Jimmy Dolan’s strathspey

S: “Forgotten Gems by Peter Carberry, Padraig McGovern”, track 14, the 1st of 2 flings
N: Peter Carberry on button accordion, Padraig Mcgovern on a flat (K: B) set of uilleann pipes
https://thesession.org/tunes/7386

The 2nd: “John Joe Gannon’s Highland Fling”
# Added by ceolachan - July 5th, 2014
https://thesession.org/tunes/13718

The transcriptions are raised up from B to D for D instruments, or any other key of woodwind (pipes, flute, whistle) you might want to play it in by following the D fingering given.

Jimmy Dolan - “Shady Lane”? - his take on this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4VJebsUO_0

play video

“Published on May 13, 2012
A Longford piper, related to old time pipemaker James Mulcrone; his family had a few pipers in it and pictured is the grave of one of them, Packie Dolan. Jimmy plays a ‘fling’ here ~ he learned to play from a local piper, Michael Keenan.”

Can anyone offer more on Jimmy Dolan? If so, please do…

# Added by ceolachan - July 6th, 2014
https://thesession.org/tunes/13720

Listening to the recording of Dolan I’m wondering if he didn’t consider this tune a single jig - you can heard Barry O’Neill, who made the tape, asking Jimmy to play more single jigs at the beginning of the clip. Dolan doesn’t mention whether it is or not on the tape. His play sounds perhaps more jig-ish than fling-y. But his relatives certainly considered it a fling so presumably Dolan thought it was too.

On the tape Jimmy also played a version of the Wild Irishman - Barry does ask him what is was, a reel or a single jig. “I don’t know what the hell it is!”

When I was getting my start my teacher had a pet theory that strathspeys morphed into single jigs - or vice versa? I think he came up with this notion on his own, but there are a good few instances of it happening in trad music.

More usually, as you no doubt know, flings morphed into reels, more often single reels, but because of that classic second ending many of them have, which fits the dance options beautifully, double reels too. As a move between flings and single jigs, I’ve not noticed that, but then the 16 bar nature of highland flings/schottisches, highlands, flings, in fit with the dance, doesn’t translate as easily to 32 bars, though, already said, that did sometimes happen, morphing into double reels. Once the dance became less known it was only natural for a good melody to find another home. Flings can be quite swung, which also fits nicely with the usual stepping, the basics shared with hornpipes, schottisches, Germans, barndances, strathspeys…

Where the music has a root in dance, I’ve not known a dance musician to not know “what the hell it is!” But removed, with younger musicians (babes to folk in their 90s) I’ve even seen the same confusion between different 3/4 melodies ~ march, waltz, mazurka, varsovienne…

Marches into polkas is a classic morph, as is melodies moving back and forth between polkas and slides. 😉

All that ‘morphing’, the possibilities, some melodies just don’t make sense, don’t fit, all the many possibilities of this music. Sometimes there’s only one really good fit. Though, in my mad mind, I have managed to occasionally fit a round peg into a square hole, or vice versa, and without the use of a hammer, just a little gentle application of sand paper or a file, or careful whittling with a sharp edge… 😀