Dick Gossip’s reel

The other name for this one is skipping my mind right now, but it’s widely known as Dick Gossip’s, soooo….

For the A Part, you can play measures 1 and 5 as |(3FFF AF GFED| or |DFAF GFED| or |FFAF GFED|. Likewise, you can roll the E in measures 3 and 4 |~E3 F GFED| or triplet it |(3EEE EF GFED| or just leave it alone |E2 EF GFED|.

For the B Part, I do all the triplets bowed (or “staccato”) except the uphil (3Bcd run in measure 4, which is slurred.

We play this in a set of old war horses: Dick Gossip’s, Mason’s Apron, Pigeon on the Gate. Don’t ask me why.

Will

Thus named on Music at Matt Molloy’s if I am not mistaken; also on an old Jimmy Power recording.

Yes, The Castle was the other title I was searching for. Thanks Henk

A fun turn on this tune is to play the first part in the upper octave. Also in the second part at the… | gB(3BBB gBaB | GB(3BBB …part
try… fB(3BBB fBgB | fB(3BBB … Giving it a F#m feel instead of G.
But parts are incidental anyway in this tune as it’s started on the B Part as often as the A part.

Thanks for the fun variations, Brad. Are these common back East, or your own personal gems? I’ll spring them on the crowd at our Montana session tomorrow night (though they may need forewarning on the F#m bit).
Thanks!

No these variations have been picked up through posts to the IrTrad-L list. This tune is played the same as appears on the site as it comes up in sessions around my neck of the woods.

How old is this tune? Here are some lines from an early 19th century street song, “ But for shaving and tooth-drawing, bleeding, cabbaging and sawing, Dicky Gossip, Dicky Gossip is the man!“.Who was Dick Gossip?

It’s also very commonly played with the high part first - the Kilfenora Céilí Band usually did it that way.

Came across this in “The Fiddler’s Companion”:-
DICK GOSSIP’S REEL. AKA and see “The Castle Reel [2],” “The First Cup.” Irish, Reel. D Major. Standard. AABB. A favorite at contra dances, and still sometimes heard at Irish sessions. Irish fiddler Sean Maguire is said to have played the tune at London sessions in the 1960’s. There is some confusion about which section of the tune is to be played first. The origins of the tune are obscure although the Paddy O’Brien tune collection gives that it was named for a famous highwayman. Dick Gossip was an 18th century rapparee whose ballywick was the area around South Tyrone and Fermanagh. He was reputed to have been a dispossessed Irish landowner who sought to recoup his fortune through acts of lawlessness, only to meet the fate of most such brigands—he was apprehended and hanged. L.E. McCullough recorded the tune on his album “Late Bloomer” (1984) with Chicago fiddler Liz Carroll under the title “The Castle Reel,” perhaps having picked up that title from a 1970’s recording by fiddler Jimmy Power

This is very similar to the Oak Tree https://thesession.org/tunes/212, and I’m wondering if they might have a common ancestor.

I’ve been caught on this a couple of times - I learnt it with the high part first. If you are playing it with someone who plays it the other way it can be difficult to know when to stop!

Until I came out to Australia I’d never heard it played any other way. If the likes of Eamonn Coyne, Sean MacNamara, Jimmy McHugh and Jimmy Power play the high part first then that’ll do for me.

Out here they play Dave Richardson’s Calliope House back to front as well.

All the best

Brian x

It was from Jimmy Power that I learned this tune, so for me it’s high part first as well.

I first heard this on the Battlefield album ;Home is where the Van is’ - so I play the ‘low’ part first, but up an octave so it fits on the pipe scale.

I call this tune, “Girl Talk.”