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The Mortgage Burn reel

By Gordon MacLean

There are 18 recordings of this tune.

This tune has been recorded together with

The Mortgage Burn has been added to 20 tune sets.

The Mortgage Burn has been added to 196 tunebooks.

Download ABC

Four settings

1
X: 1
T: The Mortgage Burn
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Amaj
|:AB|cEBE AEFE|cEBE AEFA|BFBc BFBc|dBcA BAFA|
cEBE AEFE|cEBE AEFA|dBcA BAFE|FAAB A2:|
|:AB|c2 Bc e2 ce|fafe c2 BA|B2 AB c2 Bc|1 ecBA F2 AB|
c2 Bc e2 ce|fafe c2 BA|B2 AB cBAF|EAAB A2:|
[2 ecBA F2 cB|AFEF A2 AB|cBce f2 af|e2 cA BcAF|EAAB A2||
# Added by fiel .
2
X: 2
T: The Mortgage Burn
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Amaj
|:cEBE AEFA|cEBE AEFA|BFBc BFBc|dBcA BAFA|
cEBE AEFA|cEBE AEFA|dBB2 BAFE|FABc A4:|
cAA2 eAce|fafe cABA|cAA2 eAce|fcBA F2AB|
cAA2 eAce|fafe cABA|dBB2 BAFE|FABc A4|
cAA2 eAce|fafe cABA|cAA2 eAce|fcBA F3E|
FABc A2ce|faec BAFA|dBB2 BAFE|FABc A4|
3
X: 3
T: The Mortgage Burn
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Amaj
|:cEBE A~E3|cEBE AEFA|FABc BAFA|dBcA BAFA|
cEBE A~E3|cEBE AEFA|dBcA BAFA|EFAB A4:|
|:c2Bc eAce|fafe cBBA|B2AB c2Bc|ecBA FAAB|
[1 c2Bc eAce|fafe cBBA|B2AB cBAF|EFAB A2AB:|
[2 cB|AFEF A2AB|cBce f2af|fecB BABc|ecBc A4||
4
X: 4
T: The Mortgage Burn
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
|:BDAD G~D3|BDAD GDEG|EGAB AGEG|C'ABG AGEG|
BDAD G~D3|BDAD GDEG|C'ABG AGEG|DEGA G4:|
|:B2AB D'GBD'|E'G'E'D' BAAG|A2GA B2AB|D'BAG EGGA|
[1 B2AB D'GBD'|E'G'E'D' BAAG|A2GA BAGE|DEGA G2GA:|
[2 BA|GEDE G2GA|BABD' E'2G'E'|E'D'BA AGAB|D'BAB G4||

Sixteen comments

From: The Lighthouse Collection, Cranford
Cape Breton

Posted by .

Made by Gordon MacLean

Posted by .

This has become a session favourite in Cape Breton. You can hear it on Brenda Stubbert’s CD "Some Tasty Tunes".

I recorded this tune in a session in London a few weeks ago. I only managed to record the last time through and that is what the dots are based on so I can’t be sure that it was played the same everytime through.

No one there knew what it was called, and no one that I’ve played it to since has known it either. Any ideas?

The Mortgage Burn

Becoming very popular in Ireland these days. Please call it The Mortgage Burn as the composer intended it to be called. ‘Mortgage burning is a twentieth-century American custom that is the ritual burning of a paid off mortgage document by homeowners. It is done as a celebratory event, and is sometimes accompanied by a party in which extended family and friends are invited.’(Wikipedia) That’s the idea.

The Mortgage Burn

Good tune. I’m laughing though, because I’ve always assumed that it was about a small river!

Re: The Mortgage Burn

I’ve just had the pleasure of meeting Gordon MacLean the man who ‘made’ this tune! He was playing piano at John Donald Cameron’s ceilidh in Judique, Cape Breton tonight. Lives nearby. An honour, a pleasure- and a humdinging tune to boot!

Re: The Mortgage Burn

The first tune has an extra bar in the final B music (9 bar phrase) ??
Does anyone play it like this or is it a mistake?

Posted by .

Re: The Mortgage Burn

Tomb, the extra bar is taken from the first line - see how the first time bracket covers the whole fourth bar in the first line of the second part? Not exactly how I’d write it but it does come out correctly.

Posted by .

The Mortgage Burn, X:4

Played in G major by Sean Og Graham, Niamh Dunne and Jim Murray on Jim’s Sunday Sessions with Barbara Streisand’s Trip to Saginaw, a Liz Carroll tune.

Re: The Mortgage Burn

Would a fiddler play this in A or G? If it is Scottish, I should think A?

Posted by .

Re: The Mortgage Burn

It’s Cape Breton, ndlxs. There they would always play it in A.

Re: The Mortgage Burn

Thanks…I am at best an intermediate fiddler. Intellectually I know how to play…that’s not enough!

Posted by .