The Heather Breeze reel

Has been recorded by many including Matt Molloy on his 1981 album of the same title and also by accordion player Dermot Byrne on his self titled 1995 solo album.

John Harvey
Rhodeirish.net

John,

This tune is most often heard with a slightly different ending, with the last four bars played:

g2 gf gbag|fdde fgaf|defg abag|fdcA BGGF||

Only the last-but-one bar is different from the setting you gave.

However, this ending is used in a number of tunes, including The Pretty Girls of Mayo, and others that I can’t think of just now. I really like this ending, remembered (possibly wrongly) from a recording by the great Sligo fiddler Paddy Killoran. The last two bars are different:

g2 gf gbag|fdde fgaf|gbag fagf |edcA (3Bcd AF||

Try it, I think you’ll like it!

On the subject of the name, it’s very poetic, but it’s probably a corruption of “The Heathery Braes” (hillsides).

This reel has a quebecois version called Gigue à Ti-Mé (not to be confused with Reel à Ti-Mé).
It’s been popularized by the great accordionist Philippe Bruneau. As for many other reels and jigs, few people in Quebec know it’s of Irish origins.

I got this version off a concert with Caoimhin and Mick. I think it’s the same one.
X:1
T: Heather Breeze
M: 4/4
L:1/8
R: Reel
|:DGBG dBGB|FGAB cBAF|DGBG dBGB|1 BdcA BGAF:|2 BdcA BGG2|
|dggf gbag|fd3 fagf|dggfgbag|fdcA BGG2| dggf gbag|fd3 fagf|g3a bgag|fdcA BGAF||

Great tune before Pigeon on the Gate.

Here’s how I heard Andrew MacNamara play it:

X: 3
T: Heather Breeze
S: Andrew MacNamara
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: Reel
K: G
DGBG dGBG|DFAB cBAF|DGBG dGBG|B/c/dcA BGG2:|
~g3f gbag|fdde fgaf|~g3f gbag|fdcA BGG2|
~g3f gbag|fdde fgaf|defg ~a3g|fdcA BGG2||

I learnt this from an elderly Kilkenny boxplayer who plays this as an ordinary reel rather than a single reel. Second part ended first time as
g2 gf g2ag|fdde fga2|defg abag|fdcA BGGF

and second time around as
g2 gf g2ag|fdde fga2|bgaf gbag|fdcA BGGF

“On the subject of the name, it’s very poetic, but it’s probably a corruption of “The Heathery Braes” (hillsides).”

I just noticed this comment; absolutely nothing wrong with the idea of “braes” as another word for hills, but far from being poetic, believe me, when you stand on a moorland, hillside or mountain in Ireland, Scotland, England or Wale,s you can smell the nectar emanating from the heather when it is in bloom. It is almost intoxicating.

I really feel that the title alludes to the scent on the breeze.

All the best

Brian x

X:7 from Paddy Killoran’s 78. I noted where in the first part he’d drone a note behind the melody. It sounds like he pulses two half notes in each bar - G4 G4 etc.

I discover while checking for the repeats in that tune that O’Neill had a third part to it. See that part in setting no 8.
Probably a variation to the first one … ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMaFG34xzZk

play video

Transcripted from the record “Rain na Feirste - Ceol agus amhráin” (first released as an LP in 1973 et now available on CD), track “Drowsy Maggie” (n° 16 on the CD, n°8 side 2 on the LP) played by Séamus & Dónal Ó Baoighill on fiddles. It’s the 2nd reel of the set which is: Drowsy Maggie / Heather Breathe / Swallow’s Tail.
The pitch is about one tone lower.
I’ve transcript the 3 turns of the tune which are played differently for part A, with variation with an F natural on some phrases .

I’ve also transcript the whole set, see Drowsy Maggie (https://thesession.org/tunes/27), with another 3rd part in Bm, and Swallow’s Tail (https://thesession.org/tunes/105).

Donegal fiddler Néillidh Boyle played this as a highland, with more of a mixolydian feel in the first part. Love it!

Néillidh Boyle’s excellent setting as a highland, taken off his “A Feeling in the Blood” album.

According to the liner notes for “A Feeling in the Blood”, this was not in fact Néillidh Boyle’s setting, but rather that of his brother, Con.

I considered whether to add this simplified setting of tune #693 in O’Neill’s 1001, labeled as “The Maid at the Churn,” as its own tune rather than as a setting of The Heather Breeze. I settled onto setting it under the more common tune as the main points of difference could be artifacts of the player’s choice. I’m not sure if bar 2 of the B part is a transcription error – the Cs seem meant to be Ds, given the parallel f#-to-d movement in bars 4 and 6). A full transcription from O’Neill’s, full of cascading triplets, is here: https://tunearch.org/wiki/Maid_at_the_Churn_(1)_(The)

The tunearch link I provided appears to stop linking before the closing parenthesis – it fails to open unless you add the parenthesis back in.