The Mountain Road reel

This is the "whistle-friendly" version of the tune, in that it never goes below D. For fiddles and other instruments with a wider octave range, the second part of the fourth bar can be played EDBD, the B being low (on the G string of the fiddle).

The long F# which keeps coming up in the first part can be rolled, but what’s even nicer is to slide up to it from E. If you don’t like the sliding sound, try it as a triplet; EFF#.

I always play this tune as written here, but I’ve also heard it played with both parts being played twice.

There are also longer versions of this tune (with 3 or even 6 parts) but I’m not familiar with them.

An aptly named tune.

I’m just learning this tune now (12/03). Thanks for your comments on the F#s, especially the slide up idea.

The hard part for me as fiddle player is getting the drone nice and smooth.

You can also vary the ending lick on lines 1, 3, 4 so each one feels slightly different. For example start the bar with a triple (gf#3) sometimes.

opps, that triplet would be g-f#-e.

Heard Harry Bradley and Tara Diamond playing the third part to this tune recently. They got it from a Glenties fiddler.

According to Peter Cooper, this tune was composed by Michael Gorman.

It was written by Michael Gorman, and it is his best known composition. Here is a recording of him playing all six parts: http://www.cranfordpub.com/mp3s/michaelgorman2.mp3

I think it would be fun to learn them all. Kevin Burke plays three parts on his In Concert album.

-Max

the first partreminds me of the killavil reel….

I’m just now learning this on flute after playing it off and on for 20 years on fiddle. So the two-part setting I’m working up on flute comes out like this:

X: 1
T: Mountain Road, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
C: Michael Gorman
R: reel
K: D
F2 AF BFAF| F/A/F AF EFDE| F2 AF BFAF| G2 FG EFGE|
F2 AF BFAF|F/A/F AF EFDE| FA~A2 BAFB|ABde fgfe||
d2 dA BAFA| dcde fgfe| ~d3A BAFA| G2 FG EFGA|
d2 dA BAFA| dcde fgfe| dcdA BAFA| G2 FG EFGE||

Listen to Michael Gorman himself and Willie Clancy play the standard 2 part version of the tune: http://www.irishfiddle.com/sound/gorman.mp3

Usually follows "Drowsy Maggie", so everybody seems to think it a come-down, but it isn’t.
I’ve heard it played three dfferent ways - namely AB AB etc, AABB AABB etc and ABC ABC (usually all at the same time!)
It always pays to have the loudest instrument to play this tune - maybe that’s why you have to be up a mountain to play it!

The Mountain Road is often played metronomically in sessions, some fiddlers being able to bring out the intricate rhythmic structure of the tune because they aren’t using a bowing that would enable them to do so.

Here is a suitable bowing, as taught by Mossie Martin in a fiddle workshop class at Keadue in August 2009. This bowing isn’t necessarily easy to acquire, and many will find it needs slow and careful practice with complete attention to detail until it becomes automatic and embedded in the brain and fingers (I haven’t quite got it yet!).

U indicates a down bow, and V indicates an up bow.
The notes inside a pair of closed brackets (…) are slurred on one bow. The slurring is often across the beat and sometimes across a bar line.
Note the triples which start with (3 - the bowing is UVU, and the last note of the triple is sometimes (but not always) slurred into the next note.

U(F2A) V(F BF)A VF | (3FF U(FA) V(F EF) DE |
U(F2A) V(F BF)A V(F | G2) UF V(G ED) B,D |
U(F2A) V(F BF)A VF | (3FF U(FA) V(F EF) DE |
UF VA U(3AAA V(BA) FB | U(ABd)e fd d2 ||
U(dcd) V(B AD) FA | U(dcd) V(e fg) fe |
U(dcd) V(B AD) FA | UG2 FG EDB,D |
U(dcd) V(B AD) FA | U(dcd) V(e fg) fe |
defd AFD V(F | G2) UF V(G ED) B,D ||

Some players may find the above bowing notation easier to understand if they transcribe it into dots and use the regular beams for the slurs and the usual fiddle notation for down and up bows.

We were told that the title of the tune refers to an actual mountain road in Sligo (Michael Gorman’s home county).

oops! should be "… some fiddlers being unable to bring out the intricate rhythmic structure …"

I sometimes play the first part one octave higher. I’ve heard other people do this. Not every time around, but as a variation. I’ve also heard the first and third bar played |F2 dF cFBF|.

This tune seems to release a different tone from my banjo

There’s a nice pairing of Pottinger’s into Mountain Road on this CD - I love the transition

https://thesession.org/recordings/2738

This sounds great in Bmin.

of course that transcription is an eyesore

I made your submission with bow markings easier to read, and also made the bow markings lowercase so that abc readers could understand them.

X: 1
T: Mountain Road, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
C: Michael Gorman
R: reel
K: D
u(F2 A)v(F BF)AvF | (3FFu(F A)v(F EF)DE | u(F2A)v(F BF)Av(F | G2) uFv(G ED)B,D |
u(F2A)v(F BF)AvF | (3FFu(F A)v(F EF)DE | uFvA u(3AAA v(BA)FB | u(ABd)e fd d2 ||
u(dcd)v(B AD)FA | u(dcd)v(e fg)fe | u(dcd)v(B AD)FA | uG2 FG EDB,D |
u(dcd)v(B AD)FA | u(dcd)v(e fg)fe | defd AFDv(F | G2) uFv(G ED)B,D ||

I can see this going well with Jim Donaghue’s.

ABC submitted here is very slightly modified from the notated version at http://www.cranfordpub.com/recordings/Gorman.htm

Set in A major and abridged with notes from the master, Martin (Michael) Gorman. Both G major and A major allow whistles/flutes the low (fiddle) notes, really getting the place buzzing if returned to D major - DFAF BFAF (with a whistle doubling an octave above, etc.).

Thanks for the link, ‘Edgar’- more notes/instructions for the arrangement of this tune, and tunes in general, than I think I quite knew what to do with!

I was inspired to play the version after listening to Marcus Hernon and Johnny Connolly’s rendition of the tune. Well, they actually recorded it in D: http://www.custysmusic.com/product-info.php?pid479.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW2E6OOARek

play video

I have transcribed the version of this tune on the Caitlín & Ciarán album.
It is made up of A B C A(up octave) B:
X: 91
T:Mountain Road
R:Reel
M:C
L:1/8
K:D
F2AF BFAF|F2AF EFDE|F2AF BFAF|G2FG EFDE|
F2AF BFAF|F2AF EFDE|FAA2 BAFB|ABde fddc||
d3B ADFA|dcde fgfe|dcdB ADFA|G2FG EFDc|
dcdB ADFA|dcde fgfe|dcdB ADFA|G2FG EFDc||
dcde fgfe|dfeg fB B2|dcde f/e/d ec|dBAF EFDc|
dcde fgfe|dfeg fB B2|gBfB e/f/e dA|Bcde fddg||
f2 af bfaf|f2 af efde|f2 af bfaf|g2 fg efde|
f2 af bfaf|f2 af efde|fa ~a2 a3f|g3f egfe||
d3B ADFA|dcde fgfe|dcdB ADFA|G2FG EFDc|
dcdB ADFA|dcde fgfe|dcdB ADFA|G2FG EFDE||

Apologies for double entering this version, I forgot how to add a setting as in I missed where the relevant button was - now corrected

Single reel version with some chords

Transcription from Shannon Heaton’s playing (in G) in the opening of many of her videos of the series ‘The Tune of The Month’ available on Youtube.

I really do love to play the original six-part version of this tune, although I actually think I like Jimmy Power’s version a bit better than Michael Gorman’s. Anyway, the two-part version is a cracker, and the addition of the third part is always a nice surprise, but anyone who doesn’t play the six parts is really missing out.

The last three parts of the tune do have some similarities with other tunes. The fourth part is similar to the first part of the "Doon Reel", to the point where I sometimes confuse them. The fifth part is like the first part of "Speed the Plough" (or "O’Keeffe’s Plough"), and the sixth part has some distant similarities to the second part of "Speed The Plough" / "O’Keeffe’s Plough".

Anyway, great tune, however you slice it, and much respect to Gorman.