Tarmon’s polka

I learned this jolly little polka from the last set (Wallace’s Cross/Tarmon’s/Pat Enright’s) on Martin Mulvihill’s 1978 recording with Mick Moloney “Traditional Irish Fiddling From County Limerick”. I’ve posted the bare bones to give a quick sense of the tune, as you might play for dancers, but here’s a slightly more complex rendering, closer to Mulvihill’s playing, with some of the ornaments. I like the way he pushes into the downbeat across the bar lines with a leading note, and often a different leading note -- he comes at the downbeat from many different directions.


X:1
T:Tarmon’s Polka
M:4/4
R:Polka
S: Martin Mulvihill “Traditional Irish Music from Limerick”
K: G
E |: D2 G2 G2 B2 | ABAG E2 D2 | G2 G2 A2 GA | B2 A2 A3 B |
D2 G2 G2 B2 | ABAG E2 D2 | G4 A2 GA |1 B2 G2 G3 E :|2 B2 G2 G3 A |
|: B2 d2 {cd}c2 B2 | A2 G2 E2 D2 | G2 G2 A2 GA | B2 A2 A3 G |
B2 d2 c2 {Bc}B2 | A2 G2 E2 D2 | G4 A2 GA |1 B2 G2 G3 A :|2 B2 G2 G4 |

Here are links to the tune on Andrew Kuntz’s Fiddler Companion:

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/TA.htm#TARMON%27S_POLKA
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/BOY_BOZ.htm#BOYS_OF_THE_TOWN_[3]

Might try halfing the note values to E/ |: DG DB | A/B/A/G/ ED | for a little cleaner presentation. Instead, could change the default from L: 1/8 to L: 1/16, but the former looks better. Also, meter is usually M: 2/4 for polkas. You can edit the ABC yourself, but can’t change the sheet w/o Jeremy once it goes up!

Great tune and sounds like a great set (don’t have the recording). The other two in the set are already here and can be found here:

Wallace’s Cross (The Tournmore)
https://thesession.org/tunes/1515
March 14, 2003 by Northcregg

and here:

Pat Enright’s
https://thesession.org/tunes/3144
June 11, 2004 by errik