Four settings
Seventeen comments
Played with a nice swing by Kevin Burke on “Up Close”.
Hornpipe?
Isn’t this tune a hornpipe?
The Boys of Ballycastle
I’d agree, Kenny. The tune has that rhythm at the end of the 4-bar phrases that is typical of so many hornpipes.
Trevor
It is a hornpipe I think. I play it with Napoleon Crossing the Rhine. They make a nice set.
Hornpipe
This tune is certainly a hornpipe and I have come across a few musicians who called it ‘The Gipsy Hornpipe’,
Good Luck
Mikea
This is called Leggett’s Reel in Kerr’s Merry Melodies. Don’t know why anyone would play it as a reel, though.
Boys of Ballycastle
Jimmy Shand recorded a very similar (major-key) tune called “The cairdin’ o’t” at reel tempo, which Kevin Burke has also recorded.
Gypsy HP
Here’s a marginally different take on this (I know it as the Gypsy’s HP) from our session and before that probably from a workshop CD by Angie Bladen and Martin Ellison.
X:1
T:Gypsy Hornpipe
M:4/4
R:Hornpipe
K:G
L:1/8
d||: g>fe>d e>dB>d | e>d (3efg B2 B>A | G>FG>A B>AB>d | e2 A2 A2 d2 |
g>fe>d e>dB>d | e>d (3efg B2 B>A | G>FG>A B>cB>A |1 G2 E2 E2 d2 :|2 G2 E2 E2 g>f |
||:e2 B2 B2 g>f | e2 B>A B2 g>f | e>de>f g>fg>a | b2 b2 e2 g>a |
(3bag (3agf g2 g>f | e>d (3efg B2 B>A | G>FG>A B>cB>A |1 G2 E2 E2 g>f :|2 G2 E2 E4 ||
I first heard this tune and played it with a mandolin and guitar group whom I play acoustic bass with. We use a written out arrangement by Steve Kaufman.
Laurence
I was recently listening to the “Up Close” CD by Kevin Burke when I noticed how similar this tune was to the one which I know as “Gypsy’s Hornpipe” by Steve Kaufman. I think our first mandolin player found it in a book of tunes arranged for mandolin orchestras by Kaufman.
Laurence
Boys of Ballycastle
I first saw this tune under the name, The Gipsy’s Hornpipe, in the 1954 book, The Second Fiddler’s Tune-Book 100 Tradional Airs, edited by Peter Kennedy.
Re: The Boys Of Ballycastle
The famed fiddler James Scott Skinner (1843-1927) played this under the title “The Shillelah” and published it in his 1903 collection “Harp and Claymore”.
Re: The Boys Of Ballycastle
O‘Neill ’collected’ it in his “Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody.”
Re: The Boys Of Ballycastle
O’Neill got it from a “Pat Dunne manuscript”. Possibly 19th century Wicklow piper Patrick Dunne, owner of a large collection of books and manuscripts which were lost in a fire.
Re: The Boys Of Ballycastle
I know this under the ‘Ballycastle’ title from the Kevin Burke recording (though round my way a slightly different setting is played as Gypsy’s/Gipsy’s Hornpipe. As I remember, KB follows it with ‘Little Stack of Barley’ - which generally seems to be notated in G and is quite similar to ‘Ballycastle’. To differentiate it he puts it in A*, which gives it a real lift. A favourite pair of mine. (*http://www.rudemex.co.uk/library/Alphabetical/Little%20Stack%20of%20Barley,%20The%20(A).pdf)
Re: The Boys Of Ballycastle
A terrific rendition of this tune (on mandolin, by Gina Le Faux) is on Podcast #14 of The Mike Harding Folk Show. The tune starts at around the 44 minute mark. This hornpipe is then followed by The Old Grey Cat.
https://mikehardingfolkshow.com/podcast-14/
Madame Florence’s Favourite, X:4
This four part 2/4 medley of tunes appearing in the Reilly Family MSS (c1900s) is a combination of two tunes The Boys of Ballycastle and The White Cockade