Scartaglen
  21. The Boys Of Bluehill
  22. Cronin’s
  23. The Kildare Fancy
  24. Rodney’s Glory
  25. Anything For John Joe?
  26. The Peeler’s Jacket
  27. Jackie Coleman’s
  28. The Humours Of Tulla
  29. The Woman Of The House
  30. The Humours Of Carrigaholt
  31. The Moving Bog
  32. The Man Of The House
  33. The Piper’s Despair
  34. The Old Pigeon On The Gate
  35. The Pretty Girls Of Mayo
    Rolling On The Ryegrass
  36. Sheebeg And Sheemore
  37. Carolan’s Draught
  38. Cáit Ní Duibhir
  39. Amhrán Na Leabhar
  40. An Goirtín Eornan
  41. Aisling Gheal
  42. Sliabh Na MBan
  43. The Wheels Of The World
  44. O’Callaghan’s
  45. Miss Langford
  46. The Red Haired Lass
  47. Caoineadh An Spailpín
  48. Denis Murphy’s
  49. The Dark Girl
  50. The Cliffs Of Moher
  51. Doctor Gilbert
  52. Lucy Campbell

Six comments

CD of almost 50 widely played tunes. CD was issued to accompany a Fiddle tutor book, and the tunes are played at an ‘easy’ pace - so it’s a useful CD to learn some tunes by ear.

by the way, the CD’s available separate from any books etc

Tracks 42/43 are called Scartaglen polka and Scartaglen slide on the CD. I’ve changed them so they link to the correct tunes.

"The Irish Fiddle Book: The Art of Traditional Fiddle-Playing" by Matt Cranitch - support recordings

"Take a Bow" OSS CD 5 & "Give it Shtick" OSS CD 6
1988 / 1992 Ossian Publications

https://thesession.org/recordings/423
&
https://thesession.org/recordings/714

Also -
"Ceolta Seisiún Na HÉireann / Irish Session Tunes: The Red Book" - the CD

https://thesession.org/recordings/4137

The Musicans:

Matt Cranitch – fiddle

Dave Hennessy – melodeon

Eoin Ó Riabhaigh – uilleann pipes

Bríd Cranitch – piano & harpsichord

Mick Daly – guitar

Tom Stephens – guitar (“Take a Bow” & "The Red Book")

Colm Murphy - bodhran

“The Irish Fiddle Book: The Art of Traditional Fiddle-Playing” by Matt Cranitch

Demonstration CD to accompany Matt’s "The Irish Fiddle Book"
2000 Ossian Publications, OSS CD 4 ~ 52 tracks

From the liner notes:

The track numbers on this CD have been arranged in conjunction with the edition of THE IRISH FIDDLE BOOK published in 2000. As a result, some of these numbers do not correspond to those used in the earlier editions of the book. However the inclusion of track titles should facilitate easy location of the required music examples.

In order to demonstrate the particular points being made in each case, the examples are generally played slower than normal. On tracks 7, 8, 25 and 26, they are played at two tempos, slowly first and then faster. On each of tracks 20 and 35, two tunes are played together to comprise a set of tunes as would usually be done by traditional musicians. Piano accompaniment is provided by Bríd Cranitch on tracks 36, 37, 42, 51 and 52. To hear less of the piano, the stereo balance control should be turned to the right.

“The Irish Fiddle Book: Demonstration Tape" by Matt Cranitch

The cassette ~ OSS-4 ~ has the same order of tunes as I’ve updated above, starting with:
1. ) Notes Of The Open Strings: A, D, G, E
2. ) The Connachtman’s Rambles
3. ) The ‘Cut’
4. ) The ‘Double Cut’
5. ) The Connachtman’s Rambles
6. ) The Hag’s Purse
7. ) The ‘Roll’
8. ) The Rambling Pitchfork
~ etc…

SIDE 1 - Examples 1-30 / SIDE 2 - Example 31-52

From the cassette: "The tunes on this tape are numbered as Example 1, Example 2, etc., with the (cassette) symbol:
[o[#]o] ~ containing the appropriate number [#], being used as an indication throughout the book."