Shandon Bells jig

This is a version of this old favorite from the New England Fiddler’s Repertoire. It is slightly less ornamented than the version in O’Neill’s “Music of Ireland”.
The O’Neill version, which doesn’t repeat the B part is:

B|A>FD DFA|d>ed cBA|B>GE EFA|B2A Bcd|
A>FD DFA|d>ed cBA|Bcd ecA|1 d3 dcB:|2 d3 d2|
g|f2(d d)ed|faa afd|c>AA e>AA|cBc efg|
f2(d d)ed|faa afd|Bcd ecA|d3 d2||

trevor

I love this tune for sentimental reasons… it’s also a great one to warm up with.

So I originally posted my comment about having sentimental fondness for ‘Shandon Bells’ under the tunes section, so now I suppose I’ll unfold my true story for the wee contest…. It actually involves my fiddle player more than myself, so if she ever reads this, I hope she’ll forgive me, & also that I’ll do her story justice!

Well my fiddle player is from Western Mass(achusetts). She’s a physician & a longtime contra dancer, so after residency, she decided to take up the fiddle again, having had some years of classical training in childhood. It was also about the same time she met her future husband on a street corner in Harvard Square in Boston, they had both stopped to listen to a street busker play a rendition of Van Morrison’s ‘Brown-Eyed Girl.’ (I could change it to ‘Irish Heartbeat,’ but no, I’ll stay truthful for the purposes of the story. Also taking my lead from Will, Zina & Dow, the details are what I like about these stories, so I’m going to make full use of them, length be hanged, just hope I don’t lose the text in a *poof*.)

Anyway, so he was on his mountain bike, & he asked her to watch it while he put some money in the guitar case, & it was true love from then on! (Have to include the chance meeting on a street corner & falling in love bit, that in & of itself makes for a great story.) Anyway, they are avid hikers, so as they were making their way through Yosemite National Park on one occasion, they found this adorable little chapel nestled in the wilderness, & they decided that’s where they wanted to get married. Their large, extended urban & suburban families couldn’t understand why they were going to be dragged all the way across country for the nuptials, but there it was. The happy couple also decided they didn’t want to spend a lot on the wedding itself (her necklace cost more than her gown), so it was a very simple & elegant affair including a 20 minute cardio-workout hike to the chapel itself on the day of the wedding for all the guests & the wedding party…. except they did splurge by hiring an Irish band from San Francisco to come out to provide all the weekend’s entertainment. Nice gig, eh? Free food, free lodging & travel in the gorgeous California wilderness, all to play tunes for a few days! Nice work if you can get it….

Anyway, so the band is Culann’s Hounds, & she found them on the internet. (If any of the members are reading this, I love your CD & I also play a Casey Burns flute!) Anyway, during the reception, there’s some fine craic being had. Julie (our heroin) I don’t know if she had brought her fiddle, I sort of don’t think so b/c she’s soooo shy about playing in public, even now. But her mentor from residency was there, & pleaded with her to play a few tunes, knowing she had recently been taking lessons. She adamently declined, but also her father was there, a stoic Irishman if there ever was one, a bit of a banjo player as well, & then she decided that yes, even though she only knew one tune, ‘Shandon Bells’, she would play it for her father on her wedding day. Keep in mind, she hadn’t rehearsed it, & one can only imagine the stress of your wedding day being added on to your first public performance, an impromptu one at that, plus she hadn’t had a drop to drink since she wanted the whole memory to be quite lucid.

So essentially she approached the band between tunes & told them what was up, & they were more than enthusiastic to have the blushing bride accompany them. I can only assume that at this point the fiddler forked over his instrument, in which he could then add an entry to our recent thread ‘interesting circumstances in which to loan out your instrument’ though I don’t think the insurance excuse would have worked in this situation. In any case, I imagine the conversation went something like, ‘Well lass, what tunes would you want to be playin’?’ Though the lads are from California, so the brogue might be my own embellishment, or perhaps they are wont to put on a brogue for gigs as many Yanks do….

In any case, she most likely said, ‘Do you know Shandon Bells?’ in which case they most likely said, ‘Is it a jig or a reel?’ in which case she probably said, ‘I have no idea,’ in which case they probably said, ‘Well, do you know what key is it in?’ in which case, knowing Julie, she probably said, ‘I have no idea.’ In which case they probably said, ‘Well then play a few bars & we’ll just jump in behind you.’ In which case, she jumped into the A part, doing remarkably well, & the backers not far behind, when just as she hit the B part & the crowd was cheering her on, she completely blanked on the B part. Poor kid, standing in her wedding gown, on stage, the one solid tune in her repertoire, *poof*. Well what I believe happened then is the lovely lads didna abandon her efforts as she stared into the headlights on oncoming humiliation, but kept on along until the A part came up again, in which case she jumped valiantly back on the wagon at their urging, & this time her fingers did not fail her! Ah every musician knows the trance when you’re in the groove, afraid of the void which you so narrowly avoided only a few moments ago, & as such, she gripped onto the tune with such a fervor, with no idea how to end it, & obviously with no other tune she could segue into. She says she vaguely remembers her father’s head bouncing in the dancing audience with pride, but then as the tune went into its sixth, seventh & eighth run, his eyes sort of scanning the ceiling, as if to say, ‘Dear God, when will this end?’

And so it did, I can’t imagine very gracefully, but surely with uproarious applause. The best part however, was when Julie’s brother emerged from the lieu bemoaning he had missed the entire performance, & as such, the poor crowd was subjected to another 8 or 10 go rounds of that illustrious jig, ‘Shandon Bells.’ It’s on video tape for blackmailing purposes only. 🙂 We still warm up with a set of ‘Shandon Bells,’ ‘Paddy in London’ & ‘The Walk Home,’ though she knows QUITE a few more tunes now, & puts me to shame with her diligence in practicing.

Also Julie is pregnant now, due any day, & she recently dreamt she gave birth a red-haired boy (she has long red hair herself) so last night we learned, guess what tune…. 🙂

Danny Pearl’s Favorite, of course. 🙂 What a lovely story!

I once sat waiting for a moment like that to be over, out in the audience…the groom’s father played the trumpet (he had built a boat back home in Sweden, put his family on it, and they immigrated to the States in it -- he is now in a wheelchair from losing the use of his legs in a parasailing accident…he still does the parasailing, his friends now help him into his harness and push him off the cliff…) and they asked him to play it at their reception. Beaming, he did play it, unaccompanied, a tune that largely no one could figure out…and played it, and played it, and played it… 🙂

zls

https://www.fiddlecasebooks.com/
https://www.fiddlecasebooks.com/store/c2/Books.html

Another way with this tune:
T: The Shandon Bells
K: D Major

|: dcB |
A>FD DFA | d>ed cBA | BGE EF/G/A | B2 A Bcd |
AFD DFA | ded cBA | BB/c/d ecA | ded :|
|: d2 g |
f2 d dcd | faa afd | cAA eAA | cAc ee/f/g |
fdd dcd | f2 a afd | Bcd ecA | ded :|

Enjoyed the tale but left wondering about hair colour…

Culann’s Hounds- I know the piper in that band. I’ll quiz Conal when I see him next

Joe Bane was a flute/whistleplayer from the Feakle area. You can (find another transcription of “Shandon Bells” and) hear him (play it) here:

http://www.rogermillington.com/tunetoc/shandonbells.html

# Posted on January 18th 2007 by kilfarboy

A brief commentary by Peter Laban, 11 August 2002:

“Introduction ~ Joe Bane (pronounced Bahn) was a flute and whistle player from the Feakle area. In a stylistic sense he is in the same bracket as fiddleplayer P. Joe Hayes and concertinaplayer John Naughton, both from very much the same area. The style is characterised by a sparse though efficient use of ornamentation and relies heavily on its rhythm and the precise phrasing of the music. This gives the style great ”lift“. Martin Hayes has named Bane as one of his prime influences.”

Is this the same tune as “Shannon Bells” eg on SwarbrIck 2 ?

Mary McNamara plays this in G major rather than D. On fiddle and banjo, all we need to do is keep the same fingering but play on a lower string. It will be out of range for whistles, flutes and pipes but can still be played in a session environment I would imagine. There are only some slight variations in Mary’s version. Here is it for those interested.

K: G maj

|:DB,G, G,B,D|GAG GED|ECA, A,B,D|E2 D EFG|DB,G, G,B,D|GAG GED|EFG AFD|1 G3 GFE:|2 G3 G2 A:|

|B2 G GFG|B2 d dBG|FDD ADD|FEF ABc|B2 G GFG|Bdd dBG|EFG AFD|G3 G2 A|
|B2 G GFG|B2 d dBG|F2 D ADD|FEF Abc|B2 G GFG|Bdd dBG|EFG AFD|G3 GFE|

*Second time through, there is only one difference. Bar 3, B part is |Fz D ADD|.

K: D maj

|AFD DFA|ded cBA|BGE EFA|B2 A Bcd|
|AFD DFA|ded cBA|Bcd ecA|dfe d2 B|
|AFD DFA|ded cBA|BGE EFA|B2 A Bcd|
|AFD DFA|ded cBA|Bcd ecA|dfe d2 B|
|A2 D DFA|ded cBA|BGE EFA|B2 A Bcd|
|AFD DFA|ded cBA|Bcd ecA|dfe d2 e|
|fdd ABd|faa afd|cAA eAA|cAc efg|
|fdd ABd|faa afd|Bcd ecA|dfe d2 e|
|fdd ABd|faa afd|c2 A eAA|cAc efg|
|fdd ABd|faa afd|Bcd ecA|dfe d2 B|

|A2 D DFA|ded cBA|BGE EFA|B2 A Bcd|
|AFD DFA|ded cBA|Bcd ecA|dfe d2 B|
|A2 D DFA|ded cBA|BGE EFA|B2 A Bcd|
|AFD DFA|ded cBA|Bcd ecA|dfe d2 e|
|fdd Add|faa afd|cAA eAA|cAc efg|
|fdd ABd|faa afd|B2 d ecA|dfe d2 e|
|fdd ABd|faa afd|cAA eAA|cAc efg|
|fdd ABd|faa afd|Bcd ecA|dfe d2 B|

|A2 D DFA|dfd c2 A|BEE EFA|B2 A Bcd|
|AFD DFA|ded cBA|Bcd ecA|dfe d2 e|
|f2 d ABd|faa afd|cAA eAA|cAc efg|
|f2 d ABd|faa afd|Bcd ecA|dfe d3|

This is as Matt Cunningham plays the tune on his 12th volume of dance music. I’ve just focused on Matt’s accordion playing, not the rest of the band. It is important to note that, as this music is intended for set dancing, I have tabbed out the abc for those 8 introduction bars and the final 16 bars which see each part repeated only once. There are some nice variations in this one.

I love this tune. I learned it last summer while I was at Maine Fiddle Camp.

Sara

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-DytJkA-c4

play video

It’s a version of the jig Shandon Bells. I imagine Shandon Bells is the more usual name in Ireland, Shandon being a place in the Irish Republic (in or near Cork?) and Killieburn Brae sounding as if it is somewhere in Scotland.

https://soundcloud.com/steven-hawson/shandon-bells-the-widow-brady

This was the second tune in a set of jigs entitled “The Cat in the Corner” recorded by the accordionist Frank Quinn (1893-1964) of Greagh, Drumlish, Co. Longford in December 1928.

Related:
https://thesession.org/tunes/14902

Shandon Bells is played in Newfoundland, so not surprising to see a variant.