Rodney’s Glory hornpipe

Probably the first set-dance I ever learned, from Martin Byrnes’ only recording. Surprised it wasn’t posted already.

and that’s a “full-house” for Martin Byrnes.

I’ve heard that this tune was named in honour of Admiral Rodney of the Royal Navy who became a national hero in the 18th century for his exploits against the French and the Spanish. Almost as famous as his contemporary, Nelson.

But why should a tune be named after this particular hero ? I’m sure there’s a story behind this. Does anyone know it ?

This is a great tune, and as Kenny says a set dance (the odd number of bars would be a giveaway). I think this tune is fully as good as King of the Fairies, and a great hypnotic jam is possible here, too. Whether you’re all by yourself or in a group.

Surely no coincidence the similarities between Rodney’s Glory and The Princess Royal, the tune of which was used for the song Bold Nelson’s Praise.

Here’s a version of the beautiful tune you can play on the keyless flute:

K: Ador
|:ed|cdBc AB (3cBA|BGEF G2 (3Bcd|eged cdef|g2ge dged|
c2cB AB (3cBA|BGEF G3B|c2BA GA (3BAG|A2AG A2:|
|:(3Bcd|eaag a2ab|aged cA~A2|g2 (3efg agec|dcAF G2(3EFG|
AGAB c2cd|ed (3efg a2ab|aged cdef|g2ge dged|
cdBc AB (3cBA|BGEF G3B|c2BA GA (3BAG|A2AG A2:|

It’s based on the playing of “the London Lasses and Pete Quinn.” I actually heard Pat O‘Connor and Eoghan O’Sullivan play the virtually identical version while they visited this country last month.

There is alot of informatuin in the fiddler’s compagnion.
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/ROD_ROR.htm
incluse other versions, lyrics and background

It’s called In a Line around here, but I haven’t found any corroboration for why it is. I think I was told it got called that at contradances.

T:Rodney’s Glory
M:4/4
S:David Power - Cuaichin Ghleann Neifin (The Little Cuckoo of Glen Nephin)
R:hornpipe
Z:gian marco pietrasanta
K:G
AB|:c2Bc ABcA|BGEF G2cd|e=fed cde^f|ged^c dfed|
(3cdc Bc ABcA|BGEF G2ed|(3cdc BA GABG|A4 A2:|:Bd||
eaab aged|efed c2A2|g2(3gfg age^c|dcAF G2E2|
AGAB cBcd|efge a3b|aged cdef|ged^c dfed|
(3cdc Bc ABcA|BGEF G2ed|(3cdc BA GABG|A2AG A2:|Bd||

Key signature: A Dorian
Submitted on October 28th 2007 by gian marco.
~ /tunes/7907

This is still gm’s transcription but with minor adjustments, including adding that classic set dance swing ~ > ~ missed by all previous transcriptions… ~ ‘c’

X: 4
T: Rodney’s Glory
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: set dance
K: A Dorian
|: A>B |
c2 B>c A>Bc>A | B>GE>F G2 c>d |e>=fe>d c>de>^f | g>ed>^c d>=fe>d |
(3cdc B>c A>Bc>A | B>GE>F G2 e>d | (3cdc B>A G>AB>G | A4 A2 :|
|: B>d |
e>aa>b a>ge>d | e>=fe>d c2 A2 | g2 (3gfg a>ge>^c | d>cA>F G2 E2 |
A>GA>B c>Bc>d | e>fg>e a3 b | a>ge>d c>de>f | g>ed>^c d>=fe>d |
(3cdc B>c A>Bc>A | B>GE>F G2 e>d | (3cdc B>A G>AB>G | A2 A>G A2 :|

gm’s notes ~

Source: Cuaichin Ghleann Neifin (The Little Cuckoo Of Glen Nephin) by David Power
Transcription: gian marco pietrasanta (adjustments by ‘c’)

# Posted on October 28th 2007 by gian marco

It is from a poem by the poet, spailpín and rake Eoghan Rua O Suilleabhain. He seduced one of his employer’s daughters, ran away, and ended up in the British Navy. The poem was indeed about Admiral Rodney. Praising their cheiftains, even if the cheiftain was a British admiral, was just what Irish poets did.

I have just recorded this set dance on sound lantern.http://www.soundlantern.com/UpdatedSoundPage.do?ToId=1255&Path=rodneysglory.mp3
RODNEY‘S GLORY [1] (Gloire {Ui} Rodnaig). AKA and see “Irishman’s Return from America,” “My Name is Moll Mackey,” “Praises of Limerick.” Irish, Air and Long or Set Dance (2/4 time). A Aeolian/Mixolydian (O’Neill/1001, Welling): G Aeolian/Mixolydian (O‘Neill/1915): A Dorian (Mitchell, Mulvihill, O’Neill/1850 & Krassen). Standard tuning. AABB. The tune is a set dance version of Turlough O‘Carolan’s air “Princess Royal [1]” or “Miss MacDermott.” The title “Rodney’s Glory,” explains O’Sullivan (1983), was derived from verses by the poet Eoghain Rua Ó Súilleabháin in 1782, set to O’Carolan’s tune. The song commemorates a naval battle fought that year in which George Rodney (d. 1792), then vice-admiral of Great Britain, encountered a French fleet under Admiral Comte De Grasse. “The Battle of the Saints” or “Les Saintes” (named after Les Isles des Saintes, in the West Indies between Guadeloupe and Dominica), as the engagement was called, was one of the most important sea battles in wooden-ship history. Rodney’s thirty-three ships broke in two places the French line-of-battle of thirty-seven ships of the line, when, after the fleets had nearly passed each other on opposite tacks, a change of wind favored the British. The result was the capture of the French flagship and admiral along with five other ships. It was to be the final battle of the War of the American Revolution, and, strategically, although it did not negate Washington’s victory at Yorktown it did preserve Britain’s West Indian territories. Rodney was rewarded with a peerage although he came in for criticism for not following up his initial victory with the destruction of the remainder of the French fleet. Ó Súilleabháin served on The Formidable, a ship which saw some of the severest fighting and thus “Rodney’s Glory" is a first-hand account of the battle.

***

I learned this from a recording of Newcastle born Piccolo player John Doonan on his recording “At the Feis” and I play it with King of the Fairies.

This one is an O’Carolan composition, “Maggie MacDermott”, that found its way to Sliabh Luachra’s greatest poet (or second greatest if you like hearing Egan complain), Owen Roe Sullivan. Owen had been educated in one of the hedge schools in the area and was known for his quick wit and humor. The classic rake, I believe he was born in Gneeveguilla, worked for some time on the Cork side, tried his hand at teaching, and finally he ended up with a nice family.
As the story goes, one day the lady of the house rushed out looking for someone to write a letter for her. Owen returned with the letter written in English, Irish, Greek, and Latin, and thus was held to some considerable degree. Unfortunately Owen’s weakness was not of the drink, like Patrick, though I imagine he was partial towards it, but rather to the ladies. I always got the clean version but from what I can gather he wooed the wrong woman and fled with bullets flying, sneaking into a barracks (perhaps the castle of Macroom?) and enlisting in the British Navy under Captain Rodney. After some time they became engaged in battle against the French, where the wind shifted and the British destroyed the French fleet (this is around Revolutionary times).
Eoghan wrote words to O‘Carolan’s air (found here> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAD-HJUKvNs) that pleased Rodney so much that he almost granted Owen his freedom, until another Kerryman made some asinine comment that they couldn’t deal without him. This is a set dance, I think that the dance steps were composed by the same dancing master who did the ones for the Blackbird, whose name I forgot if I ever knew it. There’s a good video of it being danced by Jackie O’Riley (with Joey Abarta playing> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNzbS4PJrYk ). If I’m right those hard hits in the B part are supposed to symbolize the cannons.

play video

I may be very confused, but I think at least the part about Owen is accurate (to the verbal tradition of Sliabh Luachra anyway)…

À noter également une très belle ré-interprétation de Princess Royal sous les doigts de Tom Delany
figurant dans son dernier magnifique opus “Never say goodbye, say good luck” avec Caroline Keane.

The Bonny Men’s version.
https://thebonnymen.bandcamp.com/track/rodneys-glory-pigeon-on-the-gate-patsy-touheys-reel

Also famous for being quoted in the song “The Galway Shawl” - as in this verse here:

“I played ”The Blackbird“ and ”The Stack of Barley",
“ Rodney’s Glory” and “The Foggy Dew”,
She sang each note like an Irish linnet.
Whilst the tears stood in her eyes of blue."

The most astounding details about Rodney’s Glory is that the details described in the fighting are used, at times almost verbatim, by CS Forester in his first Horatio Hornblower novel called The Happy Return when he describes the fight to the death between HMS Lydia and El Supremo’s flagship El Natividad. Also , unsurprisingly, the crewman described as the red-haired ‘mad Irishman’‘ (O’)Sullivan dances a hornpipe in the preliminary action of this fictional sea-battle. Forester’s (O‘) Sullivan is described as a dancing fiddle player. As described above, the real O’Sullivan Eoghan Ruadh Ó Súilleabháin, who had been impressed into service at Cobh ( then called Queenstown) in Cork, had previously been bard and tutor of the Nagle family of Annakissy
Ó Súilleabháin, as documented by Daniel Corkery in The Hidden Ireland was a late Eighteenth Century remnant of the great Gaelic bards of Kerry. Even more surprising is that the real muse and model used by C S Forester to create the full portrait of his premier protagonist Horatio Hornblower, from lowly midshipman to peer of the realm and commodore of the royal yacht is based on the Cork born Admiral of the Blue, Sir Edmund Nagle, whose very family Ó Súilleabháin had served a generation earlier as bard and tutor. Yes, you read that correctly. Forester’s muse and model is irrefutably the Irishman Edmund Nagle ( Nagle was the cousin, ward, and heir of the Sublime Edmund Burke). In his latter life as Groom to His Majesty’s Bedchamber he spent almost 20 years as the butler of The Regent/ King George IV, and is thus also irrefutably the model upon which Richard Curtis and Ben Elton ‘’create‘’ Edmund Blackadder the Third.

Here’s a nice “pipey” version played by Donnacha Dwyer on a 3/4 set he made in Nov. 2022. He gets rid of those nasty f-naturals in the tune and adds in some interesting note variations.
https://www.facebook.com/100008345945557/videos/481230770770009

T: Rodney’s Glory
R: Set Dance
S: Donnacha Dwyer
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: G
ed|c2 Bc ABcA|BGEF G2 Bd|efed cdef|gfge dfed|
c2 Bc ABcA|BGEF G2 ed|c2 BA GA(3BAG|A2 AG A2:|
|:Bd|eaab aged|efed c2 A2|g2 fg aged|c2AD G2 F2|
AGAB cBcd|ed(3efg (a2a)b|aged cdef|fgge dfed|
c2 Bc ABcA|BGEF G2 ed|c2 BA GA(3BAG|A2 AG A2:|

Bagpiper Tom’s score of Donnacha Dwyer’s piping version