Calliope House jig

It’s a sprightly, lively tune with a lovely melody and I always enjoy playing this one. At some sessions, I’ve heard this tune started with the second part so don’t get caught off-guard if you find you have to reverse the order of the two parts.

Here’s some additional info from Charles Anderson:

“This tune was written by Dave Richardson of ‘The Boys of the Lough’ and recorded and popularized by that group. The tune is dedicated to a long time friend of Cathal McConnell and The Boys of the Lough who owns a Victorian mansion in Pittsburgh where many concerts, parties and sessions have been held featuring traditional music of many styles. The house was dubbed ‘Calliope House’ when it became the home of a non-profit folk arts organization using the same name. This organization continues sponsoring folk music concerts and a folk music school in Pittsburgh under the name ‘Calliope: the Pittsburgh Folk Music Society’”

This tune was written in the key of E and to me sounds better when played in this key.

Unfortunatelly it will be impossible for us whistlers, flautists and pipers to play it in the key it is supposed to be played in. For that reason Dmaj seems acceptable for session puposes.
I sometimes wonder which part is the first though.

I just wanted to note that the owner of the Calliope House was and is George Balderose. He is a master bagpiper and folk musician. I took bagpipe lessons with him at that house for 2 years.

You can play Calliope House on a D-whistle (or flute) without too much difficulty. There is no d# in the tune, so the only difficult note is the g#. Most g#’s in the tune are in the upper octave where they can be fingered xxoxoo on most whistles (also try xxoxxo) with good effect. That leaves only the lower octave G# toward the end of the second part to half-hole or to work around (by playing b instead).

Forgot to say that you can play it in E-major on a D-whistle without too much difficulty. The notes given in the previous post refer to the tune in E-maj, so that you have to move every not one note up from the version written above.

Dave says this about the tune:

“…I named the tune by way of a thank you for his(George Balderose’s) support and his work with the organization ‘Calliope.’ Calliope was the muse of poets and musicians. I wrote this on a sunny summer day in Edinburgh while sitting on a stone bench in my south-facing front garden which fronts onto the street. People were going to and fro to pick up their kids at the school opposite. I sat there to watch for my own daughter and see her over the street safely. To fill in the time, I played the mandolin. Happy days!”

Several of my friends who play fiddle for our rapper/morris team (we’re a teenage team in New England) play this tune, but what they often do, apparently, is start in D Major, and after a coupla times through, they modulate up to E Major by playing the second part and playing an e at the end instead of another d, and starting at the beginning in E Major (4 sharps). It sounds quite nice this way, and if you want to, you can modulate up and down whenever you feel like it 🙂 .

I agree with Alan, This tune sounds better in the key of E.
( my flute has the G# key 🙂)

It does sound better in E and,if memory serves,The Boys Of The Lough played the high part first.

He wrote this tune on the Cittern, this tune is his claim to fame.

And a brilliant tune indeed.

So much for playing it on a “cittern” haha

Aye Dafydd, I learned it from the playing of the BoTL & they did indeed play the high part first!

i always find the “2nd part” played as the first part…….

without exception.

i really dont see how this tune sounds right the way it is written here….

but play it how you like…….
lol

& you could always play in on an E whistle too (or E flute if you could find one)… That said, and whatever ‘original’ key it might have been in, and having played it in a lot of different venues and situations, it was only ever played it in ‘D’… I’ve tried it in ‘E’ too, on several instruments, but can’t say I notice any appreciable difference. Here’s another take on it, as I’d been taught it, quite some time ago, and as I’ve known it for at least a good while. But, as I don’t have the ol’ Boys of the Lough recording on hand I can’t really tell you who has it ass backwards… 😉 I haven’t gone to the notes, wanting to strum this up just raw from memory, however failing or confused that may be ~

T: Calliope House
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: D Major
|: ee/f/g |
aa/a/a faa | eaa dd/e/f | gag fgf | efe edB | A>BA A2 F |
A2 B d2 e|1 fgf fed | e3 :|2 fgf efe | d3- dAB ||
dAA fAA | eAA fed | Bee e2 d | efd BdB | ABA A2 F |
A2 B d2 e |1 f3 fed | e3- edc :|2 fgf efe | d3 ||

The least you could have done SaxWhistle is give you take on the thing… Be brave, give it a shot…

I haven’t notated rolls above, long or short, whish is usual for me, but most will know that any beat with two of the same note, such as eaa or fgf or efe or Bee, or a note followed by a 2 or a 3, such as A2 or e3, can be rolled ~ any number of ways, or as in that first beat, measure 1 ~ aa/a/a, aside from the other option to roll it you can use that same way with it in a number of places too, here it is multiplied for the B-part:, measure 4 through to that d3 of the second ending:

~ | AA/A/A A2 F | A2 B dd/d/e | ff/f/f ee/e/e | d3 ||

does anyone have the sheet music to this song in the key of E?

There are some slight differences apart from the transposition; just a matter of personal taste/style. By the way, you can download Barfly to interpret .abc files, and even transpose them for you. I use a Mac version. I’m not sure what the PC version is like. Here’s the link:
http://www.barfly.dial.pipex.com/

X: 1
T:Calliope House
C:Dave Richardson
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K:Emaj
B|:eBB gBB|fBB gfe|cff f2e|fgf e2c|BcB B2G|
B2c e2f|1 g2b gfe|f3 f2B:|2 gbg fed|e3 ega|
|:b3 gbb|fbb gbb|a3 gag|f2e c2e|BcB B2G|
B2c e2f|1 g2b gfe|f3 fga:|2 gbg fed| e3 e2|

One of our local ceilidh bands plays a jig set including Calliope House and has taken to lowering their instruments for a whole AABB in order to sing: “Diddley diddley diddley diddley, diddley di de di de di dum…” and so on. They even have all the words written down. At ceilidhs they don’t warn the caller, which can lead to amusement…

Great tune, and like no other. Nice to go into The Cowboy or Out on the Ocean afterwards.

I still think it sounds a bit odd if the B part is played first, though this is not uncommon (eg BoTL and Patrick Street #1)

I taught myself the tune in D, but when I found out it was in E, then I taught it to myself in E. And now I like it better in E; I find I can ornament it differently. But I have never heard it played with the second part first, I can’t imagine that sounding better. I really like this tune a lot. Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas do an amazing set with this tune into MacArthur Road, another great tune in E.

I learnt this tune from the BotL album Open Road, where it may have been first published. It’s definitely in E - what a great key on the fiddle, too - and definitely has the high part second.
People round here play it in D and back to front, it drives me nuts! Thought I’d get that off me chest…

I’ve heard this played as a duet with two fiddles or fiddle and cello. Beautiful. Does anyone have the music for the second (non-melody) part?

(New to this so may be using the wrong terminology … apologies.)

Does anyone have any clues to a guitar accompaniment to this tune?

We are playing it in D

Thanks

I like playing this second voice :

Melody (posted by Ceolachan above) :

T: Calliope House
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: D Major
|: ee/f/g |
aa/a/a faa | eaa dd/e/f | gag fgf | efe edB | A>BA A2 F |
A2 B d2 e|1 fgf fed | e3 :|2 fgf efe | d3- dAB ||
dAA fAA | eAA fed | Bee e2 d | efd BdB | ABA A2 F |
A2 B d2 e |1 f3 fed | e3- edc :|2 fgf efe | d3 ||

second voice :

T: Calliope House
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: D Major
|: Ade |
f3 d3 | A3 FGA | B3 ABA | GAG GAG | FGF F2 D |
F2 G A3|1 d3 FG+G | A3 :|2 d2 A GAG | F3 DE=F ||
FDD ADD | BDD ADD | GAG GEF | GAG GAG | FGF F2 D |
F2 G A3 |1 D3 FG+G | A3 AGA :|2 A3 GAG | F3 ||

It is a big of a drag to play this on a D tinwhistle. It’s much easier on a B whistle where the second natural major key is E, so it’s as if you would be playing in G on a D tinwhistle. However, half fingering the G# seems to do in a pinch, as B whistles that are affordable are rather hard to come by.

I love this tune, though. I’ve heard it played in sessions as Fraser & Haas did on their “Fire and Ice” album, in which they play Calliope into MacArthur Road and finish with Frank’s.

How is ‘Calliope’ pronounced?

“How is ‘Calliope’ pronounced?”

Apparently, “calliope” the instrument , is pronounced “kal-lee-ohp” and the Greek dude’s name was pronounced “Kal-eye-opp-ee”.

The house was named with reference to both, so I suppose it’s debatable.

Thanks Weejie, that narrows it down at least.

Here’s a hexatonic version of the tune - Dave Richardson plays it without the 7th (at least, every time I’ve heard him play it - Alasdair Fraser too):

X:1
T:Calliope House
C:Dave Richardson
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:Emaj
B|\
eBB gBB|fBB gBB|cff f2e|fge cec|BcB B2G|
B2c e2f|1 gbg gfe|f3-f2:|2 gbg fec|e3-e|
|:ga|\
b3 gbb|fbb gbb|a3 gag|fgf fec|BcB B2G|
B2c e2f|1 gbg gfe|f3-f:|2 gbg fec| e3-e2||

I think it has more of a 12/8 swing to it:

X:1
T:Calliope House
C:Dave Richardson
M:12/8
L:1/8
K:Emaj
B|\
eBB gBB fBB gBB|cff f2e fge cec|BcB B2G B2c e2f|
|1 gbg gfe f3-f2:|2 gbg fec e3-e|
|:ga|\
b3 gbb fbb gbb|a3 gag fgf fec|BcB B2G B2c e2f|
|1 gbg gfe f3-f:|2 gbg fec e3-e2||

Does anyone know of a transcription (in sheet music type notation) of the harmony part for Calliope House, as played on button accordion by Jackie Daly on Patrick Street’s first album?

There is a great video of the Ship Band (http://www.shipband.co.uk) playing this tune in both D and E major.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX5y1d7lILs

play video

Heard this jig a few weeks ago on the CD Road to the North and loved it. It does sound better in E major and flows nicely into the Blackthorn Stick jig in A major.

this is one of my favourite tunes! Alasdair fraser and Paul Machlis do an amazing version of this tune🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQHIwYKZ2R8

play video

Great tune, but such a shame Dave Richardson wrote it wrong way ’round. 😉

I guess it all depends on what you’re accustomed to – I first heard this tune as played by the Barra MacNeils thusly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSzSLca9V7o

play video

Based on that the “high part” is now firmly imprinted in me as the first part, and the low the second. Playing the low part first just sounds backward….

So, it sounds like this is a widely played session tune, and there’s apparently no problem with that. That implies to me the that the piece isn’t copyrighted, or at least, the copyright isn’t enforced for live performances. Here’s my question: a band I play with would like to record our version of Calliope House, but I can’t find out whether I’m right that the jig isn’t copyrighted and thus we’d be free to record it because it’s in the public domain, or whether it’s just okay to use it as a session tune but not to record it without permission or license from the owner. Anyone have any idea about that? If not, does anyone know how I can contact the copyright owner, whom I presume is Dave Richardson, but if I’m wrong, please correct me. Thanks so much for your help!

This tune IS copyright, and to record it you just have to go through the usual channels. In the UK when you record an album you just submit the track list on a form and the costs are worked out for you by an agency - it’s probably very similar in Georgia.

That makes sense. I couldn’t imagine that it WASN’T copyrighted, but I’m usually pretty good at tracking that sort of thing down, and I couldn’t find anything definitive. Thanks, Nigel! There is an organization here called the Copyright Clearing House that I think we can go through. If not them, then BMI/ASCAP can handle it, I know. I appreciate your help!

I too remember hearing the Boys of the Lough playing the high part first … was it on an old recording &/or in an early concert, I don’t know. Perhaps it just suited an early set to play it that way round.

Anyway, I notice on their Open Road LP they do play the low part first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2GcGnZF2yI

play video

Reminds me that local Co. Antrim Piano Accordion player, Leslie Craig, wrote his tune The Road to Ballymac in the key of F, but then I’m sure he’s not alone in composing in an odd key. However, I’m sure the natural process [ i.e. us 🙂 ] will usually, in time, find the most acceptable key for any tune.

Cheers,
Dick

I pair Kesh jig ( G major ) first then follow with this version of Calliope. This tune is great played quick or played at a casual 120 bpm. Just a nice, sunny melody.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqM5LoOmfzM

play video

Cheeky Elf’s clip … Funky Calliope?

A few minor variations.

A great session tune from Dave Richardson of the Boys of the Lough. This setting is taken from ‘A Fine Selection of Over 200 Irish Traditional Tunes for Sessions’, compiled by David Speers with a Forward by Matt Cranitch.

Ick

From the playing of Katherine First.

From the playing of Kierah, transposed down to Dmaj.

Dave Richardson dropped into our Elm Tree session in Durham (England) last January 21st. We played “Calliope House”, and indeed the high part came first. (He also performed at Durham’s Old Cinema Launderette, standing in front of a bunch of washing machines! Can’t recall if he played the piece then too.)

We did once drop into a launderette while travelling across Canada: when a local guy there heard our accents, he launched into a complete one-man performance of the Monty Python parrot sketch!
Should we start a new thread for “strangest place you’ve ever played in”? Or, what happens in launderettes, apart from washing?

From the playing of Cynthia MacLeod, transposed to Dmaj.

From the playing of Bethany Bordeaux.

It is interesting that so many comment that it is better in E but written out in D. If you want to play it in E , you can play it in D on an E whistle and it will sound in E. That is how the transposition works when we have lots of whistles. If you want it in F for example, play the D version with an F whistle
. Problems solved.

From the playing of Itchy Fingers.

From the playing of Leo Rickard.

From the playing of Damaris Woods.

If this is a © tune by Dave Richardson, shouldn’t someone change the meta name=“description”, which currently describes it as “a traditional Irish jig”?

I play it on cittern or mandolin, in G. I learned it from the Barra McNeils’ “The Traditional Album”, where it’s part of The Clumsy Lover Set. I have a mini cittern made by Lawrence Nyberg, which is really a five course mandola (which sounds like it should be a vegan feast meal), so I can start in a lower octave, then jump up an octave to mandolin range. I follow it with Arthur Darly’s Jig, in D, then Over the Hills to Runbush, in G (both on “Strings Attached” by Mick Moloney).

Had to drop by with a story. I’ve been going (cautiously, of course) to Calliope House every couple of weeks to play u. pipes with George Balderose, dedicatee of this tune. (By the way he, and everyone I know in Pittsburgh, pronounces it “Kal-eye-opp-ee.”) Playing together is a rare and welcome outlet for both of us right now. This past week we variously wrestled with our too-dry reeds, and played some holiday tunes and some jigs I (a beginner) can get through. We were sitting there and he said, “Do you do Calliope House?” I laughed and said I was working it up in E on concertina (rare chance to use the D#), but began sounding it out in D on pipes and soon we were playing it.

George has all sorts of stories of the musical luminaries who have visited and performed at his house. He said he visited Doolin in Clare perhaps ten years ago. He walked in to a pub where music was playing. The second tune they played was…“Calliope House.” He says he about fell over!

my transcription of Four Men and a Dog’s version

About the pronunciation of calliope, here in the USA I’ve always heard
kuh-LIE-uh-pee

I found this online, evidently the UK pronunciation is the same as ours, for once!
UK transcription for ‘calliope’:
Modern IPA: kəlɑ́jəpɪj
Traditional IPA: kəˈlaɪəpi
4 syllables: “kuh” + “LY” + “uh” + “pee”

Not an exotic word where I work, we have at least two of them.

About the key of E Major, that’s what I have a Low E whistle for! (Ditto A Major)

Myself and the other musicians who participate in the local Session first heard this tune several years ago when a flute player who moved here from another state began sitting in with us regularly. Calliope House is one of this flute players favorite tunes and he plays it in D Major on his flute. None of us had ever heard of this tune before although some of us do like to listen to the Boys of The Lough. Yes all of us did learn this tune and we have been playing it regularly since then.
Since two of the fiddle players who participate in the local Sessions also play fiddle with the band for a local folk dance/contra dance society, sometimes we play this tune for the dances. The fiddlers prefer to use the first version (in D Major) which was posted at the top of this page by Jeremy 21 years ago This dance society meets every other Friday and I usually play either piano or bass for the dances.

Laurence

The way I play it.

Another version of the origins of this tune’s name. I remember Dave Richardson explaining in a BoTL gig many years ago that he named it after a building where he studied at Durham University. The only such building I can find linked to DU is HMS Calliope naval training school. This, rather ugly building (not a boat) is located in a prominent position on the banks of the river Tyne next to the very handsome Sage cultural centre and the High Level Bridge. Dave, as a Geordie, would have known it well and may even have trained there as it was and is linked to Durham University for training some of the students. Maybe this is a coincidence or maybe the ‘folk process’ led to the change of attribution.