The Old Wheels Of The World reel

I’m pretty sure that my great grandfather Kane wrote this one. From what I hear, he was a pretty good flute player. Well, granddad, this one’s for your memory!

Funny, the repeated notes are un-flutelike. Do you play the flute too? How do you do those, do you roll them?

Yes, I am a flute player too. But, do to several mishaps caused by my lack of ability to put rolls in this sheet music, I just left them as repeated notes. I do roll them. I do the G-A-G-F-G thing.

Source: the dance music of Willy Clancy

This appears on Planxty’s “After The Break”, but is not listed in the liner notes.

I assume that Liam O‘Flynn got it off Willie Clancy, who called it “The Old Wheels Of The World”. In O’Neill’s it is entitled “Rolling Down The Hill” and contains some G#s.

I think you’re wrong. Dow. I’m sure this appears on “Words & Music” by Planxty as “Old Wheels Of The World” but I’m 99% it’s not on my copy of “After The Break”.

Unless my copy was zapped by aliens and given an extra tune at the start of the Chattering Magpie/Lord MacDonald set that doesn’t appear on any other copy of the album, I don’t think I’m wrong - I’m listening to it now and this tune is being played as a solo pipe number as I write. I don’t have Words & Music.

Lp or CD, Mark? I’m talking about the LP. There’s definitely no “Chattering Magpies/Lord McDonald” or “Bonny Light Horseman” on the LP record I have. If you have the CD, they may be “bonus” tracks. Would that explain it?

No I have it on my LP at home as well Dow.

http://www.chivalry.com/shortdescs/plx-after-break.html

According to this http://www.chinatogalway.com/Discography%20Andy%20Irvine.htm they are indeed bonus tracks. What’s this “LP” thing you two keep talking about? 😉

It’s a traditional thing, Mark - 🙂

The 78s are even more traditional. Sometimes, you can get a whole set of tunes on each side and, if they’re playing too slow, you can just “crank the handle” of the old gramophone to speed it up.

But doesn’t that make it skip the track? 😉

The original release of Planxty`s After The Break did not include Lord McDonald/Chattering Magpie or The Bonny Light Horseman. These tracks were included as bonus tracks on the CD. They were originally released on High Kings Of Tara along with The First Slip/Hardiman the Fiddler (Ador & Bmin)/The Yellow Wattle (one of my all time favourite Planxty tracks, the way Liam O`Flynn plays The Yellow Wattle is sensational!).
Yes, Dow is right ,The Old Wheels of the World does precede Lord McDonald on the track in question.

I wish I could be wrong one day just to break the monotony of it all - I do try you know 😀

I first heard this tune on the bonus track Lord MacDonlad/The Chattering Magpie set on Planxty’s ‘After the Break’ album. The tune was somehow omitted from the liner notes. Anyway, here is the way Liam O’Flynn plays it on this track (well, pretty close too):

X: 1
T: The Old Wheels of the World (Rolling Down the Hill)
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmix
g2 gf||: eAAA eAcA | GE (3EEE ~G3E | A2AB cBcd | ef (3.g.f.e dg(3.f.g.f |
eAAA eAcA | GE (3EEE ~G3E | A2AB cBcd | egge d2 Bc :|
dggg dggg | eaaa eaag | efge defg | af (3.g.f.e .d.cBc|
dggg dgfg | eaaa eaag | efge defg | af (3.g.f.e dg (3.f.g.f :|

I think the tune entitled “The Sporting Paddy” that appears on Adrian Barker and Ben Stephenson’s “Undertones” is a version of this tune as a single reel, and not the Hunters Purse as stated in the liner notes of the CD. Their version was learnt from a recording of Sally Sloane (1894-1982) from Parkes, NSW, playing fiddle.

X: 1
T: Rolling Down The Hill
T: The Old Wheels Of The World
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
D: Adrian Barker & Ben Stephenson - “Undertones”
K: Ador
eAcA eAcA|~G3F EFGB|A3B cBcd|eaag egdg:|
|:eaag eaaf|efgf efge|afge dA (3Bcd|eaag egdg:|

The B-part seems a little different at first glance, but look again. If you take off the last bar and shift it to the beginning of the B-part you get this:

|:eaag egdg|eaag eaaf|efgf efge|afge dA (3Bcd:|

…which isn’t that far removed from O’Neill’s setting of Rolling Down The Hill which is as follows:

efgf efgf|eaa^g eaag|efge efgf|afge d2d2|…etc.

I don’t know how closely the lads stuck to their source setting (I would guess they followed it as closely as they felt comfortable with playing in their own style) but I’m wondering whether this was a mishearing on the part of Sally Sloane, or a deliberate changing of the tune to suit her taste, or whether she got the tune from some written source.

is as played by Séamus Cooley (1974) after Seán sa Ceo.
https://thesession.org/tunes/177#setting24782

This tune is the first in a set of three on James Murray’s recent album, The Powellsborough Lassies. He follows it with McGowan’s (McGovern’s) Favourite and The Moving Bogs of Powellsborough.

Another tune - from Allan’s Irish Fiddler.

As heard at session in Austin, TX

Great tune.

Here’s the O’Neill’s version referenced by Dow some years ago, simplified by removing grace notes, bowings, and F#s that can be replaced with a shift to A Dorian.