The Old Pigeon On The Gate reel

Again, a tune which seems to be favoured by wind- instrument players. My source was Finbar Furey, and it was also on a record featuring Tommy Keane, who played it on whistle. In both of these recordings, it was given the above title. More recent recordings, by Conal O’Grada ("Top Of Coom" LP), and "Arcady" ("After The Ball") have listed it as "Cathal McConnel’s", but the tune , I feel is much older than him!
Interestingly, before posting it, I checked to see if it was already in the tune-list, and looked at "The Pigeon On The Gate" in Em. There are very strong similarities in the tune structure, so that this appears to be a major key version of the better- known reel.
As with my previous posting, the "Beehive", this is a basic version of the tune, and there are many variations possible.

If this is the tune I’m thinking it is the Fs in the third bar are natural, or did you mean them to be F#s?

All Fs are # as I play it.

paddy keenan plays this tune with niall vallely on concertina on his cd na keen affair
he just calls it the pigeon on the gate and the case liner notes say that this is yet another version of the pigeon popularised by conal o’grada
he plays it with F# and to me the second part resembles quite closely the second part of the dogs amongst the bushes as played by planxty and i think from memory willy clancy on one of his records

sorry i meant to say paddy keenan plays the f’s natural in the third bar thats what the whole post was about but i forgot
nice tune though no one really plays it do they??

The following is a beautiful setting from the mighty Paddy Fahy, from East Galway . I’ve written it out in G, but in fact it drifts between major and mixolydian. Similar, but not quite as magical, settings are played by Paddy Canny, from Clare and Jerry Holland, from Nova Scotia.

T: Pigeon On The Gate, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: G
|:Bc|dG~G2 dcAd|{e}dcde dcAG|=F3d cF~F3|Agfd c=FAc|
dG~G2 dcAd|{e}dcde dcAG|FGAd g2ag|1 fdcA GA:|2 fdcA G3B||
|:dg{a}gf gagf|dg{a}g2 {b}af{a}gf|dc{d}cB cage|f2ag fgef|
dg{a}gf gagf|dg{a}g2 {b}af{a}gf|dc{d}cB cage|fdcA G2Bc:|fdcA G2||

K: Gdor
Ac|dG ~G2 dcAc|~d3e dcAB|cF ~F2 cFAB|~c3f dcAc|
dG ~G2 dcAc|~d3e dcAG|FAcf abga|fdcA G2:|
(3ABc|dg g/2g/2g fagf|dgga bgaf|dc c/2c/2c =Bcde|f2 eg fdcA|
Gg g/2g/2g fagf|dgga bgaf|dc=Bc gceg|fdcA G2:|

This is very similar to Kitty Gone A Milking: https://thesession.org/tunes/1647

The version I learnt in my area is very different to Kenny’s and goes like this:

X: 1
T: Old Pigeon On The Gate, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
Bc|dG~G2 dG~G2|(3Bcd eB dBAB|cF~F2 cF~F2|(3Bcd eB dBAB|
dG~G2 dG~G2|(3Bcd eB dBAG|FGAd ~f3e|dcAF G2:|
|:Bc|dggf ~g3f|dg~g2 bgaf| dffe ~f3e|defg agfe|
dggf ~g3f|dg~g2 bgaf|d^cde ~f3e|dcAF G2:|

A friend sent me this transcription by e-mail. He says "this is Neilie Boyle’s setting of Pigeon on the Gate, marked out by the interesting syncopation in the first bars. It’s got a fair bit in common with the setting of the Old Pigeon on the Gate".

X: 1
T: Pigeon On The Gate
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
Ac|: dGGF GedG | Gdce dcAG | =F2 FA cF F/2F/2F | =F2 dF cFAc |
dG {A}G/2G/2F GedG | Gdce dcAG | =F2 Ad fage | =fdcA G2 Ac :|
|: dggf gagf | dg g/2g/2g | bgag | d=f f/2f/2f afgf | d/2e/2=f eg fdcA |
G2gf gagf | dg g/2g/2g bgag | d=f f/2f/2f afge | =fdcA G2 Ac :|

X: 1
T: Old Pigeon On The Gate, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
|:Bc| dG G2 dgeg | d2 de dcAB | cF F2 cFdF | (3Bcd de dcBc |
dG G2 dgeg | d2 de dcAG | FGAB cdeg | fdcA G2 Bc :|
|: dg g2 ag g2 | dg g2 bgaf | dcde f3e | defg agfd |
dg g2 ag g2 | dg g2 b3g | dcde fgfd | cAFA G4 :|

X:1
T:The Pigeon on the Gate
S:Jerry Holland
D:Master Cape Breton Fiddler
M:C|
K:Gdor
c|:dG (3GGG {e}dcAc|d2de dcAB|cF (3FFF cFAB|c2cf dcBc|\
dG (3GGG {e}dcAc|d2de dcAG|FAcf afga|fdcA GABc::\
dg (3ggg fagf|dgga bgaf|dcde fgfd|cAf2 fgaf|\
dg (3ggg fagf|dgga bgaf|dcde fgfd|1cAFA GABc:|2cAFA G2G|]

…also has a version in G

X:1
T:Pigeon on the Gate
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:G
|:Bc|dGGG dGeG|dGeG dBAB|cFFF AFFF|B/c/ded cABc|dGGG dGeG|dGeG dcAG|FGAB cded|fdcA BG:|
|:Bc|dggg fage|dggg b2ag|fdde fde^c|defg a2ge|dggg fage|dggg b2ag|fdde fde/f/g|fdcA BG:|

http://youtu.be/Z-fHWIPpdac

play video

Sorry, my technological ineptitude can’t figure out how to add a recording to the list of albums featuring this tune. There’s a powerful version of this tune played by Brendan Mulvihill (double-tracked!) on Zan McLeod’s "Highland Soul" album.

Go to Recordings, find the link for adding a new recording, and follow the directions to add the album and its entire track listings. Be careful to avoid typos. If the tune title on the album track listing matches the title of this tune (and there are no other tunes in the database here with the same title that take priority), it should link automatically.

First go at posting in ABC for a while… I’d kind of forgotten how it all works…

The setting I’ve added is one I picked up from the playing of Noel Hill. On "Irish Concertina", he lists the tune as ‘The Pigeon on the Gate’ (henceforth PotG) but… it doesn’t bear much resemblance to the Eminor version of PotG as I know it, or as I’ve ever heard it played. I’ve since heard him refer to this setting of it as the Old PotG, so that’s where I’m adding it. I love this version for the implied syncopation - the way the second phrase creeps in early and then sorts itself out at the end.

I do see a LOT of versions in various modes of G over on the main PotG page, and they don’t match with this setting, which is pure Gminor… to my mind, the versions in G are not so similar to the Eminor version that I think they belong together. I suspect that the G(various) settings should be on this page, and the Eminor ones on the straightforward PotG page, but that might take a bit of doing…

I really love this reel. The version I learned is kinda different from the ones listed here bit retains the same feel and overall structure.

I like playing this after Humours of Tulla in G, anyone know a good tune to follow?

Learned this setting in a workshop with John Skelton

Une version moins courante que celle en E dorien
Vous pouvez l écouter en midi avec la partition et quelques accords sur ma chaîne :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2owVyVY7-c&feature=youtu.be

play video

ou par le maître accordéoniste Finbar Dwyer à :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNOQLv0Ivvs

play video

Taken from this lovely video of Sean Ryan, starting at 3:50: https://youtu.be/q0pXmS1Ljmk

play video

It’s one of the interesting G major/mixolydian versions with an interchangeable F - sometimes natural, sometimes sharp, sometimes seemingly in between, and I find Ryan’s version quite haunting. I felt it was worth adding as it has some differences to similar versions here.