The Maid I Ne’er Forgot reel

I was after this tune for ages. I originally heard it on the Arty McGlynn/Nollaig Casey album "Lead the Knave", but it was only marked down as Eminor reel. I even got in touch with the publishers (Tara Music), but they didn’t know what it was and neither did Arty! I eventually stumbled across it by complete accident as an abc file on the web.

As with the album, I usually put t with Lads of Laois, but a major key tune such as Trip to Herve’s or Maid behind the Bar goes well with it.

Still one of my favourite tunes after so many years.

A pure gem. Not often heard thesed days.
The melancholy and energy in it seem to match its name.

I’ve been wondering for a while about a name for the "Bm reel" on the last track of Padraig Rynne’s album "Bye a while". Because the setting is different and it’s transposed so far up, it seems like a different tune. I always thought it was a modern composition, but then figured it would have been credited as such on the album sleeve notes. It always niggled because there was something familiar about the tune, so I eventually got round to transcribing it, and when I transposed it into the more likely key of E minor, I started playing it differently and realised I already knew the tune! Here is the Bm setting (note that his octave leaps have been simplified to held notes):

X: 1
T: The Maid I Ne’er Forgot
T: "Bm reel"
S: Padraig Rynne - Bye a While
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Bmin
B3c d3e|fBbB afge|edBc deed|aec’b afec|
B3e d3e|fBbB afge|edBc deed|1 afge fedc:|2 afge fB~B2||
|:~f3a ~b3B|d’Bc’a bafe|~f3e deed|afge fedc|
B2fB aBfB|~B2bB afge|edBc deed|1 afge fB~B2:|2 afge fedc||

…and transposed a 5th down into Emin:

X: 1
T: The Maid I Ne’er Forgot
T: "Bm reel"
S: Padraig Rynne - Bye a While
N: Transposed down a 5th into E minor for comparison with the standard session setting
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Emin
E3F G3A|BEeE dBcA|AGEF GAAG|dAfe dBAF|
E3F G3A|BEeE dBcA|AGEF GAAG|1 dBcA BAGF:|2 dBcA BE~E2||
|:~B3d ~e3E|gEfd edBA|~B3A GAAG|dBcA BAGF|
E2BE dEBE|~E2eE dBcA|AGEF GAAG|1 dBcA BE~E2:|2 dBcA BE~E2||

Of course, I could’ve just read the comments in the recording section more carefully and seen Kenny’s link to this tune from last year, but that would’ve been way too easy :-)

Just noticed a couple of errors in my last transcription…

X: 1
T: The Maid I Ne’er Forgot
T: "Bm reel"
S: Padraig Rynne - Bye a While
N: Transposed down a 5th into E minor for comparison with the standard session setting
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Emin
E3F G3A|BEeE dBcA|AGEF GAAG|dAfe dBAF|
E3A G3A|BEeE dBcA|AGEF GAAG|1 dBcA BAGF:|2 dBcA BE~E2||
|:~B3d ~e3E|gEfd edBA|~B3A GAAG|dBcA BAGF|
E2BE dEBE|~E2eE dBcA|AGEF GAAG|1 dBcA BE~E2:|2 dBcA BAGF||

This tune (the variation part) is called Gorman’s by the band Orion on their album Blue Room.

I’m not sure where I heard this reel, but it’s a lovely flowing E minor tune.

This sounds like The Maid I Ne’er Forgot.

https://thesession.org/tunes/269

http://youtu.be/l_PHtMA3doY

play video

This tune goes back — at least — to O’Neill (ON1001 #790). Josephine Keegan also includes a setting of the tune in her 2004 collection A Drop in the Ocean, under the title The Stone Ditch.

i think it’s a fine mysterious melody…
i did it ‘oriental style’
thanks for the posts!

Bm