Where Lilies Bloom polka

This tune, as with most of my other transcriptions, came from the playing of The Chieftains (if you haven’t noticed, I’m something of a Chieftains fan). “Where Lilies Bloom” was featured as the first tune in a medley by the name of “O! The Breeches Full of Stitches” on The Chieftains 7. I didn’t know the name immediately and was considering sending it in as Gan Ainm, but I checked the website irishtune.info and found that it was known as the title I have submitted it under.
As for the tune itself, I think that it sounds best played rather quickly. I play it in a set, derived from the afore-mentioned Chieftains album, with the polkas “The Breeches Full of Stitches” and “Up and Away”. Both are already listed in The Session’s archives. For ornamentation, you can roll the second-octave “e” notes at the beginning of several of the measures as well as the “a” notes in the same octave at the end of each part, both times around. There’s probably more one can do with the tune, so if I recall any further substantial ornamentation, I’ll mention it in a later comment.

We call it Dennis Doody’s and play it in D. Transciption enclosed below.

X:1
T:Dennis Doody’s
M:2/4
L:1/8
K:D
|:DA BA|d2 dc|B>A Bc|BA FA|DA BA|d2 dc|
B>A B/c/d|ed d2:||:fA eA|dA cA|B>A Bc|BA FA
|1fA eA|dA cA|B>A B/c/d|ed d2:|2DA BA|d2 dc|B>A B/c/d|ed d2||

Submitted on October 25th 2009 by bdh.
~ /tunes/9983

X: 3
T: West Kerry
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: Dmaj
|: DF/A/ BA | d2 dc | BA Bc | B/c/B/A/ FA |
DF/A/ BA | d2 dc | BA B/c/d |[1 ed d2 :|[2 ed de ||
fg/f/ ef/e/ | de/d/ cd/c/ | BA Bc | B/c/B/A/ FA |
fg/f/ ef/e/ | de/d/ cd/c/ | BA B/c/d | ed de |
fg/f/ ef/e/ | de/d/ cd/c/ | BA Bc | B/c/B/A/ FA |
DF/A/ BA | d2 dc | BA B/c/d | ed d2 |]

Transcription based on Donal Murphy’s *Happy Hour*. The tune probably has a more precise name than “West Kerry”, but that’s all there is on the track list.

# Posted on October 25th 2009 by bdh

Last night our band, The Jig Is Up!, played a fundraiser for the William J Flynn Center for Irish Studies of the University of St. Thomas (Houston). We played a set of three polkas, the first being “Where Lillies Bloom.” After the show my friend Kathleen Miggins (Irish wife, from Galway, of former professional ball player Larry Migginsr) comes up and says to me, “You know that first polka you played?” and proceeds to identify it by lilting it back to me quite accurately. “Well, I know the lady who wrote that one!” Paraphrasing…. She was quite a good a fiddle player in a nearby community in County Mayo. Her one leg was shorter than the other. Her name was Floursack Maloney - named after the material commonly used to sew undergarments back then, the cotton cloth from the flour sack. So “Where Lillies Bloom” is really Floursack Maloney’s Polka. I"m NOT making this up!

I haven’t a clue if this is here already or not, since I can’t find any option to do an ‘advance’ search as I used to always do in order to at least try to avoid duplication. I’d check a few bars, try some variations as well, and I’d do a couple of key changes to check too. But, it seems that help is now gone. For me that makes it a lot less attractive to add tunes. I’d prefer to be able to check first and at least try to avoid the disappointment of seeing something go “POOF!” and disappear into the ether. So I’m adding this completely clueless. If I’d been able to check for it and had found it I’d be adding it in the ‘comments’ for the earlier submission. It it turns out this is here and it gets deleted, I don’t think I’ll bother…

I have tried other tools, including Googling, without any results…

This is one of several things about the ‘new’ website that makes it very unattractive and less accessible for me, including as a dyslexic. Having actually done a little study on ‘web accessibility’, this change in many ways is not an improvement in that direction, at least not for me…

So, here goes, one more contribution I hope you’ll enjoy, and I hope isn’t a duplication, but it seems I no longer have any way to check that. 🙁 As to origins, I’m not sure. I think it’s one we danced to and it just stuck, as many tunes have, and recently it resurfaced. I’ll see if I can find a version of it for the ears somewhere, but so far, as already mentioned, ABC searches haven’t given me any results ~ yet…

I am working on a promised account of what mechanical changes and losses of function and content to this website I’m finding make this a less friendly place for me, as I’ve promised Jeremy. But, this is one of those perceived losses I miss, one of several… 😏

It’s possible that second ending is my general inclination with this one. If I find a recording where it doesn’t happen I’ll add another transcription. Also, it would come as no surprise if the blame for that variation to ‘hat’ and not the A, in the 3rd and 7th bars, is solely mine…

It wouldn’t surprise me if I was actually duplicating my own previous submission… 😏

I’m curious, all you need do is put ABC into the search box? Or am I missing something from the old advanced search. Because this: https://thesession.org/tunes/search?type=&mode=&q=D2+FA+%7C+d2+cd comes up with this very tune in the results.

Failing that, Tunepal and Reverend’s stuff is the answer…

“It wouldn’t surprise me if I was actually duplicating my own previous submission…”

Or you could go one better and do as a few people have done and duplicate your own composition!

To do a search by ABC fragment, type the fragment into the regular tune search field.

All of the functionality that was previously available under “advanced search” is still available, just condensed into one search form to make things simpler.

You posted a setting of this 3 years ago! 🙂
https://thesession.org/tunes/1719#setting15146

Thanks all, and Mark/Doc Dow, now to let Jeremy know it’s another duplication… I had my suspicions. I did try several ways to search before submitting it, keys too, and different takes, but no luck. However, been there before… Now to get this deleted and move the transcription over if it’s significantly different enough to warrant it.

I did forget to try the box under ‘The Session’ as one of the several search options I took… 😏

S: “Patrick Street: Made in Cork”, track 7, the 1st polka of three

Ted McGraw’s version of Denis Doody’s.