John Doherty’s mazurka

This is truly a great tune.
Recorded by Altan.
The world does not have enough Irish Mazurkas!

Here, Here!! Thanks Snorre, this is yet another great mazurka.

Terrific tune - Thanks Snorre. The second part of this with the marvelous Bb (A#) incidentals, is this actually a modulation to A or a modal shift?

I’m trying to figure out what an appropriate choice of chords would be for both the front and back end of this bouncy tune. Send more Mazurka’s - I think the world needs more of these. If for no other reason than just to announce a Mazurka in a session. The looks of distain and spilled Guinness is worth the comment.

Dion
Not very strong on theory but….
Isn’t the Bb shift (chord of F?) in the third part?
Anyway, it might be a good idea to envision (or even try) the backing on a piano. I think that’ll give that good old swing to it (and maybe a couple of cool bass-movements as well)
just a thought..

BTW
Altan hikes it up to A after a few rounds on the album.

I believe it’s an F-chord for those measures.

Yes, in this part I think it’s G and F chords

The 5th line has D#s on the recording. It should be
K: Gmaj
e^d eg (3e^cA|d^c dA fd|e^d eg (3e^cA|de de cd|

Does anyone know the name of the mazurka on Altan’s Island Angel CD? They just it listed as Mazurka. Anyone have the ABC or dots for it? Thanks. 🙂

Sara

https://thesession.org/tunes/2497

Thank you Dow!

You’re welcome.

Yes, THANK YOU! 🙂 I just love this tune.

Sara

It’s possibly the best mazurka in existence.

I love this tune too. It gets played frequently at our sessions. Beats the cr@p outta Shoe the Donkey - lol

the only Mazurkas that I know are Chopins

how does one handle a trad Mazurka?

Dvorak too…

You folks should come along to Mazowsze
place where mazurkas coming from,

Is that the Polish dance company that I saw at Bradford Alhambra in 1974?

Danzig Willie’s is a great mazurka too.

I believe it is John Doherty’s.

See? Told you bodhran players were slow 🙂

Is it really called that? I was sure it was connected to the fine Donegal fiddler, Mr Doherty.

Still, I bow to your superior knowledge, Dow.

Collected and edited by Allen Feldman & Eamonn O’Doherty

Page 94 ~ "Mazurka"

X: 2
T: Mazurka
S: John Doherty
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
R: mazurka
K: Amaj
|: AB cd cE | Ac ea ec | df B2 Ba | gf fe e2 |
EA cd cE | Ac ea ec | df Bc BA | GB A2 AE :|
Ac e2 ec | (3efg a2 ab | (3agf e2 ea | (3gfe d2 dg | (3fed c2 cB |
Ac e2 ec | (3efg a2 ab | (3agf e2 ea | (3gfe d2 cB | cd e2 B2 ||
e^d eB ge | fa fB ^df | e^d eB ge | fa fB ^df | ef de ||
|: cd BA eA | cd BA eA | Bc B=G dG | Bd B=G dG |
cd BA eA | cd BA eA | GA Bc (3dBG |[1 A2 A ed :|[2 A2 A2 |]

Note: ~ with minor adjustments made, such as the addition of > & the missing (3s, the reduction of the A-part from 16 bars to a repeating 8 bars, AA, and with none of the few cuts or grace notes given…

~ the addition of >

X: 2
T: Mazurka
S: John Doherty
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
R: mazurka
K: Amaj
|: A>E |\
A>B c>d c>E | A>c e>a e>c | d>f B2 B>a | g>f f>e e2 |
E>A c>d c>E | A>c e>a e>c | d>f B>c B>A | G>B A2 :|
A>E |\
A>c e2 e>c | (3efg a2 a>b | (3agf e2 e>a | (3gfe d2 d>g | (3fed c2 c>B |
A>c e2 e>c | (3efg a2 a>b | (3agf e2 e>a | (3gfe d2 c>B | c>d e2 B2 ||
e^d e>B g>e | f>a f>B ^d>f | e>^d e>B g>e | f>a f>B ^d>f | ef d>e ||
|: c>d B>A e>A | c>d B>A e>A | B>c B>=G d>G | B>d B>=G d>G |
c>d B>A e>A | c>d B>A e>A | G>A B>c (3dBG |[1 A2 A e>d :|[2 A2 A2 |]

The man himself can be heard playing it at comhaltasarchive.org. His setting differs here and there from this, I think - no Bb notes? Some added runs thrown in.

Make that the Bundle and Go record where Johnny plays this.

Comparing the first setting to both of Ceolachan’s settings, the measures appear to start in different places, but they both appear to work. Does anyone know which is correct?

The first setting has the bar lines in the correct place. Ceolachan’s settings are set out like GHB retreat marches, moving the anacrusis to the first beat of the bar.

I can’t speak for Ceolachan, but he might say what you’re calling an anacrusis is not an anacrusis, but the proper first beat in the bar. It makes more sense in the B part of the tune, where almost all the bars have a strong accent on the second beat, appropriate for a mazurka.

Having said all that, it’s taken me a long time to stop tinkering with both mazurkas and pipe retreats, adding anacrusis where the cursed voice of my mis-education tells me they should be added. When I was a teenager I remember trying to "fix" a tarantella because my mind couldn’t handle the half-bar anacrusis.

In case someone is wondering, "anacrusis" is the Sunday name for pick-up notes or lead-in notes.

I recently found out that the reason retreats are notated with the anacrusis in the first beat of the bar is so that the tune finishes on the right foot (as all marches do, apparently).