The Green Groves Of Erin reel

Most of this tune consists of playing a bar in A followed by a bar in G. In the first part, the G arpeggios can be a little tricky but it’s a fun way to practice scales.

The second part is more straightforwrd and has an inherent driving rhythm when it gets up to speed.

Actually… Am & G Chords.

(Sorry… stop me before I speak again…)

Schy

I had meant to post a reply to Jeremy’s comment, but didn’t hit the button apparently and the message didn’t post. "Modes make my Head Hurt" was my correction.

Anyway, owning up to my mistakes… I mentioned that I’ve seen the tune transcribed with all the C#’s replaced with B’s (notes not chords). This was true. I then glibly suggested a mode of A dorian in such a case with the same A and G chord structure. Of course I later realized that it would change the chords to Am and G, hence my retraction and plea for someone to shut me up. I’ll now start listening to my own advice…

Schy

I see the ABC posted for this is in the form AABB. But any recordings I have of the tune are in the ABAB format of a single reel. i.e. Elizabeth Crotty and Tony MacMahon etc. So perhaps it should be played as a single reel.

I’ve never heard it played as a single reel, but it’s quite probable older musicians prefer playing it with no repeat in each part. Angelina Carberry recently recorded it on banjo, but not as a single reel.

I played this tune in Ador with Leeds Ceili Band for several occasions last year. Here’s the transcription of the version with some variations taken from Angelina Carberry’s playing.

K: Ador
A2cA eAcA|G2Bd gdBG|A2cA eAcA|BGED EA~A2|
A2cA eAcA|G2Bd gdBG|A2cA eAcA|1 BGED EGBG:|2 BGED EGBd||
ea~a2 ea~a2|eg~g2 egdg|ea~a2 ea~a2|edef gedg|
ea~a2 bgag|edef g3e|dega b2 ag|1 egfa gedg:|2 egfa gedB||

Does anybody else play it in Ador?

I never heard this tune in Amix.

I learned this song off of a midi file I found somewhere out there on the WWW.
The chords that fit that melody are:
Am _ _ _ G _ _ _ Am _ _ _ C _ G _ :||

Thats for both parts.

The midi file has 8 parts (instruments) and an alternating bass line that leads me to the above conclusion.

tune

I’ve been thinking this reel is a fancy variant of "The Gatehouse Maid," probably invented and popularised by fiddlers.

Yamadasan, interesting what you say about the Gatehouse Maid. It’s the same chord changes isn’t it? Although the melody’s quite different. Wonder which came first…

I play this as a single reel in Ador. I think it sounds too repetitive as a double, and I think the Amix was probably one of those O’Neill’s transcription errors. My version is similar to Yamadasan’s, but not double, and with a nice little box twist in the last couple of bars:

X: 1
T: The Green Groves Of Erin
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Ador
A2BA eABA|G2 (3Bcd gdBG|A2BA eABA|1 BEEF GBdB:|2 BEEF GABd||
eaag eaag|eggf egdg|eaag eaag|edef gedg|
ea~a2 bgag|edef ~g3e|dega bd’ag|eafa gedB||

Oh don’t be silly….we should allow the melody players to play
loads of variations to our chord changes !

Around a couple of months ago I was back in Yorkshire. The local Ceili Band have a stage performance once a month in Irish Centre, and I intended to hear them playing there. But many of the musicians were away for some reason, and I ended up playing some tunes with a few people on the stage. We decided to play the set of 3 reels we played together last year, that was The Boyne Hunt/ The Green Groves of Erin/ The Boys of Ballisodare. We played the first tune very well, but a loud PA player played The Gatehouse Maid just after it without noticing she was doing something wrong until the third time around. After managing to go through all the tunes, she said "very similar tunes, aren’t they?"

Billy Moran plays Maids of Mt Kisco/The Green Groves of Erin/Boys of Ballysodare

I’d play the Green Groves of Erin/ the Milliner’s Daughter: https://thesession.org/tunes/1409 It’s really funny, I found these two tunes are virtually identical last night. Identical twins of different genders! No wonder both of them are pipers’ favourites.

Listen to Johnny Doran’s nephew John Rooney and John’s son Rarry playing a great piping version of this tune with Leeds fiddlers: http://www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/travellers/downloads/PointerSession/PointerSession12.mp3

From the Travelling Pipers in Leeds: http://www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/_travellers/JohnRooneyRecording.html
Biography of Johnny Doran: http://web.telia.com/~u46103557/jdoran.html

Sorry, that should read "John’s son Larry…."

there s something really old about this tune.
love it. i play the second part only once
(if i remember right i first heard it on that brilliant mrs crotty’s cd)

More similarities. This tune has been said to have derived from a tune called "Miss Stewart of Grandtully" a tune composed by Niel Gow. Grandtully (pronounced "grantly"), incidentally, is in Perthshire.

X:891
T:Miss Stewart of Grandtully
S:The Athole Collection
Z:Nigel Gatherer
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:A
e | AAcA eAcA | =GGBG dGB=g | AAcA eAcA | Eaef cAA :|
B | Aaga eaca | B=gdg B=GGB | Aaga eaca | faef cAAB |
Aaga eaca | B=gdg B=GGB | AAcA dBcA | Eaef cAA ||

One reason, I think, for the similarities in all these tunes is the employment of the "double tonic" device used to emulate Highland bagpipe tunes. There is a music file from a 78rpm recording (1926) by the concertinist William J Mullaly available on the web on which he plays "Green Groves of Erin" going into "The Ivy Leaf" (https://thesession.org/tunes/1112), another tune in the same vein. Download it at http://www.archive.org/details/Greengroves
.

Here it is played by Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh and Danny O’Mahony……..third tune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YLo3wH8dsk

play video

Altan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaB63jXCFdc

play video

Kevin Burke & co. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASKwb3lZKz4

play video

The link to the exciting sound file of John and Larry Rooney playing this tune is now on this page: http://www.grtleeds.co.uk/Culture/rooneyRecordings.html

John Rooney is Felix Doran’s nephew married to F. Doran’s daughter, which means Larry is F. Doran’s grandson.

I hear C#’s throughout on the Carberry/Quinn recording.

First tune in this set:

https://soundcloud.com/thegoodset/green-groves-set

As played at sessions here in Austin, TX