An Drochaid Chliùiteach three-two

Great tune - thanks to Bonnanza for requesting it and to JohnJ for identifying it. John got it from Nigel Gatherer’s site


http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/tab/tab8/twstb.html

NB it is a 6/4 pipe tune - maybe 3/2 is the closest option here??

You can assign meter on site when making your contribution, say under either 3/2 or 6/8 but with a ‘proviso’ ~ all you do is add
M: 6/4
before the ABCs…

Cool tune. It sounds so familiar but I can’t remember where I heard it.

Gaelic Storm. How could I forget.

I have it on good authority that the name ‘The Twisted Bridge’ is a bad translation from the Gaelic. The name should actually be ‘The Famous Bridge’

What an interesting little tune! I think you were right to choose 3/2 anyway, domnull. Anything with a 6 on top of the time signature (6/2, 6/4, 6/8 etc) is “compound duple”, i.e. there are 2 beats in the bar, so you’d tap your foot twice, and there’d be 3 crotchets’ worth on each tap. With 3/2 the bar length is the same, but the subdivision is different and there are 3 beats in the bar. Clearly in this tune there are 3 beats.

Apparently this is a type of reel from the Hebrides. The whole feel of this kind of 3/2 is different from the normal 3/2. If the normal 3/2 is like a “slip march”, then this would be a “slip reel”, and I’ve heard it described as such. I think it’s very descriptive to have terms such as slip reel and slip polka. Those terms imply that the general feel of the rhythm is the same but the bar length is different.

I’ve come across other tunes like this online. One was a French Canadian tune I heard in a session a few years ago. I’d have to do a bit of research to find out the name of that tune again, but I remember it was called “Reel” something-or-other.

I beg your pardon, it’s actually “gigue”. The name is La Grande Gigue Simple, but the Fiddler’s Companion has this to say about it: “This melody is probably the most popular and famous solo step-dance tune for virtuostic stepping in French-Canadian tradition, though it is in actuality not a jig (‘gigue’) but a reel”.

I just posted it here https://thesession.org/tunes/7194.

Twisted Bridge is on track 8 of the Tannahill Weavers’ “Capernaum”, as the last in the Log Splitter Set entitled An Drochaid Luideach.

There’s a discussion on slip reels here https://thesession.org/discussions/13704.

The band Beolach does a great version of this on uilleann pipes

The tune is actually about a bridge on the East side of Benbecula, in the Western Isles, and is thought to have been An Drochaid Luideach, meaning the silly bridge, but the name probably changed as they do, over time.

Just realized you can play it in octaves! I am excited.

For the pipers out there, I thought I’d put up this arrangement which is on the Smalltalk album and I know I’ve heard it on highland pipes, but I don’t know what it’s called. I kept the 3/2 time signature because it fits, but this is more the structure of a pipe reel.

X: 1
T: Famous Bridge, The
M: 3/2
L: 1/8
R: Slip Reel
K: HP
{g}ce{g}e{A}e {g}fe{A}ef {g}e{A}e {ag}a2| {g}ce{g}e{A}e {g}fe{A}ef {g}ecB{G}B|
{g}ce{g}e{A}e {g}fe{A}ef {g}e{A}e {ag}a2|{g}A{d}A{e}AB {gcd}c2 {g}ce{g}BG {g}A{d}A :|
ae{g}e{A}e {g}fe{A}ef {g}e{A}e {ag}a2| {ag}ae{g}e{A}e {g}fe{A}ef {g}ecB{G}B|
ae{g}e{A}e {g}fe{A}ef {g}e{A}e {ag}a2|{g}A{d}A{e}AB {gcd}c2 {g}ce{g}BG {g}A{d}A :|

I thought I’d add this arrangement for the pipers out there. There’s a tune called “The Twisted Bridge” out there, but this arrangement is structured more like a reel and includes grace notes.

Maybe should have just left it in the comments on the original posting of this tune. Perhaps this is a rather unnecessary duplicate as although I appreciate the logic behind your posting it, I would reason that a GHP piper is unlikely to be looking for the pipe dots to this or any other pipe tune on here.

I’ve posted my fair share of duplicates but have to echo, this is best left for the comments of the original posting. The setting that is already up is already playable on pipes. Any players of Scottish pipes that come here for tunes aren’t looking for where to put gracenotes and doublings, just the basic melody. We’re apt, or even prefer, to come up with our own ornaments and variations. It’s a classic tune though.

# Added by domhnall ~
https://thesession.org/tunes/5151

# Added by bob_piper ~
https://thesession.org/tunes/11438

"The band Beolach does a great version of this on uilleann pipes

# Posted by ElliotI 4 years ago."

Just spotted this comment. No they didn’t. Ryan MacNeil from Beolach plays Scottish Border Pipes and not Uilleann Pipes.

ceolachan, in your recent submission above you forgot the all important “a” at the start of bars 1, 2 & 3 of the 2nd part, this note is the only difference this part has from the 1st, so perhaps you just forgot to change that c before hitting the go button. Just goes to show how much difference a single note can make.

Thanks Solidmahog, appreciated, as I’m not as fully conscious as I’d preferred….

no worries ceol glad to be of service, and you sorted the ornament on the e/e/e out, it was needing that…. Great wee tune.

Taking it down a step and going major…

I just need more beauty sleep. I’m getting to look rather ogre-ish lately… 😉

An Drochaid Chliùteach is Gaelic for ‘The Famous Bridge’. That is the correct name. allanmcd is correct also saying that it is from the East side of Benbecula. It is a humorous Gaelic song written by a witty local who was poking fun at the civil engineers who made a bit of a botch of building a section of the road, part of a causeway, out to the East side of Benbecula in the 50’s. It was first recorded by Iain MacDonald on Billy Jackson and Billy Ross’s CD ‘The Misty Mountain’ from 1984. It was incorrectly named ‘An Drochaid Luideach’ by the record company……the bridge isn’t ‘Luideach!’

An Drochaid Chliùteach is Gaelic for ‘The Famous Bridge’. That is the correct name. allanmcd is correct also saying that it is from the East side of Benbecula. It is a humorous Gaelic song written by a witty local who was poking fun at the civil engineers who made a bit of a botch of building a section of the road, part of a causeway, out to the East side of Benbecula in the 50’s. It was first recorded by Iain MacDonald on Billy Jackson and Billy Ross’s CD ‘The Misty Mountain’ from 1984. It was incorrectly named ‘An Drochaid Luideach’ by the record company……the bridge isn’t ‘Luideach!’

Surely the name should be written as ‘An Drochaid Chliùiteach’? The ‘i’ is written before the ‘t’ in ‘chliùiteach’ because the following vowel is an ‘e’, the two confirming that the ‘t’ in between is pronounced as a ‘slender’ ‘t’. ‘Cliùiteach’ (famous) changes to ‘chliùiteach’ because the preceding noun ‘drochaid’ (bridge) is feminine.