Throw Away The Keys reel

Now a common session tune and a favourite of flute players, probably thanks to Matt Molloy. This was transcribed direct from the playing of a flutist in Melbourne Australia.

By the way, if you’re backing there’s a really neat trick you can do with the 1st part to make the tune suddenly move and “open out”. Try starting on a chord of F#m and moving onto Bm for bar 2…

Source: Brian mac Aodha - “Throw Away the Keys”
Transcription: g.m.p.

I thought I learned this tune from Dow’s transcription, but now find my version slightly different.

K: Dmaj
~A3B defg|a2fd edBd|~A3B defe|dBAF EFD2:|
~a3f defg|a2fd edBd|~a3f defe|dBAF EFD2|
~a3f defg|a2fd edBd|~A3B defe|dBAF EFD2||

I’ve never played or heard it in the real session, so don’t know where it comes from. Maybe influenced by Harry Bradley and John Blake’s flute duet setting.

R: schottische
K: Dmaj
A2A>B d>ef>g|a2f>d e>fd>B|A2A>B d>ef>g|a2f>d (3efe d2:|
a>ba>f d>ef>g|a2f>d e>fd2|a>ba>f d>ef>g|a2f>d (3efe d2|
a>ba>f d>ef>g|a2f>d e>fd>B|A2A>B d>ef>g|a2f>d (3efe d2|]

This setting is based on Harry Bradley and John Blake’s flute duet. Seosamh Ó Neachtain joins them to dance to the tune.

Now to do a ‘slainte’ on ‘slainte’ ~ check out this near relative, and the similarities are there, most probably a direct relationship:

“Jenny Will You Marry Me?” / “Some Say the Devil is Dead”
Key signature: G Major (~ also played in A & D Major)
Submitted on September 17th 2003 by Northcregg.
https://thesession.org/tunes/1990

This is a nice little slow reel I learnt from the playing of Larry Egan on his CD “Kitchen Recordings”. On the CD Larry and Sean O’Driscoll play it in a very sedate, gently rocking way, which I realy enjoy.

I’m not sure where this tune comes from…. probably Johnny Henry 😉

This is one I posted a few years back https://thesession.org/tunes/1540.

I know the tune orignally posted by Dow as simply Gormans, or Throw Away the Keys.

Matt Molloy, John Carty, and Arty McGlynn recently recorded a different tune under the title Johnny Gorman’s, on their 2007 cd Pathway to the Well (https://thesession.org/recordings/2801).

It’s in G, and as far as I can tell, an entirely different tune:

X: 1
T: Johnny Gorman’s
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
D: Pathway to the Well, Matt Molloy, John Carty, Arty McGlynn
K: G
D3E ~G3A|B2 {d}BA ~B3c|d2 ge dB{d}BA|GE{G}ED EFGE|
DB,DE ~G3A|B2 {d}BA ~B3c|d2 ge dBAB|1 G2 g2 g2 GE:|2 G2 g2 g3a||
bagb a2 fa|gfeg dcBc|d2 ge dBAB|GE{G}ED Eega|
bagb a2 fa|gfeg dcBc|d2 ge dBAB|1 G2 g2 g3a:|2 [G6G,6] GE||

Third tune here by Noel Carbery, Jimmy Flanagan, J McGrath.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpKX_SNevKM

play video

Seems very similar to the Sailors Bonnet to me.

Nice take on Love, Will You Marry Me. (above link) It’s nice to play it after the song, as a variation or ‘commentary’ on the better known version

https://www.rte.ie/rnag/ceol-binn-o-na-beanna/programmes/2018/1030/1007626-ceol-binn-na-beanna-d-mirt-30-deireadh-fmhair-2018/?clipid=102966193#102966193

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M-tKm_VPFg

play video

« Now a common session tune and a favourite of flute players, probably thanks to Matt Molloy. This was transcribed direct from the playing of a flutist in Melbourne Australia.

# Posted by Dr. Dow 15 years ago.»

And - yay - Dow’s is the only setting to put an A as the last note of the first bar - everyone else puts a G.

Playing a G there makes the tune sound completely different. There are no Gs anywhere else in the tune, so you could say that the G is out of key. To my ear, and to my mind, adding the G denatures the tune, makes it ordinary. Even if the majority of musicians do put it in. Molloy and Keane did not as far as I recall (have lost my recording).

From Lets Have A Session,
Continuing The Tradition,
A Second Complication of Traditional Irish Music.
Settings Selected and Arranged by Kathleen Harte. Kathleen Harte is a Piano Accordion Player from Melbourne, Australia.

This is more or less Gorman’s reel.
Marin

Here’s a cute use of this tune, played by some familiar faces:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BEyovQ8U4U

play video