The Reel Of Rio reel

This can’t be my native city of Rio de Janeiro, can it?

Road to Rio is a Sean Ryan composition, I believe. I’ll check his book when I get home but I don’t think there is any explanation for the title.

i learnt this (via a friend) from the superb playing of clare mcLaughlin and the sean ryan thing strikes a chord somewhere along the line!

I know this tune from a friend who has lessons with Mike McGoldrick, who plays with capercaillie. When they do it in a brilliant set with five other tunes, they do it in the key of F, but I think G’s a much more pleasant key for sessions! In their CD sleeve, Capercaillie records the tune merely as “traditional”, there is no mention of a name.

T:Reel of Rio, The
M:C|
L:1/8
C:Sean Ryan
S:Niall & Cillian Vallely - “callan bridge”
R:reel
D:
Z:g.m.p.
K:G
DEGA BABd|eg~g2 agef|gede gedB|cABA GE~E2|
DEGA BABd|eg~g2 agef|gede gedB|1 cABA G3E:|2 cABA G2 Bc||
dg~g2 ag~g2|bgag edBd|eBBA GABd|gedB ABGE|
DEGA BABd|eg~g2 agef|gede gedB|1 cABA G2Bc:|2 cABA G3E||

From Mary and Andrew Macnamaras “Open Hearth”

Isn’t it just “Road To Rio”/“Reel Of Rio” by Sean Ryan transposed into F?

That’s ok Dow, I’m going to transpose “Finbar Dwyer’s” from “C” to the key of “D” and call it “Thin Barbed Wires” and post it. S’fun, you should try it. 😀

I’ve just had a look at the track listing of “Open Hearth” and found they play “Reel of Rio” before the tune called “Reel of Bogie.” I haven’t got the recording yet, but I suspect Geoff mixed up the names of two tunes.

I double checked them from the cd last night and that is how the Macnamaras play them. I will post the abc for their reel of rio on the comments when I get chance.
No doubt these are local variations!

Regardless of what people think the name of this tune is, this transcription should be in the comments section of “Reel Of Rio” - why confuse the database unnecessarily just because it got recorded by someone under the wrong title?

I second that, Dow. It’s much simpler than “local variations”. The MacNamara’s sleeve notes would appear to be wrong. Geoff - is their “Reel Of Rio” the same as “The Reel Of Bogie” which I posted?

Here is Mary & Andrews version of the tune - some of you will no doubt describe it as a local variation of another tune?

T:The Reel Of Rio (6.1)
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:G
|:BGGG AEGE|DEGA BAAA|BGGG AEGE|DEGA BGGG:|
[|Bded gded|Bdgd BAAA|Bded gded|BdAc BGGG|
Bded gded|Bdgd BAAA|Bded g3d|BdAc BGGG|]

Hi Geoff,
Thanks for sending all of your transcriptions from Open Hearth. They’re great. But I noticed that the second tune in Cut 6, which the liner notes call “Reel of Bogie”, is actually “Reel of Rio”, transposed from G to F, with the fourths and sevenths removed to make it pentatonic. (It’s definitely not a variant of the tune in O’Neill’s called “Reel of Bogie”.) I don’t know a name for the tune you’ve posted here (the first tune from Cut 6 on Open Hearth), but it isn’t “Reel of Rio”. Can someone identify the tune Geoff posted?

Gary

It’s not simply a case of the two tunes in the set having their titles reversed. What the MacNamaras called “Reel of Bogie” is the real “Real of Rio” transposed from G Major to F Major with the fourths and sevenths removed to make it pentatonic. What the MacNamara’s called “Reel of Rio” is not “Reel of Bogie”. I haven’t been able to figure out what it really is.

Yes,The Reel of Rio is in fact associated with Rio De Janeiro. Sean Ryan used to send his newly composed tunes to Fr. John Quinn when he was training for the preisthood in Maynooth. Fr. Quinn thought that the off beat ryhthm of this tune reminded him of the Sambo beat and hence the name. it’s true i tell ya!

I happened to record the MacNamaras playing the set of reels on a radio programme. Yeah, the second reel is definitely “The Reel of Rio,” and the very first one they call “The Reel of Rio” is actually “The Primrose Lass.”

: - }

Here’s the Open Hearth version of Reel of Rio, transposed to G (they play it in F).

X:10
T:The Reel Of Rio
C:Sean Ryan
R:reel
M:C|
L:1/8
D:“Open Hearth” Andrew & Mary MacNamara
N:Cut 6.2 on cd, incorrectly called “Reel of Bogie”
N:Originally in G Major
Z:Geoff Wright
K:G %Transposed from F
|:DEGA BBBd|eggg ageg|gede gedd|eedB AGEG|
DEGA BBBd|eggg ageg|gede gedB|ABBA G4:|
|:eggg aggg|aggg edBA|Bddd eddd|eedB AGEG|
DEGA BBBd|eggg ageg|gede gedB|ABBA G4:|

…writing in his notes about The Naming of the Tunes in the second book of Seán Ryan’s tunes, “Seán Ryan’s Dream”:

“From that period only one name was to stick; The Reel of Rio, and that was due in no small part to the banjo-mandolin player Noel Strange, a great friend of Seán’s. Noel always loved what he used to call “psychological tunes”; those with a built in off-beat like the Killimor Jig. The off- beat effect of The Reel of Rio put me in mind of the Samba from Rio, Brazil. However it was to be pronounced ‘Ryo’ as in Ryan’. Noel played the tune on a broadcast on Raidió Éireann and both the name and the tune spread like wildfire through the country. However it had been pronounced ‘Reeo’ not ‘Ryo’ on Raidió Éireann.”

I used to play in the Strange-O’Reilly band. Noel Strange was my father. Can’t believe I have randomly come across this posting.

Gerard Strange

Great tune it’s on Martin O’Brien’s CD along with McDermott’s Reel two nice tunes in G

Please, Jeremy? Because as the discussion above indicates, we KNOW the composer AND the actual title given to the tune. And the title given to the tune is most definitely NOT “The Road to Rio”. That is simply someone’s mis-remembering of the ACTUAL title, “The Reel of Rio”. Because leaving it as is, I’m afraid, will cause incorrect information to spread like wildfire. I would like to think that technology has progressed past the point of having to play “telephone” with the names! 😉

We were given such powers ourselves some time ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsu7s02P_N4

play video

I’ve corrected the track listing for Open Hearth and removed the other recordings erroneously listed with this tune. This should be merged with “Reel of Rio” (https://thesession.org/tunes/575).

The Reel of Rio (originally to be pronounced Ryo as in “Ryan”) was composed by Sean Ryan (1919-1985) from Nenagh Co. Tipperary. The mispronounciation came from a Radio Éireann broadcast , where Ryan’s good friend , a Banjo-Mandolin player named Noel Strange played the tune and both the tune and the “Reeo” name spread like wildfire.

As is quoted above 13 years ago.

As for pronunciation, it’s interesting that a lot of shanty singers pronounce it RY-O in songs such as “We’re Bound for the Rio Grande”. I guess that our Rio de Janeiro native would pronounce it REE-O when speaking of his home city.

Setting in G Major with chords. For ornamentation I only used rolls.

My transcription of the Kilfenora Ceili Band’s version. They play a nice variation of line 1:
DEGA BABd|eg g2 agef|gedB GABd|egdB AGEG|
Unfortunately I don’t know how to make this visible in the sheet music.

Forget my last comment, I found the solution to include the variation.

Learn simply as “Rio” from this lovely set, https://youtu.be/14MFdUzDHrg

play video