Cooley’s hornpipe

The proper name of this tune is “Cooley’s Hornpipe”, but I have decide to call it “Cooley’s #1” for the purposes of The Session to avoid confusion with another tune called “Cooley’s”, which is a reel and in a different modal key.
This version of Cooley’s Hornpipe is an old one by Sean Ryan. His ornamentation brings out the tune and makes it fly!

I’ve changed the name back to “Cooley’s”.

In the tune submission process, you are asked *specifically* not to add numbers to the end of tune names.

Composed by Tipperary box-player Paddy O’Brien, (sometimes played in A).

Apologies to start, as while I’ve looked for it I haven’t been able to find my scrawl with regards to Paddy and his compositions. But, to get things moving forward, and with the hopes that someone else can fill in the blanks - with a name and a transcription, I’ll go ahead with the context.

Paddy O’Brien did not write this tune for Joe Cooley, and it wasn’t called “Cooley’s” or “Joe Cooley’s”, that happened after the fact. Joe took an immediate liking to it and it was through his playing of the tune, and his particular take on it, that the tune became popular. Paddy didn’t play it the same as Joe, who took it a little ways outside of its origins, geographically and melody wise. Paddy liked what Joe did with it, and was chuffed that Joe took such a liking to it, but Paddy kept his way with it. However, with everyone else calling it either “Cooley’s” or “Joe Coolie’s” Paddy let that slide into what is now accepted by most as its name.

I know I’m not the only one who has this knowledge, as it was generally known around Paddy’s mates and Nenagh, and pubs around Lough Derg, up and down river from there. I have some half baked notion that the original title was ‘local’, geographic? Anyway, when and if I find those notes I will return… But I’m hoping someone else may have a better memory of this and can give Paddy’s original take on a name for this tune, as well as a transcription of how he played it…

Here’s the way it’s published under the title, “Cooley’s Hornpipe” on page 21 of Paddy O’Brien’s book of compositions. It’s a bit different and doesn’t include the dotted rhythm that the midi file has.

X:1
T:Cooley’s
c:Paddy O’Brien
S:The compositions of Paddy O’Brien
Z:Jack Gilder
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:hornpipe
K:Gmaj
(3def|gG G2 EGDC|B,G, B,D GB dg|e2 ce d2 Bd|(3cBA BGA2 (3def|
gG G2 EGDC|B,G, B,D GB dg|ecAG FAdc|B2 GF G2:|
|:GA|BGBd edBd|g2 bg egdB|c2 ge dGBd|cBA^G A2 dc|
BGDC B,DG=F|E2CE DGBd|gfge dBcA|B2 GFG2:||

Yeah, I have the book too, which was created after the title stuck, and post Paddy too. Would that it weren’t, it would have been that much better to have had his stories along with the tunes, and his character and humour. I haven’t found that information about the original title yet, but my head is still saying the earliest title for it, and as I first learned it, was geographic…

2nd tune:

http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_251_4_two_hornpipes_from_fiddle_player_dylan_fole/

Equal time for fluters demands I post a link to fellow who’s version I have adopted:

http://toraigh.com/slowsessions/CooleysHornpipe.mp3

X:3 from a Paddy Killoran disc, I’d figure that was recorded late 50s but who knows. Here is the original recording: https://archive.org/details/PaddyKilloranJoeCooleysMartinFeenysFavorite I said 1950 there, then stated the recording date is unknown…I seem to recall someone saying that Paddy made the odd 45, even. Who knows. At any rate this setting is very different than what Sean Ryan recorded on his 50s LP. What ceolachan writes above about Cooley changing the melody is interesting, which setting was the original? Perhaps by the time the O‘Briain book came along P O’B had forgotten what he’d originally composed…

Just some alterations to the tune to arrive at a whistle/flute/pipes-friendly version, as well as a tweak here and there in the melody.

Slightly different than in the Paddy O’Brien tunebook, but I learned this version from Seamus Connolly many years ago, who did play with Paddy a lot. Any deviations are solely the responsibility of yours truly’s memory and the d****d folk process. But I distinctly remember the last 4 bar because of their uniqueness - so I would assume that it was a common variation for Paddy and Seamus to play.

Note that version 4 above likely has the wrong key signature. It should be just one sharp, not two.