Paddy Fahey’s reel

You know, you can never get enough of Paddy Fahy.. So here’s another one!

That’s right! It’s NOT from the Skye Collection! Tomorrow is a different story…

So I got this from Chulrua’s AWESOME and BRILLIANT album “Barefoot on the Altar”. I love this reel, it’s followed by a different setting of the Butterfly as well, I may post the variation in the tune’s comment section. Highly reccomend the album by the way, especially with Tim Britton’s haunting solo and playing style in general. Damn sexy!

Cheers and Sn0o0oo00o0ow,
Armand

I have a recording of this, performed by a London youth group, Meitheal Ceol. They call it ‘The F Reel’, since they originally learned it in F (or G-dorian). However, owing to the large number of flute players in the band, it was transposed up a tone. They still call it ‘The F reel’.

Isn’t this the “hidden” Paddy Fahy reel which Matt Molloy plays at the end of a song on “After The Break” by “Planxty” ? There was some query about it last year, and I’d promised to post it, but forgot. Thanks for posting this, Armand. Far more appropriate to this website than anything from the “Skye Collection”.-🙂
I have a feeling Molloy might have played it in F, too.

It is indeed the Paddy Fahy reel that Matt Molloy plays on some Planxty recording.
I also have a live bootleg recording of Matt Molloy where he plays this one (in F, of course) after “The Tempest”. Mighty, altogether.
The F version is reel #720 in my collection www.norbeck.nu/abc

I just noticed how tricky the b part can be….

Good thing I play this on the whistle hahahaha

X: 1
T: Paddy Fahy’s
S: Brid Harper & Dermot Byrne
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gdor (or Fmaj depending on how you look at it)
fedg fdcA|F2AF CFAc|fedg fdcA|FGAc dG~G2|
fedg fdcA|F2AF CFAc|agfa g2fd|c2Ac dG~G2:|
|:B2Gd BGEG|FcAF CFAc|B2Gd BGEG|FDCA, DG,~G,2|
B2Gd BGEG|FcAF CFAc|agfa g2fd|c2Ac dG~G2:|

This must be one of the best reels I’ve ever heard! a masterpiece of gentleness, beauty, words failing, transfixed, the play it in a loop type!

I’ve transcribed Matt Molloy’s version which is hidden away at the end of “Little Musgrave” on the Planxty album “The Woman I Loved So Well” - his version is simply sublime.

I’ve added my transcription from Matt Molloy’s “Woman I Loved so Well” performance of it - a few details different from SebastianM’s above - note particularly the C, not D as last note of bar A2. I think the C (which is what I hear him play in the majority of iterations) matches better compositionally and with other versions.

This tune does not so far as I can see appear in Maria Holohan’s definitive catalogue of Paddy Fahey’s compositions (cf https://ulir.ul.ie/handle/10344/4260). I therefore surmise it may have been named by Molloy or other players as one they got from or associated with Paddy Fahey, rather than definitely being composed by him.

Dr.Dow, I really like the Harper-Byrne setting you transcribed - grand for fiddle/box etc., but you neglected to reset the tonality to Gdor when you posted - it makes rather “interesting” playing as it currently appears! 😉

This is from Dave Flynn’s album, “Contemporary Traditional Irish Guitar”. I tried to contact Dave to ask but I believe that this must be a Fahey tune composed after the Maria Holohan dissertation and that Dave used her index as a reference to title this Paddy Fahey’s No. 31. There are many other Fahey tunes on this recording and the others do match the Holohan index.

This is from Dave Flynn’s album, “Contemporary Traditional Irish Guitar”. I tried to contact Dave to ask but I believe that this must be a Fahey tune composed after the Maria Holohan dissertation and that Dave used her index as a reference to title this Paddy Fahey’s No. 31. There are many other Fahey tunes on this recording and the others do match the Holohan index.

This is from Dave Flynn recording, “Contemporary Traditional Irish Guitar” and he tittles it Paddy Fahey’s No. 31. I posted this by mistake on it’s own page because I couldn’t find it with different key.

Dave Flynn plays this in F Maj or so it sounds to my ear.

Source: Steampacket
Composer: Paddy Fahy
Trancription: Gian Marco Pietrasanta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay7lfMyypJI

play video

https://open.spotify.com/track/7rEGEipCIzHzlUt6W9Ibp7

Sorry, I just realized it’s a duplicate.

I prefer the version on the Album Castor Bay with Barry and Laura Kerr

@JWiseman
re: your comment:
“This is from Dave Flynn’s album, ”Contemporary Traditional Irish Guitar“. I tried to contact Dave to ask but I believe that this must be a Fahey tune composed after the Maria Holohan dissertation and that Dave used her index as a reference to title this Paddy Fahey’s No. 31. There are many other Fahey tunes on this recording and the others do match the Holohan index.”
# Posted by JWiseman 3 years ago.

I’m afraid that argument doesn’t work - The Planxty album (1980) and therefore Matt Molloy having the tune considerably predates Holohan’s thesis (1995). Mind you, she missed that recording in her discography of performances of tunes attributed (correctly or otherwise) to Fahey. If PF hadn’t written it (that he remembered) when he helped Holohan compile her catalogue, ergo it can’t be (presumed to be) his…. The whole point in her thesis was to be comprehensive. I know that doesn’t totally preclude something getting missed, but…. MM’s recording led to loads of fluters taking it up and making it quite well-known as a Paddy Fahey tune (whether it is or isn’t!) well before she was writing her thesis. I’ve never found any other source or title for it, but such research can always be improved and updated!

Note: Unfortunately Holohan’s thesis seems to have been withdrawn from public availability - the link to it (https://ulir.ul.ie/handle/10344/4260) says so and I can’t find it elsewhere on-line - just abstracts with the same now-futile link. I did, however, save a pdf copy back when researching this tune in 2017. 🙂 She only catalogues 29 PF Reels. Dave Flynn or someone else must have given the two extra reels the next two numbers?