Eamon Coyne’s reel

I’m a bit puzzled about the 3/4 in bar 14 as if this is how it’s played, it’s not going to be very popular with the dancers! Otherwise a very nice tune - would the Eamonn Coyne have been that late great fiddler who played with the Liverpool Ceili Band in the 1960s and 70s?

I met and played with the man about 8 years ago whilst over in Liverpool, he was playing around the Irish theme pub scene that was popular at that time I think in england. He has a flute playing brother, last I heard he was still alive.
Good Luck
Mikea

Isn’t he a Dublin born banjo player? https://thesession.org/recordings/390

This was originally a Scottish tune called ‘Geordie Affleck’, in the horrible key of E flat major. Played in Donegal by many old players in various keys; also in Breathnach’s Vol II as no 191 (gan ainm) recorded from Tommy Peoples

I have a strong suspicion this tune is already here somewhere and will get deleted. But I decided to take the chance and post it anyway, prompted by FIDDLE4’s query in discussions
https://thesession.org/discussions/17326 .
Somebody must have a name for this tune.

The version I have posted is more or less as it is played by Michael Clarkson on ‘The Far Set’ https://thesession.org/recordings/1057 .
For want of a better title, he calls it ‘Reel in G’. The version I have heard in sessions has a pecular syncopated phrase in the B-part, with tied note across bars 9 and 10 and goes something like this:

M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
BcdB G3B | ADFA dcBA | B2dB GFGB | ADFA G3A :|
|: BGBd gfed | cBce agfe | fgaf d^cdf | eA^ce d2ef |
gfed (3efg a2-|-afge dcBA | BcdB G3B |1 A2FA G3 A:|2 A2FA G2dc||

As far as I remember, it is always played with an 8-bar (4 bars repeated) A-part and a 16-bar (8 bars repeated) B-part.

I think I have heard the title ‘Mairtín O’Connor’s‘ used. However, I find both this title and that used by Michael Clarkson unsatifactory, so I’mm putting these both as alternate titles and leaving the main title as Gan Ainm until someone comes up with a better one.

’Tis indeed here already https://thesession.org/tunes/1952

(Posted on April 9th 2008 by granama)

X: 1
T: The Mint In The Corn
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
BcdB G3B | ADFA dcBA | B2dB GFGB | ADFA G3A :|
|: BGBd gfed | cBce agfe | fgaf d^cdf | eA^ce d2ef |
gfed ^cdef | afge fgdc | BcdB GFGB |1 A2FA G3 A:|2 A2FA G2dc||

The version I have posted is more or less as it is played by Michael Clarkson on ‘The Far Set’ https://thesession.org/recordings/1057 .
For want of a better title, he calls it ‘Reel in G’. The version I have heard in sessions has a pecular syncopated phrase in the B-part, with tied note across bars 9 and 10 and goes something like this:

T: The Mint In The Corn
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
BcdB G3B | ADFA dcBA | B2dB GFGB | ADFA G3A :|
|: BGBd gfed | cBce agfe | fgaf d^cdf | eA^ce d2ef |
gfed (3efg a2-|-afge dcBA | BcdB G3B |1 A2FA G3 A:|2 A2FA G2dc||

As far as I remember, it is always played with an 8-bar (4 bars repeated) A-part and a 16-bar (8 bars repeated) B-part.

I think I have heard the title ‘Mairtín O’Connor’s‘ used. However, I find both this title and that used by Michael Clarkson unsatifactory, so I’mm putting these both as alternate titles and leaving the main title as Gan Ainm until someone comes up with a better one.

Bannerman: “I’m a bit puzzled about the 3/4 in bar 14”

I too find this a little suspect. The second version I have posted above (kindly transferred by Dow from my duplicate submission of the tune) has the syncopated bit in it, but without straying from 4/4 time.

Thanks to Dow also for the ‘real’ title.

…and to Niall for the even older title.

I found some other random transcriptions on the net:

X: 1
T: Eamonn Coyne’s
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
Z: Harry Bradley
K: Gmaj
BcdB GABG | ADFA dcBA | BcdB GABG | ADFA G2 GA :|
|:BGBd gfed | ^cBce agfe | fgaf defd | eA^ce d2 ef |
gfed ^ceag | fde^c d^cBA | BcdB GABD | ADFA G2 GA :|

This from the Fiddler’s Companion:

ÉAMONN COYNE’S. AKA and see “Geordie Affleck.” Irish, Reel. Caoimhin Mac Aoidh identifies this tune as one that Francie Dearg & Mickey Ban O Beirn played in the key of D Major and John Doherty and Danny O’Donnell played in A Major, called “The Mint in the Corn.” Tommy Peoples also plays the tune in D Major, learned from older Donegal musicians. It is a version, Mac Aoidh explains, of the Scottish reel “Geordie Affleck.” Breathnach (CRÉ II), No. 191 (appears as “gan ainm/untitled”).

X: 1
T: Éamonn Coyne’s
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
Z: Barney
K: Gmaj
BcdB GABG|AD (3DDD cAFA|BcdB GABG|ADEF G3A|
BcdB GABG|AD (3DDD AD (3DDD|BcdB GABG|ADEF G3A||
|:BGBd gfed|cAce agfe|fgaf defd|ed^ce d2ef|
gfed efa2-|agfe dcBA|BcdB GABG|ADFA G4:||

This tune also appears on Michelle O’Brien, Aogan Lynch and Gavin Ralston’s recording. It’s the ni fios tune at the end of track 1.

X: 1
T: Éamonn Coyne’s
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
S: Michelle O’Brien
K: Gmaj
B2dB G3B|AD (3DDD dDcA|BcdB GB~B2|ADFA G3A:|
|:~B3d gfed|~^c3e agfe|f2af df~f2|fe^ce d3f|
gfed (3^cde a2-|agfe dcBA|B2dB GB~B2|ADFA G3A:|

X: 1
T: Éamonn Coyne’s
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
S: Aogan Lynch
K: Gmaj
BcdB GABG|AD (3DDD dDcD|BcdB GABG|ADFA G3A:|
|:BGBd gfed|~^c3e agfe|fAaf defd|eA^ce d3f|
gfed (3efg a2-|agfe dcBA|B2dB GABG|ADFA G3A:|

Corn mint news you can use.
http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Mentha+arvensis
http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue1/tomlinson/scripts/abcd.cfm?taxa=Mentha+arvensis&date=PR&action=rec&long=on

It’s nice to see another transcription without the a2-|a in it. I always thought this sounded like an old tune, and the syncopated bit sounded like a recent affectation. Nothing against it per se, except that, while it’s really nothing more than a cheeky twist, it’s come to be regarded as *how the tune goes*. Such its the nature of a living tradition, I suppose.

I agree.

I don’t find this tune on “Born for Sport”, though it is a great album..

I believe the intended tune, John Doherty’s, is a different reel entirely.

(The album points to the right place, it’s just the listing of albums with this tune that is wrong.)

The version Seamus Egan plays on his second album is an E Dorian reel that sounds a bit like this:


X:1
T: Eamonn Coyne’s
D: A Week in January - Seamus Egan
D: Soundtrack for Brothers McMullen
M:4/4
L:1/16
K:E dor
Q:120
|:GA| BEGA BE3| B2AB GE3| A2AB AF3| dBAF D2EF|
G3A (3Bcd gf| eB (3BBB d3A| B2Bd BA3|dBAG E2 :|
|:Bd| e2 ef g2 fg| edBd edBc| d2 def2 fe| dBAF E2 EF|
G3A (3Bcd gf| edBc d2 dA | B2 Bd BA FA| dBAG E2:|

Does this tune go by a different name? Originally I heard that this tune was named for neither the fiddler nor the banjo player but for a butcher in Clare from whom Seamus Egan got the tune. Who knows? At the very least, it’s a better story for a pretty decent tune.

The tune was first published by John Hamilton for William Marshall in a sheet titled after its first tune, “The Marchioness of Cornwallis’s Strathspey” [National Library of Scotland, Murdoch Henderson Collection, MH.e.225]. The tune later known as “Geordie Affleck” is there called “The English Mariner”, and it’s in E flat as Kenny says.

It appears in Pringle’s collection of 1801 as “Miss Maxwell Gordon’s Reel”, which I assume is a renaming by Marshall himself.

If ever there was a perfect argument for the impracticality of referring to traditional tunes by names…this might be it, as a quick read through the comments will show — for I think I can give a correct and full account of the “Eamon(n) Coyne” attribution, at least; but, while the second fiddler of that name is a prolific and excellent composer of tunes…this is not one of them — and its heritage before the Coynes got into it is not for me to speak to. Eamon Coyne (Junior, as was) of the Liverpool (ex Roscommon) Coynes has been this side the pond for about a decade, north of Boston; he’s the head centre of the sessions I attend regularly and has become a good friend. Here’s the deal with regards to this tune, from Eamon’s comments over that time (he plays the tune fairly regularly as a party-piece): His father (Eamon Coyne, Sr, RIP, one of the founding members of the Liverpool Céilí Band) surely played it, because once he and another lad were on a Comhaltas tour of the States — their “turn” was playing a set finishing with this tune, with the “missed beat” (probably the set Syncopation/Guns of the Magnificent Seven played by elder brother, piper Mick Coyne on his album Both Sides of the Coyne, which is the set Eamon plays as his party piece). After that, they were to stay on stage and play for a pair of step dancers. The dancers got the cue wrong: as Eamon and his mate launched into the twisty set…out they stepped from the wings. You can imagine what happened next. Yer Man in the comments above who opined “not very popular with the dancers” might have been there :>) Now,_that_Eamon’s son is also a fiddler named Eamon — he’s the one “Mikea” had a tune with in the ‘pool and yes, he’s still going strong — but over here now. He’s ALSO the “butcher in Clare from whom Seamus Egan got the tune” — he had a beef butchery on the high street in Miltown Malbay during the decade he lived there, roughly the ’80s, and was playing out every night with just about everyone you can think of. As far as I know, at least, the banjo player Eamonn Coyne has no connection with the tune; so I’ve removed the second “n.” That’s what I know, for what it’s worth.

I copied this reel with variations from an old tape I have from many years ago. I have included all the variations from the tape. Lovely playing but sorry I’m not sure who was playing.

First heard by the band, Emerald. My “straight” version for my C#D.