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Irish Fiddle Tunes: 62 Traditional Pieces for Violin - book & CD - 1 of 2

By Matt Cranitch


  1. The Miller Of Glanmire
  2. The Butcher’s March
  3. The Humors Of Glendart
  4. The Girls Of Banbridge
  5. The Munster
  6. The Humours Of Drinagh
  7. Katie’s Fancy
  8. The Leitrim Fancy
  9. Michael Burke’s
  10. Pádraig’s Lark In The Morning
  11. Tom O’Connor’s
  12. The Ceannguilla
  13. The Gleanntán Frolics
  14. Paddy Cronin’s
  15. Con Carthy’s
  16. Pádraig O’Keeffe’s Favourite
  17. Nelly Mahony’s
  18. Art O’Keeffe’s
  19. The Star Above The Garter
  20. Taidhgín An Asail’s
  21. The Swaggering
  22. Dever The Dancer
  23. Johnny O’Leary’s #1
  24. Johnny O’Leary’s #2
  25. John Brosnan’s
  26. The Rambling Sailor
  27. The Gullane
  28. Mrs. Crowley’s
  29. The Glen Cottage Polka #1
  30. The Glen Cottage Polka #2
  31. The Annaghbeg
  32. Pete Bradley’s
  33. The Gleanntán

Five comments

Irish Fiddle Tunes: 62 Traditional Pieces for Violin - book & CD - 1 of 2

~ 62 traditional tunes - including guitar chords for accompaniment. - Matt Cranitch provides notes on all of the types of pieces, as well as playing tips, technical advice, and Tune-set suggestions. - accompanied by a CD with a recording of all tunes performed by Matt. (English/French/German)

Schott Music Ltd., London, ED 13361
http://www.schott-music.com/
ISMN: 979-0-2201-3223-0
ISBN: 978-1-84761-241-0
52 pages / CD: total duration 60:41

Irish Fiddle Tunes: 62 Traditional Pieces for Violin - book & CD - 2 of 2

https://thesession.org/recordings/4555

Book & CD - Contents:

- - - webpage 1 of 2 - - -

Jigs X 11: 1 - 11

Slides X 9: 12 - 20

Slip Jigs X 2: 21 & 22

Polkas X 11: 23 - 33

- - - webpage 2 of 2 - - -

Reels X 16: 34 - 49

Hornpipes X 6: 50 - 55

Set Dances X 2: 56 & 57

Airs X 5: 58 - 62

Tune-Sets X 4 X 2 tunes: 63 - 66

Eb ~ a half step sharp! 😏

Just fiddle, and that’s a plus, and played cleanly and at a nice relaxed tempo, but, on the whole, just once through the tune. It would have been better twice through, or, as has been done by others, a couple of bars back into the A-part of the melody. In other words, for a two parter ~ AABB - A, if just a bar or two more. The limitations of the media, WAVs on CD, is understood, but that little bit more might not have caused a problem, though two or three times through that many tunes would.

The main quirk about this recording is the pitch, and dear Matt would likely be innocent, though he should have kept some supervisory connection with the project, to catch this screw-up. It’s a half step sharp, or at least the CD that came with the book I’ve got is. Tunes in D are in Eb, G are in G#, A are in Bb. This is likely the same kind of dumb thing that has been done to other commercial recordings and likely by some button pushing numb skull behind a desk making a rash decision to speed it up or compress things to fit better into the media of a CD, or because they thought it needed that little more push? Similar things have also been done with media of old, 78s. It is also possible the fault happened in the bulk burn?

Re: Irish Fiddle Tunes: 62 Traditional Pieces for Violin - book & CD - 1 of 2

I have not experienced this difficulty with the CD

To be fair to the button jockeys, it has been a loooong practice to up the tempo, which raises the pitch, in order to put more on a limited media. It was common with 78s and has carried forward to the present, including, also understandably, LPs and cassettes. Differences also aren’t unusual, whether that’s due to where the pressings are made, or when, or possibly some differences in current and cycles between different countries? I did quite a bit or testing and comparing, using equipment, instruments, and software I trust…