Whinham’s reel

This is one of the daggiest tunes I know, submitted in response to a request for dag by Will Harmon. This is actually more of a 2/4 march than a reel, but it’s called "Whinham’s Reel" because it’s like the sort of "reels" that morris musicians like to play. It would probably be best transcribed in 2/4 like a polka, but it looks much daggier when you write it in 4/4. It was written by Robert Whinham (1814-1893). It goes really well before or after Nancy Clough’s. That’s my dag set 🙂

I love to end the B-part melodramatically by doing this: |dz d3c|B2G2 G2… If you have an English concertina or some sort of instrument you can play octaves on, you can double up that 2nd D on the octave and accent it a bit. If you have an audience, make sure to flash your eyes at them and smile briefly just before you do this, maybe also twitch your head slightly to emphasize the drama of your ending, or if you have long hair you can even do a subtle little hair swish like classical violinists do.

Sorry that z in my abc should have had a 3 after it. My mental arithmetic never was very good. Another important performance note I might add is to make sure to put some staccato notes here and there, like for example on the 1st note of the 2nd bar. This makes the tune sound much more twee which is definitely what you want. Again, a subtle little side-to-side head movement might help you with the feel of this. It’ll take practice to get the movements right, but you’ll know once you’ve got it. The tune’ll just bounce along all nice and jolly. Think nursery rhyme boys and girls: and one and two and three and four!

Hee hee, the sheetmusic turned out nicely.

You win!

Winham’s Roll is much better (anagram of Will Harmon’s)

Oh, my heart, where’s the dagitalis, uhhhhh… No, I can’t die with that going through my head…and midi toooooooooooo ~

dag gone, that’s good!

i’m not familiar with that term. Is it the same as "yipe itty doe?"

"Yah pity do dow day!"

I like this tune. Everyone in Northumbria must like it too because this is a frequently played standard. It is often played with 0other 4/4s of ambiguous metre, such as Jamie Allen, Salmon Tails, ‘Cos he was a bonny lad, The Herd on the Hill,etc.
Noel

Just for completeness here are parts C,D,E. as noted by Colin Ross.I have written in 2/4 time as origionally recorded
||: (3DEF| G2 B2 BcBA| G2 E2 E2 G2| F2 A2 D2 EF| GABc d2 (3DEF| G2 B2 BcBA|G2 E2 E2 G2| F2 A2 D2 EF| G2 G2 G2 :|| (3Bc^c| d2 B2 d2 g2| f2 e2 e4| F2 A2 c2 e2|e3 d2 d2 z2| d2 B2 d2 g2|f2 e2 e2 AG| FGAB cdef| g2 g2 g2 :||z2 | B2 c2 d2 g2| d6 (3DEF | G2 A2 B2 c2| B6 (3BcB| A2 B2 c2 A2| f6 e2| e2 d2 ^c2e2| dddd d2 z2| B2 c2 d2 g2| d6 (3DEF | G2 A2 B2 c2| B6 (3BcB | A2 c2 f2 e2| e2 d2 e4| d2 c2 B2 A2 | G4 z2 G2||

Pairs nicely in a set with Scollay’s Reel, as I heard last night in a session in Bristol.

Not my setting, just whacking the previously submitted Colin Ross parts onto Ceolachan’s transcription for extra jollity.