Lord McDonald’s reel

Another reel made popular by M. Coleman - it’s often paired with Ballinsloe Fair. It’s a chicken & the egg situation, no ones sure if he paired them together & made the set famous - or if it was something he learned. Many times anything recorded by Coleman is attributed to his inovation - however a lot of the things he recorded were already traditional in Co. Sligo , but brand new to the rest of ITM (at the time). Some of those settings became standards.

This reel is a lot easier than it looks due to the 2nd & 4th parts being almost identical, except for the rolls/triplets on the d.

I really screwed this up (tried it from memory without an instrument on my afternoon coffee-break) ~ I just revised it & re-submitted the ABC, now it’s got something to do with the actual tune. Sorry Folks!!

This tune is also played by Scottish Fiddlers. Slightly less Irishified, of course. I believe it’s of Scottish origin, can’t back it up with any kind of evidence tho.

Here’s the basic version off the Boston College Fiddle Festival recording. There are so many fiddles going, some playing low, some playing higher, that there’s no one clear line, but this is close.

X:1
T:Lord McDonald’s
S:My Love is In America: Boston College Fiddle Festival, first track
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:G
DGBG DGBG|c2 Bc AGEG|DGBG AGBG|DEDC B,G, G,2|
DGBG dGBG|(3cdc Bc AGEG|~B3A GFGE|DEGA BGGA||
Bdd^c dBGB|defg aged|Bdd^c ~d3B |ABcA BGGA|
Bdd^c dBGB|defg aged|Bdef ~g3e|dBAc BGGB||
dgbg agbg|dgbg ageg|dgbg agbg|~d3c BGGB|
dgbg agbg|dgbg ageg|(3bag (3agf gedB|dega bgg2 ||
Bdd^c dBGB|defg aged|Bdd^c ~d3B |ABcA BGGA|
Bdd^c dBGB|defg aged|Bdef ~g3e|dBAc BGGB||

I play the same version Liam O’Flynn plays for pipes which suits the instrument much better than this version. The high part on the uilleann takes a good bit og bag control.

It’s 3rd in the set called “Kildareman’s Fancy”.

X: 1
T: Kildareman’s Fancy #3
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
|GGGB dGGG|cABG AGEA|DGBG dGBd|gedc BGGF|
|GGGB dGGG|cGBG AGEG|BGAF GEDA|DEGA BGGF|
|BddB dBGB|defg aged|BddB dBGB|ABBA BGGG|
|BddB dBGB|defg aged|cdef gage|dBAc BGGG|
|dgbg agbg|dgbg ageg|dgbg agbg|dedc BGGG|
|dgbg agbg|dgbg ageg|bgaf gedB|dega bggg|
|BddB dBGB|defg aged|BddB d2ge|dBAc BGGG|
|BddB dBGB|defg aged|cdef gage|dBAc BGGG|

Based on Liam O’Flynn’s setting:

X: 1
T: Lord McDonald
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
~G3B DGBG|cGBG AGEG|DGBG dG (3Bcd|gedc BGGF|
~G3B dG~G2|cGBG AGEG|BGAF GEDB|DEGA BG~G2||
BddB dBGB|defg aged|BddB dBGB|AB (3cBA BG~G2|
BddB dBGB|defg aged|(3Bcd ef ~g3e|dBAc BG~G2||
dgbg agbg|dgbg ageg|dgbg agbg|dedc BG~G2|
dgbg agbg|dgbg ageg|bgaf gedB|dega bg~g2||
BddB dBGB|defg aged|BddB dBGB|AB (3cBA BG~G2|
BddB dBGB|defg aged|(3Bcd ef ~g3e|dBAc BG~G2||

I can hear Matt Molloy doing some other stuff. Bars 1 & 2 of the A-part are |~G3B DGAG|(3cBA (3BAG AGEG|. Bar 1of the B-part has C#s: |Bdd^c dBGB|.

Sorry that last bar should lead back in to the A-part |dBAc BGGF| etc.

Britches Full of Stitches https://thesession.org/tunes/277
Also the US Tune “Leather Britches” is related.

Worth playing in A (on the fiddle). In fact, I prefer it in that key.

Key signature: G Major
Submitted on March 13th 2006 by jkurnick.
https://thesession.org/tunes/5593

Here’s the version I know, it’s a three-parter. Fairly similar in places to MB’s original submission.

X:1
T: Lord McDonald’s
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K:Gmaj
|: DGBG AGBG | DGBG AGEG | DGBG AGBG | DEDC B,G,G,2|
DGBG AGBG | DGBG AGEc | BAGF GFED | B,DGA BGG2 :|
|: Bd~d2 dBGA | Bdef gedc | Bd~d2 dBGB | ABcA BGG2 |
Bd~d2 dBGA | Bdef gedc | Bd~d2 gd~d2 | cBAc BGG2 :|
|: dgbg agbg | dgb/2a/2g ageg | dgbg agbg | dedc BGG2 |
dgbg agbg | dgb/2a/2g agef | gedB AGEG | DEGA BG G2 :|

Who’s the clown who put “The Queen Of May” in here as an alternate title and with what justification ? 2 tunes with nothing at all in common - now it’s linked to a whole lot of recordings which “Lord McDonald’s” doesn’t appear on.

There’s a few on here like that. I discovered today that an alternative title for “Maid Behind the Bar” is “New York” and that “Cooley’s” is also called “JoE KoOlY’z”

There’s worse…. 😛 Way back when every ‘gan ainm’ in the book piled up as a recording someone was going around adding ‘gan ainm’ as a alternate title for many things, with the recording list exploding because of that addition. Since then Jeremy has sorted that out, but we still have misdirected connections and folks adding alternate titles as a kind of digital graffiti. Sometimes it helps to drop a quick note to the original submitter and sometimes they will come back and clean up the alternate titles list. Where there is a shared name or a confusion of names it is probably best to just mention it in the comments here and not add it to the list of alternate titles…

This might need to be opened up as a ‘discussion’?

The version I heard Liam O’Flynn play in Planxty many years ago.

http://youtu.be/sHkHQf3v3VI

play video

The clown who linked Lord MacDonald’s to QotM is… Matt Molloy.
Or at least whoever listed the titles on Music at Matt Molloy’s. Clearly the tune on that recording is Lord MacDonald’s, but it follows Dr.Gilbert’s and so whoever titled it probably got confused with the Coleman set. All this is clear when you cross-check tune entries on TheSession, though I’m sure I wouldn’t have figured it out otherwise. I didn’t enter it originally as an alternate title but I see how it happened.
The careful stewards at TheSession have reversed the error introduced by “Folk process” however. I see it’s been removed as an alternate title, and in Recordings it shows the right titles. Good work.

Cape Breton version here, also Scots Guards (1) have a 4 part version

From Niel Gow’s “Third Collection of Strathspey Reels” (1792).