The Dance Of The Honeybees hornpipe

This tune is acutally a barndance or “german,” rather than a reel, from the Altan cd Blackwater. I don’t own the cd, but have heard Altan play this in concert. There’s lots of room for variations–moving the triplets around between measures 1 and 2 (and also 5 and 6), or playing some of the “GFG” phrases as turns or even just a simple G2 G…. Barndances are proof that lift or lilt is as important as drive in any players quiver of skills–the difference between “lively” and just fast. Dance of the Honeybees goes well at a moderate, jaunty pace, lightly, and with as much attention to the spaces between notes as the notes themselves.

This tune is a composition by the great Co. Leitrim fiddler and composer, Charlie Lennon, and I think he should be given credit for it.

Kenny Hadden

Prof. Lennon actually wrote two pieces called Dance of the Honeybees that go together. The first is a slow waltz that is been played by Sharon Shannon on “Each little Thing”. The second is the hornpipe.
Maire O’Keefe plays both together on her CD “Coisir - House Party”.

I like to play it together with “The Wee Rabbit” by Deanta’s Rosie Mullholland as the second tune.

I like to play this with The Mountain Top. The key change between the two tunes grabs the attention of most listeners.
Trevor

This is the variation I’ve been taught and play:

AG||:F2EF DFAF|GAFG E2EF|GFGA (3Bcd ed|cded cAGE|
F2EF DFAF|GAFG E2EF|GFGA (3Bcd ed|1 cAGE D2 (3AAG:|2 cAGE D2 (3ABc|
|:dAaA fAdA|(3Bcd AF DEFA|Beed efed|cdef (3ggg fe|
dAaA fAdA|(3Bcd AF DEFA|Beed cded|1 cAGE D2 (3ABc:|2 cAGE D4||

Trevor

Trev, that sounds like the version on Altan’s “Blackwater”.

Will, why is it that you call this a barndance? Isn’t it just a straightforward hornpipe? On my liner notes for Blackwater, it says it’s a “hornpipe composed by Charlie Lennon”. I’m not correcting you or anything, I’m just asking cuz I don’t understand the difference.

I’ve been getting the same puzzled look from Zina lately. As far as I know, Mr. Lennon himself thinks of this tune as a hornpipe. But I play it smoothed out quite a bit–not as much as a reel (as some people play hornpipes), and still with a hint of the dotted rhythm, but more like a barndance. I’m sure that makes it perfectly clear :-|

Dance of the HBs also lacks that characteristic hornpipe ending of three quarter notes in the last bar of each part.

I dunno–just sounds too quaint as a full-on hornpipe.

Too quaint? LOL. Hornpipes don’t have to have that 3-note ending though do they? I play this tune with quite a lot of swing, but then my setting’s quite different from yours Will. I remember posting a discussion a while back asking what barndances were as opposed to hornpipes, and didn’t get much of any use out of the thread, apart from one comment from Brad who tried to explain it to me. What I now understand to be a typical “barndance” is like a hornpipe with less notes in and with that 3-note pattern all over the place - not just at the end, like for example Vincent Broderick’s “Around The Fairy Fort”. Do you play that one? If that’s what a barndance is, then I think I’ve nailed what the difference is. If not, then I’m stumped…

Dear Chums

I think the discussion on this tune shows up the problems that arise when one starts to forget that this music is DANCE music and the best tunes (even the modern compositions) are those that speak to people as dance tunes rather than as melodies - no matter however clever or pyrotechnical.
The hornpipe is a very ancient dance form and most of it is now forgotten in the mists of time. Most hornpipes used in traditional dancing are used for various Set Dances. The Barn Dance tune has a quality that would be hard to define but is immediately recognisable to those who enjoy that dance form. The word ‘lift’ was a good clue. Charle Lennon definitely wrote his tune tune as a hornpipe but it is definitely a cracking tune for a barn dance. A march, jig, hornpipe, reel or other forms can all be used for barn dances. Marches or jigs can be used for the Gay Gordons. And so on.
It’s a matter of clearly distinguishing between the musical form and the dance form that it is being used for. The same melody could be played in different ways for a reel, a rant, a hornpipe or a schottische. It’s amatter of having feeling for what the dancers need. What a dancer prefers and what a musician prefers in a tune do not always coincide. Not all well know professional fiddlers could play five hours for dancing. Their repertoire often avoids the real dance tunes as the insistent regular rhythms become boring to them.
Never play in a band with clever bassists, drummers or rhythm guitarists. They want to vary things too much to keep themselves awake and develop their virtuosity. If they all happen to take off at the same time then the dancers fall over or stand around in puzzlement.
Toodlepip.
Pierce

I’ve just submitted the abc to the waltz part. I’ve called it Dance of the Honeybees ( waltz) to distinguish it from the 4/4. IN the meantime, here it is -

F3GE2|F3GE2|F3GE2|D3A BA|
F3GE2|D3A BA|F3A d2|E3A BA|
F3GE2|F3GE2|F3GE2|D4 A2|
d4A2|G3F EF|D4A2|D4A2|
d4A2|G3A E2|G3A E2|G3A ce|
d4A2|G3A E2|G3A B2|E3A BA|
D3A AA|D3A AA|D3A AA|GF GA (3Bcd|
D3A AA|D3A AA|D3A AA|GF GA (3Bcd|

The Dance of the Honeybees seems to have been first described and understood -if not first observed- by Karl Von Frisch, an Austrian gentleman who lived for nearly a hundred years. His work led to an experimentation, 4 years after his death in 1986, with a mini dancing robot which managed to communicate with the bees through a number of different steps!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUgnMPebyZY&feature=related

play video

Anybody know of any hornpipes that would go nicely with this? Having trouble finding one to suit a D whistle!

Gretta, I’ve played a set that starts with The Monkey Hornpipe https://thesession.org/tunes/11184 (at a slightly slower pace) and then goes into Dance of Honeybees, finishing up with Cronin’s in Dmaj https://thesession.org/tunes/478

I think it works, anyway!

Several people have mentioned this tune yet it wasn’t here. It’s by Charlie Lennon. We learned this in a workshop with Siobhan Kennedy twathree years ago. It’s quite hypnotic, once played never forgotten.

You can find it here already at:
https://thesession.org/tunes/130

Oh dear me. And I searched for it! Can anybody tell me how to delete this? As I seem unable to read … only see an edit button …

Well, you’ve introduced me, for one, to a lovely tune, not knowing the tune at all. I don’t how to delete a
tune either and it can be helpful to know how to do that at times… Thanks.