An Paistin Fionn hornpipe

This is the Hornpipe version of the air (I think). Lunasa does it on Merry Sisters and Dervish does it on Spirit. This is closer to Lunasa’s version.

Glad you posted this one, Unseen!
It’s also on the 1981 Green Linnet recording, “Eavesdropper,” with Jackie Daly and Kevin Burke played with swing in Fdor.
Here’s how I hear their setting in Edor on my concertina.
X: 1
T: An Paístin Fionn
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: Edor
(3Bcd |: e>gfe d>efd | g>bag f2gf | e>fed BAGA | B>dcA B2 (3Bcd |
e>gfe d>efd | g>bag f2gf | e>fed BAFB |1 E2 ED E2 (3Bcd:|2 E2 ED E2 EF ||
|: G>ABc d>BBd | c>AAc d>BBA | G>ABc dBBA | B>eed e2EF |
G>ABc d>BBA | B>eef g2gf | e>fed B>AFB |1 E2 ED E2 EF :|2E2 ED E2 (3Bcd ||

https://thesession.org/tunes/2387

Sorry, that’s not a waltz but a song air. It seems this hornpipe setting was rewritten based on the air.

I thought it was a Hornpipe of the air, guess I was right.

Dervish adds more triplets in this tune. The one I posted is my own version and is kind of a hodge-podge of the two I have heard.

Horror of horrors!! This is a gorgeous slow air and if you heard Kieran Galvin sing this with Danú, you’d never want to play it as anything else.

I’m going to avoid that, then.
🙂

First off his name is spelled Ciarán O Gealbháin. Secondly, this sounds completly different than the air that he sings with Danu. “Think Before You Think” is probably my favorite Danu album.

Unseen,
I think that’s what Bannerman’s objection is. Of course, I’ll never know. I won’t be listening to Danu’s version because I want to keep playing this one.

Or maybe I’ll just call it something else,
like The Fair Haired Little Darlin’ Hornpipe.😉.

No, it can’t be, I heard the Lunasa air into hornpipe version first then heard the Danu song. The two are completly different this one has that nice dorian yearning where as the song has to be major, too nice sounding. I love them both regardless of what either name is.

My point is, I have heard and played both, and I love both versions.

Jackie Daly turned the air setting played by flute player Paddy Taylor into a hornpipe, which he recorded on his duet LP with Kevin Burke c. 1980. For the music that was probably Taylor’s source, see the Roche Collection.

Not this version, of course. But in the Tomás ó Canainn book Traditional Slow Airs of Ireland, Páistín Fionn is written in 6/8 time. That version is close to what Ciarán O Gealbháin sings on the Danú album. So maybe someone will post it as a jig,

Yeah, right

https://thesession.org/tunes/1471

I should have looked a little further.

Sounds like this should be in eminor, not edorian; those c sharps in the B section sounds really out of place to me. Or I suppose you could throw some bminor sound in there by getting rid of some Gs and altering a triplet, like so:

F2 Bc dBBA|B3c dcBA|G2 Bc dBBA|Beed e2(3CDE|
F2 Bc dBBA|Bega b3 a|e2 ed BA FA|1 E2 ED E2 (3DEF:|2 E2 ED E2 (3Bcd||

or:
F2 Bc dBBA|B3c dcBA|G2 Bc dBBA|Beed e2(3DEF|
G2 B=c dBBA|Bega b3 a|e2 ed BA FA|1 E2 ED E2 (3DEF:|2 E2 ED E2 (3Bcd||

forgot to alter a triplet on that first suggestion:

F2 Bc dBBA|B3c dcBA|G2 Bc dBBA|Beed e2(3CDE|
F2 Bc dBBA|Bega b3 a|e2 ed BA FA|1 E2 ED E2 (3CDE:|2 E2 ED E2 (3Bcd||

It’s your ear that’s the problem Sean 🙂 . Jackie plays no c#s in the tune, and it sounds just fine. In fact he plays a lot more c#s in the second part - as transcribed by y अनिच्चा above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jyk40jWLfc

play video

Hey-thanks Phantom Button for posting that clip, Daly and Crannitch at the Celtic Junction! Was a great show.
Food for thought: there are at least three different songs in Irish by this same name (and probably more!) all dealing with fairy abduction, so likely some of the confusion starts there.

Adding to the confusion, this is a strongly modal tune. Jackie’s version is definitely in E dorian and has C#s throughout as does the setting of the original air. Those C#s in the B part (listen to Jackie’s phrase GABc# dBBd, etc.) give a Lydian mode feel which only resolve back to Dorian at the end phrases. The Lydian mode is rare in Irish music but it’s unearthly effect was no doubt used intentionally by the song’s original author.