John McGrath’s reel

Requested by slainte. Will comment later.

Hiya Kenny,I would be interested to know if there is a recording of The late Andy playing this,or any other recording which attributes it to him.
Cheers
Cos

I can only think of 2 recordings I have of this tune, cos. This transcription was given to me years ago by Nigel Jelks, a multi-instrumentalist who lives some 50 miles south of Aberdeen, and with whom I’ve played many a tune over the years. He took this from the Daly/Burke recording. Michael McGoldrick recorded it but with no name, which was "slainte’s" query in the first place.
Daly/Burke are my only source for the title, I’m afraid.
Hope all’s well with you and yours.

Many thanks Kenny, you are a mine of information.Cos

I just listened to this tune on Kevin Burke and Jackie Daly’s "Eavesdropper" album. I think it’s the happiest tune I’ve ever heard. So, listen to it.

It can also be heard on Temple House Ceili Band 2.

Key signature: D Major
Submitted on January 21st 2007 by The Phantom Button.
https://thesession.org/tunes/6672

K: D Major
|: A/B/c |
dF ~F2 AGFE | DEFD EB, ~B,2 | DEFA B/c/d AF | EDEF E2 A/B/c |
[1 dF ~F2 AGFE | DEFD EB, ~B,2 | DEFA B/c/d AF | EDEF D2 :|
[2 ~d3 B ~c3 A | ~B3 c BAFE | D2 FA B/c/d AF | EDEF D2 ||
|: A/B/c |
d2 fd edfd | BA B/c/d AFEF | D2 FA B/c/d AF |
[1 EDEF E2 A/B/c | d2fd edfd | BA B/c/d AFEF | D2 FA B/c/d AF | EDEF D2 A/B/c :|
[2 EDEF E2 B/c/d | faba fd~d2 | BA B/c/d AFEF | D2 FA B/c/d AF | EDEF D2 ||

http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_222_5_donal_murphy_and_john_larkin/

Apparently a composition of Sean Ryan…

Apparently?

Well maybe not. Donal says, "…a tune from Sean Ryan". Maybe Sean Ryan recorded it or something. But I would have thought he reffered to it being composed by Sean. The tune, I believe, has quite a modern sounding and smart melody so thats why I’m leaning to the "Sean Ryan composed" side but thats just a hunch. Has anyone any definite answer here? What do you think slainte?

I’m afraid I’ve no idea, Paddy. Even Kenny didn’t mention who wrote this tune.

That’s true. Have you got Sean Ryan’s book "The Hidden Ireland"? If so, have a look in it to see if its there. If not, I’ll head down to the Irish Traditional Music Archive soon and dig it out.

I don’t have a copy of the tunebook, but according to A. Kuntz’s "Fiddler’s Companion" this was penned by Mayo fiddler John McGrath, who is known as the composer of "The Providence": http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/JOHAN_JOHN.htm#JOHN_McGRATH’S_COMPOSITION

"Fiddler’s Companion" includes some incorrect pieces of information, but this seems plausible to me.

could well be a john mcgrath tune. this is interesting. im gonna head down to the archive and see if i can find out any more.

the tune is included in a book by jerry o’brien and is called "mcgrath’s composition" (john mcgrath that is). so there you are, it probably is a john mcgrath tune. it isn’t in "the hidden ireland" and i couldn’t find any recordings of the tune by sean ryan so im not sure where donal murphy got that information. it doesn’t appear that andy mcgann recorded it either but i only had a quick "on the surface" look through the archive material today and theres far more there than what i saw. this is looking very likely to be a john mcgrath tune though.

As a former student of John McGrath I can verify that it is his composition. On one occasion I asked him if he had ever composed any tunes. He said he had, just one! (In spite of spurious claims that he composed many tunes.) Jerry O’Brien approached him & Paddy Killoran for tunes that had never been published. He submitted ten. With one exception it is easy to figure out which tunes they were: they are the ones with the phrasing marks. The exception is The First House In Connaught? He said they had removed the phrase marking from it.

https://archive.comhaltas.ie/tracks/2983

Only 13 years late…

I see a lot of great digging has been done regarding this tune. All I want to add is this transcript of Michael McGoldrick’s flute rendition, from his debut album Morning Rory.