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Were You At The Fair? strathspey

Also known as The Limerick Races Highland Fling, The Limerick Races, Michael Carr’s.

There are 7 recordings of this tune.

Were You At The Fair? has been added to 5 tunebooks.

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Five settings

1
X: 1
T: Were You At The Fair?
R: strathspey
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
|: A>FD>E F2 F>G | A>FD>E F2 E2 | A>FD>E F>EF>G | A>BA>F E2 D2 :|
|: A>dd>e d2 d>B | A>dd>B A>FE>D | A>dd>e d2 d>B | A>BA>F E2 D2 :|
2
X: 2
T: Were You At The Fair?
R: strathspey
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
|: A/ |A>DD>E F>F F2 | A>DD>E F>E E2 | A>DD>E F>F F2 | A>BA>G F>DD3/ :|
|: A/ |A>dd>d c2- c>A | A>dd>d c<Ad>e | f>ed>c B2 B>c | d>AA>G F>DD3/ :|
3
X: 3
T: Were You At The Fair?
R: strathspey
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
|: B/ |A>FD>E F2 F>G | A>FD>E (3FGF E2 | A>FD>E F>^EF>G | A>B (3AGF E2 D3/ :|
|: B/ |A<dd>e d2- d>B | A<dd>B A<FE>D |[1 A<dd>e d>c (3dcB | A>BA>F E2 D3/ :|[2 A<dd>e f>de>d | (3ABA (3AGF E2 D3/ :|
4
X: 4
T: Were You At The Fair?
R: strathspey
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
|:d>BG>A B<GB>d|d>BG>B A>^GA>d|d>BG>A B<GB>a|[1 (3gfe (3dcB A>fg>e:|[2 (3gfe (3dcB A>^GB>d||
g>fg>e a>ba>f|g>fg>e d>BG>B|g>fg>e a>ba>f|(3gfe (3dcB A>^GB>d|
g>fg>e a>ba>f|g>fg>e d>eg>a|(3bag (3agf (3gfe (3fed|(3efg (3dcB A>fg>e|
5
X: 5
T: Were You At The Fair?
R: strathspey
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
|: d>B G>A B2 B>c | d>B G>A B2 A2 | d>B G>A B2 B>c | d>e d>B A2 G>B :|
d>g g>g f>d d>A | d>g g>g f>f f>e | d>g g>f e>f g>e | d>B B>B A2 G>B |
d>g g>g f>d d>A | d>g g>g f>d d>a | b2 g>f e>f g>e | d>B B>B A2 G>B |]

Eight comments

X: 1 "Were You At The Fair?"

This first transcription, with some corrections, is from two sources, old style ABCs on a chalkboard at the C.C.E.’s (Comhaltas) Culturlann, Monkstown, County Dublin, a whistle class given by ‘Mick Allen’ (Micheál Ó hAlmhain) and a problem transcription in ABCs and dots from page 15 of a publication by the same person and organization:

"Tutor for the Feadóg Stáin” by two old acquaintances, Micheál Ó hAlmhain & Séamus MacMathúna, published by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (C.C.E.)… I’ve learned tunes and songs and more from these two talented masters.

X: 2 "Limerick Races" ~ the history bit

S: "Musician’s Omnibus, No. 3: 1000 Pieces of Music - ", by Elias Howe, Boston, 1866
page 220, "Irish Airs" - notated with swing in 2/4 in the key of D
= 110 pages in total with the index for the first couple of pages and then notations beginning with a page numbered as 200…

This transcription has suffered minor editing/correcting by me, for example from 2/4 to 4/4 and by finishing the given swing of the majority of the original, as with the lead-in notes - ( F>DD3/ :| A/ |\ ) …

This Elias Howe collection, "Musician’s Omnibus, Nos. 1 - 4", is nicely made available by IMSLP: Petrucci Music Library, and Fynnjamin, a member here: https://thesession.org/members/36261
& http://imslp.org/wiki/User:Fynnjamin - - - "Most of the things I upload here are not scanned by myself, but uploaded from external sites such as archive.org and other library digitization projects - "

In a Welsh treatment of ‘y’ I tend to pronounce this as ‘fun-jammin’… 😉 ~ who has kindly linked to many fine manuscripts and made them available from and via various sources online, as through IMSLP above, with much appreciation and thanks for the information and ‘fun’ they’ve given me…

http://imslp.org/wiki/User:Fynnjamin

X: 3 "Were You At The Fair?"

I know this with a second ending, classic with highland flings. This is also known and played in the keys of G and A and notations in those keys can be found online…