Nicky’s Archive barndance

As recorded by Gearóid Ó HAllmhuráin And Patrick Ourceau on the album Tracin’: https://thesession.org/recordings/display/209 . They named the tune in honor of their source, Nicky McAuliffe. I’ve also heard it played as a polka, on some old ceili band recording.

Taken from here, or another online source, being identical, minus the ‘~’:

The Fiddler’s Companion ~ Andrew Kuntz
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/index.html
Nicky’s Archive
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/NI.htm
Z:Michael Reid

& to add from the source:

"NICKY’S ARCHIVE. AKA and see “Teelin Polka [1].” Irish, Barndance. The tune was named “Nicky’s Archive” by fiddler Patrick Orceau because he obtained it from Kerry fiddler Nicky McAuliffe and he had no name for it. The tune goes by the name of “Teelin Polka,” named for Teelin, County Donegal."

Yeah, I have takes on this ~ barndance & polka. I was saving them for later, and I will add them in the comments later too…unless the polka version is significantly different from this…

Because I was already working on the Teelin tunes I copied the following transcription for comparison from the thread that was here this week in ‘Discussions’, someone who had a concert coming up and was seeking names for several tunes. As one would expect, that thread is no more. Sadly I didn’t get back in time to take down the specifics, the person who was posting the ABCs they wanted named and who’s the transcriber of the following. APOLOGIES!!! If you see this please take credit, it is your notation I’m adding here, as it has some differences:

K: D Major
B |:
A2 F2 A3 B | A2 G2 GFEB | c E3 c2 cB | Acde fedB |
A2 F2 A3 B | A2 G2 GFEB | c2 e2 c2 cB | AGFE DEFG :|
|: A2 f2 f3 c | e2 d2 dcBA | B2 g2 g3 f | edfd AGFG |
A2 f2 f3 c | e2 d2 dcBd | c2 E2 c2 cB |AGFE DEFG :|

Ceolachan, that thread still shows up for me:

https://thesession.org/discussions/11947

That was also my motivation for posting the tune. I had found the abc on the net a year or two ago, compared it against the Tracin’ recording, and found that it matched exactly so no changes were needed. My bad for not giving credit, since I failed to keep track of the source—thanks for clearing that up.

Weird tedium, I went looking all over the place for that, back days in the ‘Discussions’ ~ but it is one of my built in faults. I may have been looking at it and couldn’t find it. You’re a gem, thanks for allowing me to credit the above transcription…

You beat me to this old war horse. I’ve been searching and asking others for months. I could swear I came across it in Ryans or Coles or another early collection. It is that familiar. I have a few different takes on it. We’ve discussed it before and kind of came up with a loose category for something that lies in between, or can swing either way, between a polka and a barndance ~ a ‘ballroom polka’… There were half a dozen different types of polkas in the 19th Century, and a good melody does tend to get retread in different ways, for running, walking or cross training… 😉

~ straight or swung…

K: D Major
A3 F A>^GA>B | A2 G2 G3 d | c2 E2 c>dc>B | A2 d>e f>ed>B |
A2 D2 A>^GA>B | A2 G2 G3 d | c2 E2 c>dc>B | A>GF>E D>dc>d |
A2 F2 D>FA>B | A2 G2 G3 d | c2 E2 c>dc>B | A2 d>e f>ed>B |
A2 D2 A3 B | A2 G2 G3 d | c2 E2 c>dc>B | A>GF>E D2 F>G ||
A2 f2 f3 A | e2 d2 d>ed>c | B2 g2 g3 f | e>df>d A>GF>G |
A2 f2 f3 A | e2 d2 d3 d | c2 E2 c>dc>B | A>GF>E D>EF>G |
A2 f2 f>ga>f | e2 d2 d>ed>c | B2 g2 g2 g>f | e>df>d A>GF>G |
A2 f2 f3 A | e2 d2 d3 d | c2 E2 c>dc>B | A2 d>e f>ed>B ||

A3 F A^GAB | A2 G2 G3 d | c2 E2 cdcB | A2 de fedB |
A2 D2 A^GAB | A2 G2 G3 d | c2 E2 cdcB | AGFE Ddcd |
A2 F2 DFAB | A2 G2 G3 d | c2 E2 cdcB | A2 de fedB |
A2 F2 A3 B | A2 G2 G3 d | c2 E2 cdcB | AGFE D2 FG ||
A2 f2 f3 A | e2 d2 dedc | B2 g2 g3 f | edfd AGFG |
A2 f2 f3 A | e2 d2 d3 d | c2 E2 cdcB | AGFE DEFG |
A2 f2 fgaf | e2 d2 dedc | B2 g2 g2 gf | edfd AGFG |
A2 f2 f3 A | e2 d2 d3 d | c2 E2 cdcB | A2 de fedB ||

& another way to finish it off ~ | AGFE D4 ||

Note: The term ‘polka’ covers a lot of ground, meaning in the main a type of step and a term, because the step ‘travelled’, that got applied to 3/4 tunes, waltzes and mazurkas, as well as 2/4 and 4/4 melodies. The two ‘Teelin’ tunes can be done a number of ways, including 2/4, but they have a strong identity as barndances, or schottisches, belonging to that family, and even when taken at a clip I find the ‘origins’ / ‘sources’ swing it, in other words ~ ">"… 🙂

As promised, I have first given the transcription above swung and then sans the ‘>’… The transcription is mostly from the playing of Gerry & Eilish O’Connor. I first learned these tunes from Con Foley and others in the neighbourhood, but I haven’t found notes or names for them as yet… That is in part the result of that awful incident of my hard drive meltdown of last year…for which I take most of the blame… Hopefully in the not too distant future I’ll dig our the old recordings and notes and find these again somewhere there… 😏

Key signature: G Major
Submitted on January 3rd 2007 by ceolachan.
https://thesession.org/tunes/6588

Notes from "Skylark: all of it" ~ Green Linnet, 1989:

"The Teelin Polkas
Danny O’Donnell from Dungloe, County Donegal is associated with these two polkas. Danny named the tunes after Teelin in Southwest Donegal, home to a thriving tradition of fiddle music."

Both of these tunes were part of the shared repertoire of that area and are part of my exposure to these dance airs…

I learnt this tune from the playing of the late Hugh Blake, way back in the mid 1980s. Hugh called it "The Old Set Tune", but I suspect that it might well have an actual title (see this discussion).

https://thesession.org/discussions/28005

Here is a recording of the tune as played by the Jig Mad Wolf Ceilidh Band:

http://www.jigmadwolf.co.uk/mp3/old_set_tune.mp3

https://thesession.org/tunes/6485
See discussion link above.

@Kenny - not convinced that its a duplication, as I don’t think that it’s close enough to "Nicky’s Archive" to be considered to be a variation.

Hugh Blake (from whom I got this tune in the mid 1980s) was an architect by profession, and he was very precise and accurate when scoring tunes. He wouldn’t have changed it from whatever it was that he heard, and the abc that I posted accurately relects the tune that I got from Hugh.

1st part is a bit like Gaffney’s: https://thesession.org/tunes/3567 But so many of these tunes run into one another anyway.

Mix, no matter how "accurate" a transcription is, it’s still just one way of playing a given tune. Every tune is subject to wide interpretation, but that doesn’t make it a truly different tune.

To me, the differences between Blake’s transcription and Nicky’s Archive are negligible. I would lump it in the comments there.

Jeremy’s call, ultimately, of course.

Besides, there are some differences between the mp3 you posted and the abcs you provided.

I’m inclined to agree, the differences are negligible.

X: 1
T: Old Set Tune
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: barndance / polka
K: Dmaj
|: B/ |\
AF A/A/A | BG B/B/B | cA ce | d/c/d/e/ f/e/d/B/ |
AF A/A/A | BG B/B/B | ce AB/c/ | dd d-d/ :|
|: B/ |\
Af f>e | ed d/c/B | Bg g>f | fe e/d/c/B/ |
Af f>e | ed d/c/B | Bg gB/c/ | ed d-d/ :|

This is a really old tune, and I know I’ve come across it elsewhee but still haven’t managed to shake that loose, or to find the earlier sources. Names get banged around. I too consider this to be not significantly different from the "Teelin Polka #1" transcription linked to by Kenny.

Hmmmm? I’ve just shaken loose another possibility I’ll have to see if I can chase up, which could have this amongst related others. I’d love to find the earlier name for it. All of these it has taken on over time just seem temporary to me, probably because I’ve known it by something else, something with a longer history.

In the meantime, here’s another take on this ~

X: 2
T: Gan Ainm
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: Dmaj
|: AF A>A | BG B>B | cA ce | d>e f/e/d/B/ |
AF A>A | BG B>B | cA ce | df d2 :|
|: Af f>e | ed dc/d/ | Bg g>f | fe ec/B/ |
Af f>e | ed dc/d/ | Bg B>c | ed d2 :|

Old Set Tune
Submitted on July 17th 2011 by Mix O’Lydian.

# Added by ceolachan - January 3rd, 2007