Joe Bane’s reel

From Geoff Bowen’s fiddle tutor.Don’t play it too fast.Marin Hayes plays a lovely version his cd,The Shores Of Lough Graney.

I love this tune. I first heard Danu play it. It is also on the "Boston College Irish Fiddle Festival" CD.

I think it’s a fling.

Flings always get played as single reels, but in some cases the melody makes a better fling than a reel, and I’m inclined to think, despite the impresssive flute playing, that this air swings better as a fling…

R: highland fling
K: G Major
|: d>c |
B2 Bc B>A (3AAA | B>AB>c d>ge>d | (3BcB Bc B>AA>B | (3ded c>A A>G :|
G>d |
e2 a2 g2- g>e | (3ddd B>c d2 (3Bcd | e2 a2 (3ggg g>e | d2 c>A A>GG>d |
e2 a2 g2 g>e | d2 e>f (3ggg f>g | a>b (3agf g2- g>e | (3ddd c>A A>G ||

I agree. Nice playing, ‘c’. 🙂

Wouldn’t you say it was played as a barndance here though…or is that the same thing as a fling?

‘Barndance’ can be a catch all term for all swung dance tunes, including hornpipes. The specific dances called this are generally related, and more usually the schottische, the highland fling/schottische, Germans (including the "7-Step), Military Two Steps and barndances - all often get muddled up with the one term - ‘barndance’. That can be even further extended to include anything considered danceable in a barn. However, there are specific dances and tunes, usually 32 bars, that are more usually thought of as a ‘barndance’. Oh yes, various types of polkas also sometimes get dropped under this header.

In general, 16 bars, and more usually with a second ending for the B-part, sometimes a full 4 bars/measures, swung, this is a highland fling/schottische, but there’s no crime in referring to it as a ‘barndance’ as well, as true of other froms…

X: 2
T: Joe Bane’s
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: highland fling
K: G Major
|: d>c |\
B2 Bc B>A (3AAA | B>AB>c d>ge>d | (3BcB Bc B>AA>B | (3ded c>A A>G :|
G>d |\
e2 a2 g2- g>e | (3ddd B>c d2 (3Bcd | e2 a2 (3ggg g>e | d2 c>A A>GG>d |
e2 a2 g2 g>e | d2 e>f (3ggg f>g | a>b (3agf g2- g>e | (3ddd c>A A>G |]