The Ace And Deuce Of Pipering reel

I’m not sure why this tune has such a prominence with me but I have been attached to it since I heard the Chieftans recording for the first time. It woke up since I saw the blackbird posted the other day. Immediately I conjured a timeworn image out of Oneil’s that contained 2 pages with Ace and Deuce, Blackbird and Garden of Daisies.

I found a simplified version of this tune because I no longer can tell the difference between the necessary articulations and the basic root of the piece. Credit goes to http://www.irishtunes.net/ for the simplified version. It sounds good.

As far as how to play this piece - I’d would recommend that you listen to the Cheiftan’s version. In all honesty all I can remember is that this Tune is articulated to the teeth. Perhaps it would benefit by some simplicity.

Mark

Great tune. I’ve heard the Chieftains version and like it. Especially towards the end of the recording. Thanks for posting this.

There is also a great version of this tune on "Milestone at the Garden" Frank O’Higgins pairs it with King of the Fairies.

This is a set dance and not a reel, and so are "The Blackbird", and "The Garden of Daisies". Characteristically, set dances have a longer B part. Notice that the B part is half again as long as the A part (12 bars to 8). It should be played at hornpipe tempo.

Many pipers have recorded this tune over the years and it is considered a test piece for pipers.

finally someone said it, i used to dance "ace and deuce" and it deffinately was done in hornpipe timing

Great tune. I especially love the beginning of the second part with that gorgeus f natural.
Thanks for posting this tune!

I love this tune, i used to dance this in competitions. As Champ_irish_dancer mentions its played in hornpipe timing for competitions. As it goes dancers first perform a soft shoe dance, reel for boys and either slip jig or reel for girls. Then you perform a hard shoe dance, either heavy jig or hornpipe. They then normally call back some of the dancer to perform a set dance of there choice, if they danced a heavy jig in the first part then they would dance a hornpipe set like Ace of Deuce and visa versa. Hope that makes sense.

I first heard this tune on Noel Hill and Tony MacMahon’s "I gCnoc na Graí" recording. Noel plays it solo on the concertina. It’s unbelievably beautiful on that instrument.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq3m_R3Lnu4

play video

(second tune)

Added a little Paddy Keenan to the second bit….

X:3 from Seamus Ennis; his father apparently took an A Major setting from O’Neill’s Music of Ireland and turned it into a piece for the pipes by dispensing with two of the sharps. This A Major version wasn’t carried over into O’Neill’s Dance Music, an example of a worthy tune in the earlier publication which may be of interest.

This was also the title of an EP of Seamus from the mid 60s, and I notice there are about 6 copies on eBay, if you have $50-70 handy and want a real collectable. In fact IIRC it was on the "Jazz Collector" label, make of that what you will. Seamus, Jazzy? Cat…like, man. Seamus also played both this setting and the one more usually heard on a 1940 acetate, which may heard on the Return From Fingal CD.

He played all triplets staccato, or "tight" as we say in Piper Land, excepting the (3cBA. Some of the rests are designed to let the piper increase pressure on the bag so as to make the jump into the 2nd octave for the succeeding note, which will likely be puzzling for players of other instruments.

Thanks to Kevin Reitmann for this transcription. It’s a tough tune to learn since the three parts start and end the same way, the first and third parts are 12 measures each and the second part has thirteen measures. Liam O’Flynn played this setting in Bantry House, Cork in 2004 I think, as I heard on an Irish radio program on line. It’s an exercise for one’s memory and concentration.