The Gardener’s Daughter reel

I found this little pearl while digging through my latest tunebook find, "The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music" (Volume 1). It is but one of many fine collections that have been made available for free download (sorry, ABC-ers, PDF only) from the Na Piobairi Uilleann website. I’m posting this from my soon-to-be-antiquated mobile "not so smart" phone, so please excuse the ugliness of the ABC’s- I will correct them to 4 measures per line as soon as I can get to a real computer (if Jeremy doesn’t get to it first, that is!) Enjoy (to the best of your ability)!

This tune has been going through the hands of pipers, from Patsy Touhey to Micke Carney to Willie Clancy and on to the present day:

T:Gardiner’s Daughter
M:4/4
S:Willie Clancy
R:Reel
K:AMix
eAAD ~G2 (3Bcd|eA ~A2 (3gfe fd|eAAD ~G2 Bc|dBgB BA ~A2:||!
ea ~a2 bgag|eaaf (3gfe fd|ea ~a2 b2 af|~g2 dB BA ~A2|!
ea ~a2 bgag|eaaf ~g3 a|(bag af (3gfe fc|dBgB BA ~A2||
% Written by ABC2Win 2.2.124 BETA on 22-Jan-08


John McKenna and Tom Ennis recorded a tune ‘Gardiner’s Daughter’, the name of which was supposedly a nod to one of John Joe Gardiner’s sisters.

Thanks, Prof.- the melody wasn’t entirely alien to my ears, and now that you’ve given me a little history, it absolutely strikes me as a piping tune. Here’s my go at the setting from the Roche Collection:

X: 1
T: Gardener’s Daughter, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
Q:1/4=200
R: reel
K: Ador
gf|eAAB GABd|eAAf (f~g2) d|egdB GABc|dg ~g2 ag ~g2|
eAAB GABd|eAfA gAfd| e/f/g dB GABc|d/c/B gB A2||
Bd|eaag efge|d2 ef (f~g2) d| .e2 dB GABc| dg ~g2 afgf |
eaag efge | d2 ef ~g2 fd | eBdB GABc|.d2 gd BA A2||

it’s a little "kitchen sink-y" I know- I just wanted to illustrate some places one could go with the tune. That’s probably how the tune lasted this long, anyway…it’s pretty malleable!

Only one ‘recordings of a tune by that name’ so far: how surprising. Is it known by any other name?
It is not that uncommonly heard…

I think it’s because it usually goes by a different title - go here https://thesession.org/tunes/5195

I found the tunes in Breathnach CRE4.195 as I was going through the “Open The Door For THree” (self-titled album). From the book notes from Jack Wade, “this reel starts like “The Maid In the Cherry Tree” but do not judge it by the first two bars. It is a completely different reel”.