The Graf Spee reel

An old tune, but I don’t know any background to it. I think I heard it first in a recording by Bobby Casey.

This reel was originally a Scottish strathspey called “The Rothiemurchus Rant”, and was reputedly the favourite strathspey of our national poet Robert Burns, who was also a fiddler, (but we don’t know if he was any good). It is obvious that the “folk process” has been at work here: “Strathspey” becomes “Graf Spee”. The Irish reel version has acquired another part somewhere along the line.
It - the reel - has been recorded by Molloy,Peoples & Brady, Kevin Burke & Jacky Daly, and “Dervish”. It is also played in “D” as well as “C”.

I always thought this tune was named after The famous German Battleship “The Graf Spee” http://www.grafspee.com/ .
From what I’ve read a “rant” is the Scottish/British name for a single reel.

“The Rothiemurchus Rant” was printed in “The Athole Collection of Scottish Dance Music”, published in 1884. The “Graf Spee” battleship was commissioned in 1936 - a difference of over 50 years.
A quote from “Bowing Styles In Irish Fiddle Playing - Vol 2” by David Lyth - Page 21 -
“the title of the tune known as the Graf Spee, which refers to a World War 1(sic) battleship,is undoubtedly a corruption of an original title that referred to a Strathspey in Scotland.(In one collection it is called the Grants of Strathspey)”.
This is by no means the first irish reel to have its roots in Scotland - eg Bonny Kate, Boyne Hunt, Lads Of Laois, Farewell To Ireland..etc

“The Rothiemurchus Rant” was printed in “The Athole Collection of Scottish Dance Music”, published in 1884. The “Graf Spee” battleship was commissioned in 1936 - a difference of over 50 years.
A quote from “Bowing Styles In Irish Fiddle Playing - Vol 2” by David Lyth - Page 21 -
“the title of the tune known as the Graf Spee, which refers to a World War 1(sic) battleship,is undoubtedly a corruption of an original title that referred to a Strathspey in Scotland.(In one collection it is called the Grants of Strathspey)”.
This is by no means the first irish reel to have its roots in Scotland - eg Bonny Kate, Boyne Hunt, Lads Of Laois, Farewell To Ireland..etc

So that’s how it happened, thanks for that quote.

I always thought it was a corruption of “Grand Spey”, as in the river.

The tune is a lot older than the Athole Collection. It is in Vickers’ ms (1770) as The Grants of Strathspey and in many Scottish books of the 18th C as Rothemurchus’s Rant, with many spellings. Rant is often used for strathspey titles, while it has a more specific meaning in NE England, meaning a tune which fits a particular dance step, e.g Morpeth Rant.

i like the verve in McGoldrick/McSherry’s version, which deviates from this one. anyone help me/us out w/a transcription?

I notice a three part version is on Siobhan Peoples and Murty Ryan album ‘Time on our Hands’ under the title ‘The Western Lassies’

Martin Hayes does a great version with brilliant accompaniment by Steve Cooney on ‘Under The Moon’. it is a little different than this version, but it is in C.

Apparently there’s a Fermanagh coruption of the Grants of Strathspey which might be the missing link - The Grand Spy!

This tune is in the Gunn Book (Fermanagh 1865) as The Grand Spy - a 4 part reel in the key of C

Does anyone have a better setting of this tune? This does not jibe at all with my memory of the local version.

There’s a good reason the Germans scuttled the overgunned, underpowered and under-armored namesake of this tune…

Don’t know who this chap is but he plays this nicely on the flute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0gThTqKv7A

play video

That’s Norman Holmes on one of his own flutes. Splendid chap.

X: 1
T: The Graf Spee
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K:G
|:EDcD E~G3 |AGcG AGcG | EDcD E~G3 |AGcG E~D3 :|
|:~e3d ~c3A |G~E3 GAcd |1 ~e3d cBcA | GEcE E~D3 :|2 ~a3g ~e3d | cAGE E~D3 ||
|:eggf ~g3d |eaag ~a3g |~e3d ~c3d |1 edge ed3 :|2 eage ed3 |
|:edcB cAGE |GAcd cAGE |GAcd eedc |AGcE ~ED3 :|
|:edcd edcd |=fede =fed=f |edcd c3A |AAcd edcd |eaag gedf |ecdB cAGE |GG (3Bcd eedB|cGcE E~D3||

Great clip here at 1:44 onwards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69V_s7-2Uls

play video

X:3 from the piping of Martin Bierne: https://archive.org/details/MartinBeirneTheGrandSpy Beirne’s chanter would drop the octave whenever he got to bar 2 of the 3rd part. Interestingly enough Michael Coleman recorded this setting not once but twice at his last session in 1944. When Coleman got to that part he would play (3gab ba | babg instead, avoiding the need to shift positions for the high C#. Coleman also played true rolls in bar 3 of the 2nd part, whereas Bierne played graced legato triplets; Bierne also squeezed harder on the bag in the final bar of the first part, overblowing the chanter to give BAdA Fee2, setting him up for the next part. Coleman also mostly played FEDE F~A3 in the first part, which Bierne occasionally threw in as a variation.

Sean Maguire also played this setting on a late 60s pub recording, likely he picked up when living in NYC in the 1950s. J Scott Skinner thought this reel sounded better in D, according to a footnote in one of his collections.

I’m cyberstalking you, Kevin.

Hi Mary. Don’t try and creep me out, even on Halloween. ;)

Don’t miss the really terrific piano rendition of this wonderful Scottish reel performed by Padraic O’Reilly on his album “Highly Strung” 2007. A not to miss version!

B/C Accordion version. This is a favorite for sure among boxplayers as it is centered around the inside row, but still has some tricky runs – the f naturals in the last part, for example. Those chromatic triplets in the last part are often played slightly quicker than your typical triplet, leaving some room around the following two notes.

a nice version will be find here under grand spey

https://thesession.org/tunes/2226

Further to Thady Quill’s comment.
Here is a great bit of box playing by Johnny B Connolly- all three reels.
Graf Spee at 3.38 but the other reels are brilliant too.
Not too sure about the percussion, though!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FNPijSx_YE

play video

Has anybody out there done a transcription of the version that Bobby Casey played on Taking Flight?
What about Paddy Canny’s version ?

Hi Muireann - I seem to remember that a fiddler named David Abe did a transcription of Bobby Casey’s “Graf Spee” and it was published in an edition of CCE’s “Treoir” magazine, which I’m sure I have somewhere. I don’t know if Abe’s transcription came from “Taking Flight” or not, and whereas I’m sure it wouldn’t be exactly the same, I’m equally sure it wouldn’t be significantly different.
It would probably be beyond my meagre powers of transcription, but I could scan the page and forward it to you if you send me an email address through a private message. Another method would be for me to put it in a “Dropbox” folder and forward you the link. [ This is assuming I can find it in the first place ].
Can’t help with PC’s version, I’m afraid.

Best of luck in your search, Kenny

John McSherry, Francis McIllduff, Mick McGoldrick, Donal O’Connor, and 3 other musicians played this setting during a tribute to Dave Williams in 2005
Beginning at 44:14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vSI4StT9Lk

play video

Molloy, Peoples and Brady on “Youtube” :
https://youtu.be/zxqpQy0j0o0

play video

Just found this interesting version :
https://youtu.be/C6UX2OTQfqc

play video

So this is a setting to help flute players play this in C, on a C flute.
The foot joint keys are often hit and miss, so it can be difficult to sound a reliable low C quaver en passant.
So something like “~E3 D….” in bar 1 makes it easier.

This version is an amalgamation of Matt Molloy’s 4 part version in D ( from a Chieftains video on YouTube, and the notation on page 50 of “Play 50 Reels” by Armagh Pipers Club. )

I can’t find the Youtube link now, but it was interesting in that live, with the Chieftains, he played only 4 parts and on the Molloy People Brady record it was a 5 part version.

June McCormack is on the Net, playing this on a “C” flute, but she is playing D shapes.

When you modify the tune to suit the instrument things get easier.
Pat

https://youtu.be/p5uqJijjCHc

play video

https://twitter.com/biggray4/status/1210168631012864000?s=21&t=IvVqYOrPOa8syN81htHTSA

The euphonic flute playing of Eamonn Burke - The Graf Spee