Fourteen comments
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….
Tongadale
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 !
Tongadale
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?
Kenny is right
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
To be fair on Farqhuar, it was the publisher and copyright holder who objected as opposed to the composer
Royalties
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.
No objections…
Still here!!
Publishing Rights
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
Tongadale, X:3
For easy playing on a d instrument
Tongadale, X:4
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 🙂
Re: Tongadale
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.
Re: Tongadale
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.