Tongadale reel

Scottish tune, composed by Farquhar MacDonald and introduced to Cambridge in the sorely-missed Boat Race by my mate Aidan O’Hare. Goes well with Tam Lynn, if you want to finish the night on a couple of stonkers….

I may be wrong, but is this not the tune which was in the database before, but was removed when the composer objected to its’ inclusion here?

Kenny -

methinks you’re right. I remember grabbing the ABC for it then noticing it disappeared soon after. It does not appear in the JC site and appears in the mammoth Fiddler’s Companion simply as a 2-line entry stating

"TONGADALE REEL. Scottish, Reel. Composed by Farquhar MacDonald. Cruinn Comhla – The Well Travelled Fiddler’s Collection (1995). "

Carpe Diem !

Ahhhhh. Is that why it wasn’t in the database? It seemed strange not to be there already.

> composer objected to its’ inclusion

Shame. That’d seem to be a good way of not hearing your tune played all over the country at sessions. Oh well.

That seems an odd thing to do.Did anyone ever get rich by composing a tune in a traditional style?

Yes, Kenny is right. We had a big discussion about it at the time, although I never actually admitted that it was this particular tune at the time. 😉

So, you’d better all download it fairly quickly. I don’t suppose that it’ll be here too long.

To be fair on Farqhuar, it was the publisher and copyright holder who objected as opposed to the composer

I doubt if anyone’s ever “got rich” from composing in a traditional style, but I would imagine Jay Ungar, Dougie McLean and Dave Richardson might have made a few bawbees for “Ashokan Farewell”, “The Gael” [ “Last Of The Mohicans”] and “Calliope House”. The latter was used in one or other of Michael Flatley’s productions, and had been listed as “traditional”, until Dave Richardson claimed ownership.

Still here!!

I am planning on recording a short run of CD’s and Tongadale is on the track list. In case anyone was wondering, the publisher is Taigh na Teud Music Publishers at scotlandsmusic.com

For easy playing on a d instrument

A whistle friendly version of this fantastic tune. We play this in a set with Farewell to Chernobyl and Tam Lin which the fiddles like in Dmin and so whistlers need a C whistle. This setting of Tongadale means they don’t have to swap mid-set 🙂

Recent comments about the weirdly titled tune "Battered Hake" reminded me that the Tongadale Reel was almost called "The Frozen Haddock", till Christine Martin told Farquhar it was too good a tune for that title.

Think I’ve only heard it played in Amin, and it’s an absolute b&gger on my B/C box! Far too much pushing and pulling! Some of the other keys there would be easier, but then you have to play in whatever key someone else starts it in.