The Five Mile Chase reel

My father and uncle. fiddle and flute player from Kenilworth, Ontario, play this tune in a set beginning with the Daisy Field, then the Mountain Top, then the Five Mile Chase.

A very old tune - it is printed in Howe’s 1000 Jigs and Reels, which is now available in reprint from Mel Bay, edited by Pat Sky - some of the tunes in this book (which, like the later Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, was compiled and printed in Boston in the mid-late 19th century) have instructions for dancers, and the one for this tune starts out with this interesting comment:

“The Scotch are indefatigable when dancing this Reel; they seem almost intoxicated with it - they snap their fingers -- throw their arms and feet in the air -- screech out - and make such quick, and difficult steps, that the eyes have trouble following them.”

X: 1
T: Five Mile Chase, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
S: Paddy Murphy
D: In Good Hands
Z: Daniel Bradbury
K: Gmaj
|:G2 ((3BAG) dG ((3BAG)|FADA FADA|G2BG dG ((3BAG)|gbab gedB|
G2((3BAG) dG ((3BAG)|FDAD BDAD|G2((3BAG) dG ((3BAG)|1gba{bd‘}b g3d:|2gba{bd’}b g3G||
|:G2 ((3Bcd) ed ((3Bcd)|gd ((3Bcd) gdad|gd ((3Bcd) ed ((3Bcd)|gba{bd’}b g3b|
gbag ((3efg) eg|d2dB dBAB|d2de {ef}edBd|1((3efg) fa g3G:|2(3efg fa g3||

I presume this tune and the Hare’s Paw are from same family. Striking similarity.

This tune appears no fewer than three times in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (c. 1886), under the titles Lady Gardner’s Reel, Parnell’s Reel, and Corporal Casey’s Fancy. Also appears in the Roche Collection (c. 1926) as The Wild Fire Chase. Evidently a very popular tune!

I’ll add another transcription later, but to adjust the existing one, which is a little odd from the start ~

X: 1
T: Five Mile Chase, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
|: G2 BG dGBG | FADA FADA | G2 BG dGBd |[1 egfa gedB :|[2 egfa g3 B ||
G2BG dGBG | FADA FADA | G2BG dGBd | egfa g3B :|
gd (3Bcd ed (3Bcd | gabg fgaf | gd (3Bcd ed (3Bcd |gabf g3 f |
gabg fgaf | e3 d BABd | e3 f edBd | edfd gedB |]

It also makes a decent highland fling…

OOPS!!! I’d deleted that line. I think the gremlins in this computer have it in for me… Here goes again, ignore the previous ~

X: 1
T: Five Mile Chase, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
|: G2 BG dGBG | FADA FADA | G2 BG dGBd |[1 egfa gedB :|[2 egfa g3 B ||
gd (3Bcd ed (3Bcd | gabg fgaf | gd (3Bcd ed (3Bcd |gabf g3 f |
gabg fgaf | e3 d BABd | e3 f edBd | edfd gedB |]

Give it some swing and it’ll make for a nice fling…

Yet another setting ….
This has a nice version of the B part.

X: 1
T: The Five Mile Chase
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
|: G2BG dGBG|FADA FADA|G2BG dGBd|egfa gedB |
G2BG dGBG|FADA FADA|G2BG dGBd|egfa g2 gf:|
|:gdBd edBd|gabg agef|gdBd edBd|egfa g3f|
gabg efge|dedc BGBd|efed edBd|egfa gedB:|

This setting appears in O’Neill’s Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody, 1922, no. 207, as Four-Hand Reel.