The Rookery reel

By Vincent Broderick

There are 39 recordings of this tune.
This tune has been recorded together with

The Rookery appears in 2 other tune collections.

The Rookery has been added to 89 tune sets.

The Rookery has been added to 275 tunebooks.

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Two settings

1
Sheet Music
Sheet Music
Sheet Music
Sheet Music
2
Sheet MusicGCGD
Sheet MusicEmCDC
Sheet MusicGDCD
Sheet MusicEmCDC

Fourteen comments

The Rookery

I learned this one in a class with John Skelton at the Swannanoa Gathering several years ago. I’m not sure of it’s actual origin. I like following it with “Sally Gardens” (the reel, of course.)

This is my first attempt at transcribing into ABC, so I hope I got it right. I can never remember what the names of the key signatures are. This tune has an F#.

The Rookery

I think this is another composition by Vincent Broderick.

Key signature

Gmaj rather than Dmix, but doesn’t matter for the sheet music

Typo ?

The f on the 3rd bar is odd. I’d put a g instead.

|:BGAG EGDG|EGDG EGDE|G2 Bd e2 dg|<…>

Nice concertina version on track 1 of Caitlin Nic Gabhan album 2012

On the mentioned youTube file the rookery is after 7:52

Laura Byrne’s recording of “The Rookery”

It’s the jig; not the reel. There is one setting of it on this website.

The Rookery, X:3

Simple Chords by Bruce Williams, Melbourne, Australia
ABC notes Copied from Setting #1

Re: The Rookery

Who owns the copyright to this? I’d love to use it on a set of trad songs I’m making for my Irish dancers.

Re: The Rookery

Why do you need “copyright” for that ?
As mentioned above, this was composed by the late Vincent Broderick. It was included [ pg 32 ] in a collection of his tunes named “The Turoe Stone”, published by Walton’s of Dublin.
The opening title page states at the bottom :
"Copyright WALTON’S MANUFACTURING LTD.,
River Valley House, Kylemore Park South,
Ballyfermot Dublin 10
Ireland"

Re: The Rookery

I’m going to put the recordings on CD’s for my dancers so that they can practice during lock down. That’s why I need to think about copyright.

Re: The Rookery

Was The Rookery named for an actual rookery?

Rooks are a Eurasian species of crow. (also introduced to NZ)
They are extremely common in Ireland. Where they are known in Irish as “préachán dubh” (with its interesting Latin etymology https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A9ach%C3%A1n) or
“rúcach”.
Larger than the hooded crow, their voice is higher pitched.
Like the jackdaws, they live in colonies and often fly in groups the Victorians called ‘clamors’.
Their rookeries are conspicuous (especially in winter), consisting of dozens to hundreds of large platform nests in tall tall trees. They roost there all year long. They often circle around it in the evening, calling to each other, before they settle for the night.
I like the way rooks walk on the grass in trousers of plume and oversized coats, looking for cranefly grubs with their imposing dibber-shaped bills set in wise guys’ bald faces. The birds lend a lot of character to the land; the rookeries a lot of atmosphere to it.
15 years ago, Mark Crocker published ‘Crow Country’, an English ‘pastoral’ about rooks he observed and followed in Norfolk. He wrote of them; they are ‘our landscape made audible’.