Johnny McGoohan’s reel

Source: Rabharta by Feenish
Transcription: gian marco pietrasanta

Nice tune, but doesn’t it have a bit of the feel of a hornpipe about it. Especially the end of the A section.

Composed Ed Reavy ?

The Collected Compositions of Ed Reavy
Johnny McGoohan’s
http://www.reavy.us/compositions.htm

2.) Johnny McGoohan’s Reel
- a great lover of Irish music and a personal friend of Ed’s.
http://www.reavy.us/video.htm

“Good musicians need good listeners, and two of the best listeners where Johnny and his wife Katey. Johnny would be waiting on his front porch hours before ”the fellows“ were expected on an evening for a session of music; and no matter how long they played, it was never too late for a few more tunes at the McGoohans. Tea and skohn did not mean (as it usually does) that the fiddling would stop. As Johnny would put it, ”We’ll have a bite to eat and be back at it for a few more before the night is done.“ And Katey would never disagree.” ~ Joseph Reavy

from “The Collected Compositions of Ed Reavy”
ISBN: 0-9528370-0-5, Green Grass Music
Introduction by Mick Moloney:
“Ed Reavy was a tune maker”
http://www.reavy.us/compositions.htm

"One hundred & twenty seven tunes by one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. Originally from Ireland Ed spent most of his life in Philedelphia

No composer of traditional dance tunes in the history of Irish music has ever had his music adopted and played as widely as Ed. He devoted much of his life to the creation of a vast body of compelling, finely crafted tunes leaving an indelible imprint on the beautiful old tradition that was always his first love.

Ed Reavy was born in the village of Barnagrove in the County Cavan in the year 1897. He came with his parents to Philadelphia in the year 1912, and with the exception of two visits home to Ireland - one of nine months in 1922 and the other of three weeks in 1969 - lived the rest of his life in Philadelphia until his death in 1988." ~

Written and played by the composer in the the key of G.

K: G Major
(3DEF |
|: (3GGG Bd gdBG | (3DDD BD cA (3FGA | G2 Bd gd (3Bcd | (3cBA AG FAdF |
GABd g2 af | gedB A2 Bc | dg (3cBA BGAF |1 ACB,A, G,A, (3B,CD :|
2 G2 Ac BG (3GGG ||
B2 GA Bdef | g2 ga gedc | B2 GA B2 eB | dBAG E3 A |
BG (3GGG (3Bcd ef | g2 e^c (3ded ef | gbag fagf |1 e^cAF G3 A :|
2 e^cAF G2 ||

From the great CD Mandorla by Adam Dobres and Pierre Schryer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53pMPCUKZew

play video

Ed Reavy wrote this tune for my grandfather, Johnny McGoohan. My grandfather said he could never quite “get his bow around it” and didn’t play it much. The setting I play is posted here. It is closer to the way PJ Hernon plays than to the way Ed Reavy played it. I think it is a more accessible version. In those days tunes were mostly passed from person to person and PJ Hernon got the tune from Josephine Keegan, who probably got it from Sean McGuire. Sean McGuire played often enough with Ed Reavy (and with Johnny McGoohan).