The Green Fields Of Rossbeigh reel

Key is wrong, should it not be a variation of Em? (don’t have a clue about all the mixs and modes!)

Actually, it’s supposed to be Bm. I posted the tune but can’t make that particular change. I’ll fire off a note to Jeremy.

John Harvey

Rhode Island’s Irish Connection
http://www.rhodeirish.net

I think this one got confused with the “The Queen of May” I just posted what I know as the “Queen of May”. I always knew this tune as “The Kerry Reel” or “The Green Fields of Rossbeigh”

ps That’s the key I’ve always heard it in

This tune was recorded as a set with “The Boys at the Lough” by Ed Reevy on the “Farewell to Ireland” boxed set and elsewhere in Reevy/Reevey/Reavy tune collections. On the “Farewell to Ireland” disc 3, track 10, the tune is the second one, though it’s listed fist.

Here’s the ABC’s, near as I can figure. Note the 8-bar A part.

X: 1
T: Green Fields of Rossbeigh
T: Tom Clarke’s Fancy
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: E dorian
S: Ed Reavy
dc |: BE ~E2 BAFA | FABd fdec | BE ~E2 BAFA | BFAF E2 FA :|
|: Bdef gfge | dB ~B2 dBA=c | Bdef gfeB | dBAF E2 ef |
gfgb agfe| ~f2 fe fedB | ABde fgfe |1 dBAF E2 FA :|2 dBAF E4 |

This is currently my favourite tune. My version is basically the same as the one transcribed in Norbeck’s collection with few notes different:

K:Edor
A|BE~E2 BAFB|ABde fded|BE~E2 BAFA|BFAF E2FA|
~B3d BAFB|ABde fded|BE~E2 BAFA|BFAF E3:|
z|Bdef g2fe|dB~B2 dBAd|Bdef gefe|dBAF E2ef|
~g3a gfeg|f2eg fedB|ABde fdfe|dBAF E3:|

Joe Derrane’s version is Lovely

Joe Burke also recorded a lovely version on the whistle!

Slainte you need more !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!🙂🙂

Dinn, have you ever heard Denis Murphy play it? http://www.rte.ie/radio1/thelatesession/rams/1august.ram (starts around 17:40)
From The Late Session programme listings 2004: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/thelatesession/1014033.html

Here is the version of the Kerry Reel I learnt :
X: 1
T:Kerry Reel
M:2/2
L:1/8

R:Reel
K:G maj
|: BE ~E2 BAFB | ABde fded | BE ~E2 BAFA | BFAF EFGA |
| B2 Bd BAFB | ABde fded | BE ~E2 BAFA | BFAF E2 FA :|
|: (3B^cd ef g2 fe | dB B2 dBAd | (3B^cd ef g2 fe | dBAF E2 ef |
| g2 ga gfed | f2 fg fedB | ABde fgfe | dBAF E4 :|

Here’s a nice version of Josh Dukes playing this tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojdr0lhBKMg

play video

Key signature: E Dorian
Submitted on September 3rd 2008 by Lleulu.
~ /tunes/8877

X: 5
T: Kerry, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Edor
|: BE ~E2 BAFB | ABde fded | BE ~E2 BAFA | BFAF EFGA |
B2 Bd BAFB | ABde fded | BE ~E2 BAFA | BFAF E2 FA :|
|: B/c/d ef g2 fe | dB B2 dBAd | B/c/d ef g2 fe | dBAF E2 ef |
g2 ga gfed | f2 fg fedB | ABde fgfe | dBAF E4 :|

Played here by Kevin Crawford

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcLa758Aexc

play video

And here it is by Barry Kerr and Paul and Martin Meehan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yeskyeCy1w&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div

play video

….And her it is by Máirtín O’Connor - Box, Cathal Hayden - Fiddle, Brendan Larrisey - Fiddle, Dessie Adams - Flute, Brendan O’Regan - Bouzouki and Johnny (Ringo) McDonagh - Bodhrán. It’s the second tune from 1.10.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWp0jT94IXI

play video

X: 1
T: Green Fields of Rossbeigh
T: Tom Clarke’s Fancy
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: E dorian
S: Ed Reavy
A|:BE~E2 BAFB|ABde fded|BE~E2 BAFA|BFAF DEFA|
~B2 [d B][B d] BAFB|[A D]Bde fded|BE~E2 BAFA|BFAF E3:|
|:(3Bcd ef g2fe|dB~B2 dBAF|(3Bcd e[f d] gefe|dBAF E2ef|
~g3a gfeg|~f3g fedB|ABde fdec|dBAF E2FA:|

The name Queen of May appears on the Music at Matt Malloy’s recording but the tune is actually Lord McDonald’s. Just in case your looking to learn the tunes off that recording.

this tune is sometimes called the kerry reel. has also been mistaken for the drunken landlady. sounds like a sad reel.

Kevin Keegan played Bdef afdB AFDF E2 etc. The high A is a unique touch, perhaps taken from Mike Hanafin’s 78, which is where the Green Fields title comes from. I hear Hanfin doing all kinds of things on his record and might transcribe it in full sometime. Here’s Keegan and Friends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLI_jlZsi_A

play video

Played at the start of a set by Maurice Lennon with “Stockton’s Wing” :

https://youtu.be/STvhj6Bf8Vw

play video

Here’s a very barebones straightforward setting of this tune.

This is the first tune on track 1 of Josie Mcdermott’s album Darby’s Farewell yet on the album it’s called The Kerry Man. (More commonly known as The Lilting Fisherman.) If you listen to the track you can clearly tell that the tune Josie is playing is The Green Fields of Rossbeigh, not The Kerry Man (The Lilting Fisherman).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf32vQddjPs

play video

Sorcha Costello plays Finbarr Dwyer’s version of the Greenfields of Rossbeigh three sets in (second of three reels) with accompaniment from Jakob Vester on this UCC Trad Soc recording:

https://www.facebook.com/ucctradsoc/videos/4320043291357806/

It’s quite different to the usual E Dorian setting of the tune and may be down a step in D Dorian. Does anyone know if this version is notated on this site? Perhaps under some other title?

Hi everyone. I’d be grateful for any feedback on a Finbarr Dwyer version of this tune. Please see the full query from me at the bottom of the comments section here:

https://thesession.org/tunes/322#comment919058

Thank you, Alex

You’re probably better off asking Sorcha https://www.facebook.com/sorcha.costello.9, first of all where she learned it, she seems to have some doubt about the origins of the tune, so she probably picked it up on the fly from someone else who then said it was Finbarr’s version of the same tune, I’m not great on keys etc.. but I would go for A Dorian, the recording on Facebook is in Eflat, so you need to drop everything down a semi-tone, and it’s quite possible that Sorcha has changed the key down to Ador because the tune after is also quite a bit lower than the normal key.

Thank you Theirlandais, appreciate your comments