Reel Du Pendu reel

Also known as Hanged Man’s, The Hanged Man’s, Hangman’s, The Hangman’s, Hangmans, Le Reel Du Pendu, Reel Du Bourreau, Reel Of The Hanged Man, The Reel Of The Hanged.

There are 23 recordings of this tune.

Reel Du Pendu has been added to 82 tunebooks.

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Three settings

X: 1
T: Reel Du Pendu
R: reel

X: 2
T: Reel Du Pendu
R: reel

M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Amaj
|:[A,E][Ac][Ac][Bc] c2 (c2|c)[cd]c[Bc] [Ac][Bc]c[Ac]|[A,E][Ac][Ac]c [Bc][Ac][Bc]c|[cd]c[Bc][Ac] c[Ac][Ac][Bc]|c2 c3 [cd]c[Bc]|[Ac][Bc]c[Ac] [A,E]3 c|[Bc][Ac][GA][Bc] [Ac]2 [Ac]2:|
|:[A,E][Ac][Ac][Bc] c2 cc|[Bc][Ac][Bc][dc] c2 cc|[A,E][Ac][Ac][Bc] c2 cc|1 [Bc][Ac][GA][Bc] [Ac]2 [Ac]2:|2 [Bc][Ac][GA][Bc] A2 Ac|
|:(3edc [Ac][Ac] [A,E]4|(3edc c[Ac][Bc][dc] c2|(3edc [Ac][Ac][A,E]3 [Ac]|1 [Bc][Ac][Bc][dc] [A,E]4:|2 [Bc][Ac][Bc]c [A,E]2 Ac|
B2 GB EBGB|EBGB AGAc|B2 GB EBGB|EBGB AGAc|B2 GB EBGB|EBGB AGAc|B2 GB EBGB|cBAB [Ae]2 [A,E]2|[A,EAc]2 (3edc c2 c2|
[Bc][Ac][Bc][dc] c2 [A,E]2|[A,EAc]2 (3edc c2 c2|[Bc][Ac][Bc]c A2 AA|[A,EAc]2 (3edc c2 c2|[Bc][Ac][Bc][dc] c2 [A,E]2|[Ac]2 [EA]2 [A,E]2 GA|BABc A2 AA|
CEEE DEEE|CEEE B,EEE|CEEE DEEE|EGBG [Ac]2 [Ac]2|[CE][EA][EA][EA] [DE][EA][EA][EA]|[CE][EA][EA][EA] [B,E][EA][EA][EA]|[CE][EA][EA][EA] [DE][EA][EA][EA]|EGBG [Ac]2 [Ac]2|
[CE][Ac][Ac][Ac] [DE][Ac][Ac][Ac]|[CE][Ac][Ac][Ac] [B,E][Ac][Ac][Ac]|[CE][Ac][Ac][Ac] [DE][Ac][Ac][Ac]|EGBG [Ac]2 [Ac]2|[CE][Ac][Ac][Ac] [DE][Ac][Ac][Ac]|[CE][Ac][Ac][Ac] [B,E][Ac][Ac][Ac]|[CE][Ac][Ac][Ac] [DE][Ac][Ac][Ac]|EGBG [Ac]2 [Ac]2||

X: 3
T: Reel Du Pendu
R: reel

Twelve comments

translated as "reel of the hanged", the legend behind this tune is quite interesting. If a man condemned to death by hanging could pick up a fiddle whilst he stood on the gallows and could play this tune from ear, he would be allowed to go free. Ornamentation is interesting to find for this reel. heard it when i was in donegal of all places.

Reel du pendu - reel du cordonnier

I’ve heard this as an arcadian tune. It works well with reel du cordonnier, whihc is the hang mans reel.

I seem to remember Aly Bain playing this as the opening music to a TV programme in the 1980’s; stunning!

The first time I saw the Boys of the Lough in person, Aly played this. He was in absolutely top form and when he finished, the entire audience instantly leapt to our feet and went berserk. It was a peak experience.

Reel du Pendu

You can listen to this tune played by the French-Canadian fiddler Jean Carignan on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07ONSE1nn64

play video

There’s no video, unfortunately, but the music is accompanied by old stills of the player with explanatory text in French.
There’s also a more expanded and detailed dots version in scordatura tuning in the Fiddler’s Fakebook.

You can hear several old recordings of traditional fiddlers playing Reel du pendu at http://www.udenap.org/groupe_de_pages_06/reel_du_pendu.htm

Jean Carignan’s version is fantastic. All of the versions shown appear to be in A major.