Fleur De Mandragore reel

This tune was composed by Michel Bordeleau.

Sean Smyth play this one on “Lunasa Live.” It’s a really awesome tune.

Is it just me, or are there a few too many notes at the beginning of the second part?
Or are there meant to be? Just listening to Lúnasa, it kind of throws me off…

I’m trying to figure that out, looking at Lunasa’s first book while listening to it… it sounds like there’s something odd with it… Great tune, either way, though.

This tune is originally a crooked Quebecois tune, so it is not even measured. There is a even version out there which is sometimes played for contra dances.

Most ‘crooked’ tunes i’ve run into seem to have an extra bar tacked on somewhere- this one has, as near as i can tell, an extra two beats. You can make them go away with a minimum of effort.

someone said ‘something something President’s mandate’ down at the lake side barbecue today and I understood, ‘the president’s mandrake’. Funny I should stumble upon this crooked reel now.

.. this traditional choral piece from Scotland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wMVcIMcS5c&feature=related

play video

AKA ‘Harry Pottering Around’

Song of Songs 7:12-13

The name Mandragora is derived from two Greek words implying ‘hurtful to cattle’. http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/mandra10.html
Well, it might be hurtful to cattle but Greek children eat its fruit..
This enchanting plant in Europe is a cure for disenchantment in America according to this site http://www.eattheweeds.com/podophyllum-peltatum-forgotten-fruit-2/ !

…ressemble à celle d’un simple patate:
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week080.shtml

jaramillo wrote 3 years ago.
2 extra beats?
Most ‘crooked’ tunes i’ve run into seem to have an extra bar tacked on somewhere -
this one has, as near as i can tell, an extra two beats.
You can make them go away with a minimum of effort.
_______________________________________________________________
It’s quite common in Quebec’ish tunes (some, not all) with these extra bars,
and they must NOT ‘go away’.
The one below has also ekstra bars in the end of 1’st and 2.nd part.

https://thesession.org/tunes/11490

I learned this tune off a friend of mine who plays for contra dances in Portland, OR. It’s got the “extra 2 beats” in the second ending. They make it difficult for dancing, but that little hiccup really “makes” the tune IMHO.

An info really important about Fleur de Mandragore, when Michel Bordeleau compose et play it, the fiddle is tune (A-E-A-E), we call this tuning, en Vièle or Vielle !
Like the violon tuned in vièle by Jean Carignan !

Cracking tune. Transcribed from the playing of the brilliant Quebecqois fiddler Pierre Schryer on his album Mandorla

My take

That’s quite a different setting - the first three bars of the B part are nothing like the other settings.

Eabhal’s version, minus variations, from their album This is How the Ladies Dance.

La Bottine Souriante’s setting
https://youtu.be/H957OVUWbw0?t=149

play video