Timmy Collins’ slip jig

From Sé, Lúnasa. (The first tune in Road to Barga)
My own transcription.

Sorry, there’s a mistake in the 4th bar in the 3rd line. It should be like in the last line and not like in the first two lines. So the second note should be a B and not a E.
|GBD DEG G2D|
Sorry.

(It’s already corrected in the ABC but it can’t be corrected in the jpg file I think.)

Evidently Lúnasa got this tune from concertina player Tim Collins, who recorded it on his ‘CD Dancing on Silver’ under the title ‘Breathnach’s.’ The liner notes there say that Collins found it while browsing through Breandan Breathnach’s Ceol rince na hÉireann – doesn’t say which volume – and that Breathnach lists it as gan ainm.

Collins plays it in A but says Breathnach notated it in G.

Doesn’t Collins usually play a F/Bb tina? That would explain why he plays it in G as the key of A on an F/Bb tina comes out as G.

Huh? Also known by Gain Ainm? All those people play this tune but they didn’t call it anything? or is it a mistake?

Damn that Gan Ainm, a great composer of traditional tunes though, along with Anon. The talented bastards, I just wish they would quit naming everything after themselves. What egos. Besides, it’s a bitch trying to make sense of it all when there are so damn many tunes named after these dudes. I bet, as my old women’s lib friends would have it, that they were both women…

My farvorite composer is “trad.”

Hey Pere, there’s a message in your inbox. I almost started the computer up again last night after logging off. As much of a problem as we can have with the old bugaboo ‘Gan Ainm’, if every ‘Gan Ainm’ Tim Collins played was called ‘Tim Collins’, and if every ‘Gan Ainm’ Breandan Breathnach was called ‘Breathnach’, well, we’d still have the same damn problem. Better yet to trace up the earliest source, whoever Breandan got it from, and give them the credit if no other name for it can be found. I’ve some of the books and other things by Breandan here and I’ll give it a shot. Though I’ve left the first three volumes of the 5 of ‘Ceol’ with a friend, there are some ABC’s online and I’ll give them a go too, to see if I can come up with anything.

In the meantime, you have the power. Having ‘Gan Ainm’ in the alternate titles has thrown up a slew of unrelated recordings. As sent, click on the ‘Details’ tab above, then you’ll find, and only you will see it, and ‘Edit’ option. Click on that and delete the ‘Gan Ainm’…

Yeah ‘Unseen122’, I see you and agree, I love ‘Trad’s’ work, but I’m also quite fond of ‘Gan Ainm’s’ and ‘Anon’s’ too…and there are a few decent efforts by named folk as well, all under the heady influence of ‘Trad’ of course. I understand the Greek’s and Roman’s and folks further back and afield, were pretty sure ‘Trad’ was a woman too… 😉

page 19, tune # 31 ~ “Gan Ainm”
~ from the Stephen Grier manuscript, County Leitrim, late 1800’s…

Drumlin LHTCD 1
https://thesession.org/recordings/1118

“The tunes are all local - either unique to the South Leitrim tradition or local variants of nationally known pieces. Many were learned by Michael McNamara from local heroes like John Blessing, Thomas Canning, Jim Rawle, Pee Fitzpatrick, Bernie and Jimmy McKiernan and the Reilly family. The remainder are from the recently re-dicovered manusripts of Stephen Grier (1883) and Alex Sutherland (early 1900s). Readers familiar with Reg Hall’s writings will realise that this means they were set down before the Gaelic League began re-inventing Irish musical history in the early part of this century:”

This link takes you to ‘MusTrad’ review of the recording and a couple of choice quotes from Reg Hall and one of my favourites from the Roche collections.

& ~ from that same ‘MusTrad’ review:

“ Not all of the music is slow-paced, but it does keep well away from the break-neck speeds we have become used to hearing. To quote the admirable Charlie Lennon from the booklet, the tempi are such as to “ensure that each piece is given time to breathe freely and express its own characteristics, a welcome change from some of the present day offerings.” “

Sorry, I am a bit out of it, here’s the link I mentioned two contributions back:

http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/leitrim.htm

I’m baking at the same time I’m taking musical breaks here… There are some links to sound files amongst the above review…

K: A Dorian
|: D |
GBG AGE EDB | GBG AGE c2 A | B>AG AGE EDB | GED DEG A2 :|
|: B |
GAG GA/B/c dBG | AA/A/A AB/c/d e2 d |1 GAG GBc dBG | GED DEG A2 :|
2 gba gfe dBG | GED DE/F/G A2 ||

K: A Dorian
|: G2 G AGE GED | G2 G AGE c2 A | B2 G AGE GED | GED DEG A3 :|
G2 G GAB dBG | A2 A ABd e2 g | G2 G GAB dBA | GED DEG A2 D |
GG/G/G GBG dBG | AA/A/A AcA e2 f | gg/g/g fg/f/e dBA | G2 E DEG A3 ||

Yeah, I know, obvious with all those G’s, both takes really resolve on the ‘G’, making it the tonic and the versions given in ‘G Major’ and not ‘A Dorian’. I just wished it wasn’t so and I’m just not wanting to let either of them find resolution. For some reason I’m in an ‘A’ mood this evening, Major and Dorian, and I just feel the need to leaving things hanging on the ‘A’, unresolved…

Unseen122 wrote:

“Doesn’t Collins usually play a F/Bb tina? That would explain why he plays it in G as the key of A on an F/Bb tina comes out as G.”

The liner notes to Dancing on Silver specify that he played this tune on a C/G. And he plays it in A, not in G; it’s the Breathnach transcription was in G.

As for what tuning he normally plays: I can only go by his CD. Of the 15 cuts, 10 are played on C/G; 4 on Bb/F; and one on Ab/Eb

Cool! ~ All those tinas he must have arms like an ape…

Probably related to “Red-Haired Polly”, as found in ‘Tunes of the Munster Pipers’ (www.itma.ie)-

X:157
T:No. 157 - Pol Ruaidh .i. Red-haired Polly
S:Shields, Hugh, ed., ‘Tunes of the Munster Pipers /
S:Irish Traditional Music from the James Goodman
S:Manuscripts, Vol.1’, Dubline, 1998, p.67.
M:9/8
L:1/8
Q:120
K:G
GBG AGE EDE | GBG AGE c2e | dBG AGE GDE | GBG AGA G2
D/E/ | GBG AGE EDE | GBG AGA c2e | dBG AGE EDE | GBG AGA G2 ||
e | dBG GAG ege | dBG GBG A2e | dBG GAG ege | dBG AGE G2
e | dBG GAG ege | dBG GBG A2e | dBG GAG ege | dBG AGE G2 ||

The first 2 measures are identical, with some differences in the next 2 measures and mostly different in the 2nd part.

Simple chords on X:1