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The Red Crow reel

By Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh

There are 19 recordings of this tune.

This tune has been recorded together with

The Red Crow has been added to 24 tune sets.

The Red Crow has been added to 330 tunebooks.

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One setting

1
X: 1
T: The Red Crow
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Ador
|:A,2 EA, B,G,G,B,|(3A,A,A, EG FDEG|AGED EA,A,D|ECDC B,G,G,B,|
(3A,A,A, EA, B,G,G,B,|(3A,A,A, EG (3FFD EG|
[1 AGED EA,A,C|DB,G,B, A,2 (3G,A,B,:|2 AGED EA,A,C DB,G,B, A,2 (3AAA||
A2 eA ceAc|eAce dcBA|(3GGG dc BdGB|dGBd edcB|
(3AAA eA ceAc|eAcb ageg|age^c d=fed|(3cBA BG A2 AG|
A2 eA ceAc|eAce dcBA|(3GGG dc BdGB|dGBd edcB|
(3AAA aA gAfA|(3AAA cA BAGB|(3cBA BG AGED|ECDB, CA,B,G,||
# Added .

Nine comments

The Red Crow

This tune comes from Altan’s cd of the same name,and is a composition of fiddler Mairead ni Mhaonaigh. It’s a great, growling tune full of thunder and the swagger of crows. The most difficult passages (for fiddle at least) come in measures 3-4 and 11-12 of Part B, catching the "d"s and "G"s together with your ring finger and coming off them clean. As with most troublesome spots, this simply requires extra practice, perhaps even isolating these phrases and repeating them till they go more smoothly. Also watch for the moving triplet in measure 6 of Part A. If this is too tricky, play the phrase as noted in measure 2. Mairead throws in some choice doublestops in the first half, notably in measure 3 (AGED EA,[EA,]D) and again in the second ending for the half (DB,G,B, [EA,]2 (3AAA ).
Enjoy!

Posted .

awesome awesome tune!

I heard Denis Lanctot play this last night brilliantly… thanks for your usual excellent transcription, Will!

Posted by .

I love this tune!!!! brilliant, brilliant…..🙂

Posted by .

Instead of bowed triplets in the first half, you can use a clear cut (grace note) to get a cool flippy effect.
And an easier version of the tricky spot 3-4 and 11-12 in the B part is:

(3GGG dc (3BBB GB (3ddd Bd edcB

Absolutely awesome tune!

I love Luke Daniels’ bouncy version of this tune on ‘Tarantella’. Awesome!

The Monster Ceilidh Band version of this is totally amazing 🙂 Learnt it off Amy Thatcher last year, its a rocking tune!

Re: The Red Crow

Thanks for the video, anikmuan. I’ve just learned this reel off a recording I made of a session. In my recording, it was played quite slow - just below 80bpm, I believe (which is nice for learning). In the video you posted it’s at about 125bpm. I like the sound of it played slowly, it has a melancholy air to it, but it’s an entirely different tune at the higher tempo.