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McCuskers’ mazurka

Also known as McCuskers’ Varsovianna, McCuskers’ Varsovienne.

There is 1 recording of this tune.

McCuskers' has been added to 14 tunebooks.

Download ABC

Three settings

1
X: 1
T: McCuskers'
R: mazurka
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
|:A>A d2 A2|A>A c2 B2|B>B g2 B2|c>c e2 d2|
A>A d2 A2|A>A c2 B2|B>B g2 B2|c2 e2 d2:|
|:f>a b2 a2|f>e d>e f2|e>d c2 e2|A>c d2 f2|
a>a b2 a2|f>e d>e f2|e>d c2 e2|c>e d2 d2:|
2
X: 2
T: McCuskers'
R: mazurka
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
|:A>A|d2 A2 A>A|c2 B2 B>B|g2 B2 c>c|e2 d2 A>A|
d2 A2 A>A|c2 B2 B>B|g2 B2 c2|e2 d2:|
|:f>a|b2 a2 f>e|d>e f2 e>d|c2 e2 A>c|d2 f2 a>a|
b2 a2 f>e|d>e f2 e>d|c2 e2 c>e|d2 d2:|
3
X: 3
T: McCuskers'
R: mazurka
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
|:(3ABC d2 A2|A>A c2 B2|B>B g2 B2|c>c e2 d2|
A>A d2 A2|A>A c2 B2|(3BBB g2 B2|(3ccc e2 d2:|
|:f>a b2 a2|f>e d>e f2|d>f c2 e2|c>e d2 f2|
a2 b2 a2|(3ffe d>e f2|(3ddf c2 e2|(3cce d2 d2:|

Eight comments

John McCusker - The McCusker Brothers Ceili Band

- - - from his fiddle… I play it somewhat differently. He had only a very few variations, tending to keep pretty close to what I’ve notated, with a lovely bow defining the pulse of the dance in it… I wish I had his arm…

I have placed a transcription of John McCusker’s playing of “Hugh Gillespie’s-” in the ‘comments’ for that tune, the link given above…

Cross-eyed - Another case of ‘goes both ways’:

I’ve been in a bit of a soup transcribing from old field recordings, including from John, focusing on 3/4 tunes, aswim with them. My notes and brain were, as has happened before, cross-wired - and I was transcribing both Mazurkas and Varsouviennes from John’s playing. He played and called this numbered set of ‘gan ainm’ tunes ‘Mazurkas’. The two melodies also works for the ‘Varsouvienne’, the classic ‘NN N2 N2’, but as said previously, you can swim some of them both ways - |NN N2 N2| or NN|N2 N2 NN|. John put the emphasis of his bowing on the 1st and 3rd beats:

|:A>A|d2 A2 A>A|c2 B2 B>B|g2 B2 c>c| e2 d2 A>A|
d2 A2 A>A|c2 B2 B>B|g2 B2 c2|e2 d2:|
|:f>a|b2 a2 f>e|d>e f2 e>d|c2 e2 A>c| d2 f2 a>a|
b2 a2 f>e|d>e f2 e>d|c2 e2 c>e|d2 d2:|

But - either way is possible with this one as with some other Mazurka/Varsouviennes, dependant on the ‘dance’… Now I’m sitting on more and wondering if they are different enough to warrant a place of their own on this site. Maybe I’ll give it a try…fingers and toes crossed.

Late night and the eyesight is failing - - -
I’ve been pouring over notations for Varsouviennes (in various spellings), Mazurkas and Polka-Mazurkas - 3/4, 3/8 and 9/8 - - - in my own collections and digitally, and despite variations from the 20th Century to the present, ‘NN|N2 N2 NN|’ & ‘|NN N2 N2|’, the norm in notation for them all seems to be the latter…
Now I can get some sleep - but I’ll be back at it again. It’s an illness…