The Merry Sisters reel

This setting is from Donegal fiddler Tommy Peoples and owes much to his inventive style of playing.

The third part is more or less a variation on the first part, but it’s a heck of a finger-twister.

This version is from the title track of Lunasa’s latest CD. They play it on flute, pipes, and fiddle at mind blowing speed and clarity in A dorian (it’s in the Krassen O’Neill’s as “The Merry Sisters” in E dorian).

On fiddle, the A Part is the easiest (if you’ve got your triplets working). Watch for the 2nd measure where you have to grab what amounts to a G chord all at once to get that gdBd phrase at speed.

The B Part is only a little trickier. Measures 4 and 8 feature a bunch of snappy bowings across the strings, but the result is worth a little practice to get it smooth. Then measure 6 jumps into 2nd position to get the high c. I suppose you could stay in first position and reach, but the open e strings on either end of this phrase make is easier (for me) to just shift up for 7 notes and then back down again.

Part C is a mind bender. If you can manage the first measure hop from the 3rd string G to first string f, you’ve still got to negotiate all the ins and outs of the following runs. Measures 3 and 4 may also be played |egfg edbc|dG(3GGG DGBd|. And at the very end, if the downhill triplets are jsut too much, play it: |bgaf g2 fg|.

The tune is also a close relative of the Merry Harriers, a breed of hunting dog (not sure what this says about the beauty of those “sisters”)….

Tommy Peoples plays a slightly different version in E-dorian on his album ‘The Iron Man’.
Altan have a tune (in Bm or B-dorian, I think) called The Three Merry Sisters of Fate, which is related, but a different tune.

Matt Molloy also does this on “Shadows on Stone”, under the name “The Merry Sisters”.

it’s the same tune, just in Edor (or Em?). Altan and Lunasa also do it, among many many others…

The Shepherd’s Daugher: https://thesession.org/tunes/1313 Altan recorded it as John Doherty’s version of the Merry Sisters of Fate on “Runaway Sunday.”

And a Scots version here: https://thesession.org/tunes/3038

Con Cassidy’s Highland: https://thesession.org/tunes/2093

Go here for the Ador Lunasa version https://thesession.org/tunes/623

Go here for Tommy Peoples’ Edor version https://thesession.org/tunes/165

The version by Liam O’Flynn, played with (what he calls) O’Rourke’s and Colonel Fraser on “The Given Note”:

X:1
T:Merry Sisters
S:Liam O’Flynn
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:Reel
K:Em
dc|:BE{G}E{F}E Bd c/2{d}c/2A|{c}BE{G}E{F}E dAFA|
BE{G}E{F}E Bd c/2{d}c/2A|dD{G}D{F}D ADFA:|
K:Edor
BE{f}ec d2cA|Be{f}ed BAFA|Be{f}ec dcdA|
B3/2{c}B/2{A}Bc dAFA|Be{f}ec d2-dA|Be{f}ec defg|
af .g/2.f/2e fded|BABc dAFA|BdcA {c}BAFA|BE{G}E{F}E BEFA|
B3/2{c}B/2{A}BA B3/2{c}B/2{A}Bc|dD{G}D{F}D ADFA|BdcA {c}BAFA|
BE{G}E{F}E {c}BAFA|D2.E/2.F/2A d2eg|fdec dAFA|]

On TG4 back in 2008… horrible loops and effects though http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCfq0xpDQDc&feature=related

play video

Wait…it’s not that tune is it? :-S

The loops end before this tune.

Here is the version published by O’Neill in Dance Music of Ireland - 1001 Gems (1907), p. 100, no. 535.

This is as heard from “The Celebrated Recordings” of John Doherty, at the end of a set with Kitty’s Gone A’Milking and The Dog Among The Bushes.

This unusual setting of The Three Merry Sisters of Fate comes from a recording of Francie & Mickey Byrne (The Deargs) of Kilcar. It has the same name but only a slight resemblance to these other versions. They play it fast and it has a wild feel.

This is the version of Paddy Glackin in “Athchuairt”, accompagnied by the late Mícheál Ó Domhnaill and maybe Matt Molloy (?).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVMFOkb8KaY&list=OLAK5uy_n5v6XfSy1fOyD9OC1rCqqcRKOLiDmNGFo&index=3

play video