Bonnie Kate reel

This is one of my favorite tunes, it lends itself to gigantic amounts of variation. I left out the variations as this would be the standard session setting of it. Some of the variations would be as follows

for the first three bars of the A part (including the pickup bar)
1a. Bd | (3dcB (3cBA BGAF | (3GFE (3FED EA,CE …
2a. BD | (3ded (3cdc (3BcB (3ABA | (3GAG (3FGF EA,CE …
3a. dB | AF (3FFF DF (3FFF | AF (3FFF EA,CE …
4a. dB | dcde fdBA | DFAF EA,CE …

For the first bars of the “high” or “B” part
2a. ad(3ddd bd(3ddd | ad(3ddd cdef | ~g3f gbag | fgef d2 |
2b. ad(3ddd bd(3ddd | ad(3ddd cdef | g=c(3ccc ac(3ccc | g=c(3ccc cdef | ~g3f gbag | fgef d2 ||

Coleman made a famous recording of this & played it in the following order. Treating each variation as a four bar part

A (as noted in the abc’s one time through)
A
1a
3a
B (as noted in the ABC’s one time through)
B
B
B

3a
1a
2a
3a
2b
2b
2b
2b

2a
3a
3a
4a
2b
2b
2b
2b/ ===>Jennie’s Chicken’s

Burke played the B-Part like 3b, which is fresh sounding but changes the acc. chord to “C” instaed of “G” so you should warn your guitarist/bouzouki/piano etc.

Weird notes I know but feel free to send me an email if you have any questions.

I’ve heard many accordian players who play for feisanna play this as a single reel with none of the Coleman variations. Which I think is more suited to a session as well, you never know when your going to go to different variations & muddy up the sound. But It’s a great showpiece nonetheless.

Bye for now - B

Oh yeah, instead of the EA,CE phrase you can play EGFE (like the second time around the posted setting) & it works just fine. I got that one from Paddy Keenan’s pipes.

Jaysus, Brad. Can you just record an mp3 of it and put it up somewhere so I can figure this out without giving myself a royal headache? 🙂

Zina

If you go to my web page at
http://www.geocities.com/brad_maloney2000
I just updated it with an mp3 of Michael Coleman’s setting of Bonnie Kate/Jennie’s chickens. I’ll be changing up the artist every month (or thereabouts) so get t while you can.
The direct url to Fiddler of the month is
http://www.geocities.com/brad_maloney2000/fiddlermonth.html

have fun

I’ve recently come across a sheetmusic transcription (dated I think sometime before 1975) of Sean Ryan’s recording of Bonnie Kate on Avoca 33-AV-121, including all his ornamentation. I haven’t heard the recording so I don’t know how fast he took it or what other instruments were involved. Perhaps a collector of old records can provide this information? Anyway, here is the Sean Ryan version converted into abc:

T:Bonnie Kate
R:reel
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:D
dB||:A2dA (3 Bcd AF|DF AF EA, CE|DF AF GB ed|(3 cBA Bc ~d3 B|!
AF (3 FFF DF (3 FFF|dF (3 FFF EA, CE|DF AF GB ed|(3 cBA Bc dc dB|!
Ad ~d2 fd AF|(3 GFE (3FED EA, CE|DF AF GB ed|(3 cBA Bc dc dB|!
AF (3 FFF DF (3 FFF|dF (3 FFF EA, CE|DF AF GB ed|(3 cBA Bc de fg||!
{ab}a2 fd Ad fa|~g3e cd ef|g2 {a}gf gb ag|fg fe de fg|!
{ab}a2 fd Ad fa|gf ed cd ef|g2 {a}gf gb ag|fg fe de fg|!
{ab}a2 fd Ad fa|gf ed cd ef|g2 {a}gf gb ag|fg fe de fg|!
{ab}a2 fd AD FA|gf ed cd ef|gf ed cb ag|fg fe dc Bc||!
(3 dcB (3 cBA BA GF|(3 GFE (3FED EA, CE|DF AF GB ed|(3 cBA Bc dc dB|!
AF (3 FFF DF (3 FFF|dF (3 FFF EA, CE|DF AF GB ed|(3 cBA Bc dc Bc|!
(3 dcB (3 cBA BA GF|(3 GFE (3FED EA, CE|DF AF GB ed|(3 cBA Bc dc dB|!
AF (3 FFF DF (3 FFF|dF (3 FFF EA, CE|DF AF GB ed|(3 cBA Bc de fg||!
ad (3 ddd ad bd|ad (3 ddd cd ef|g2 {a}gf gb ag|fg fe de fg|!
ad (3 ddd ad bd|ad (3 ddd cd ef|gf ed cb ag|fg fe de fg|!
ad (3 ddd ad bd|ad (3 ddd cd ef|g2 {a}gf gb ag|fg fe de fg|!
ad (3 ddd ad bd|ad (3 ddd cd ef|gf ed cb ag|fg fe dg fe||

This was written by Scottish composer Daniel (or Donald) Dow (1732-83). I prefer the original version which is a single reel in C major entitled “The Bonny Lass Of Fisherrow”. It’s one of those Scottish tunes the Irish should have just left the way it was IMO. The original has a nice flingy feel to it which I feel that the Irish version has lost:

X:1
T:The Bonny Lass Of Fisherrow
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:reel
K:Cmaj
|:A|GEcG AcGE|CEGE D2DA|GEGc AFAc|BdGB c2c:|
f|ecgc egca|gcec defa|gceg fadf|egde c2cf|
ecgc egca|gcec defd|cAFc BdGf|egde c2c||

Another setting in the same key:

X:1
T:The Bonny Lass Of Fisherrow
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:reel
K:Cmaj
|:A|GEcG AcGE|CEGE D2DA|GEGc AFAc|BdGB c2c:|
f|ecgc ecca|gcec defa|gceg fagf|egde c2cf|
ecgc ecca|gcec defd|cFAc BAGf|egde c2c||

I bet you didn’t know that I live in Fisherrow. It’s the part of Musselburgh on the west side of the River Esk just as you leave Edinburgh(it’s more or less a continuation). It used to be a busy fishing port and the “bonny lass” was probably one of the “fisher lasses” who worked at the harbour. The fishing days have gone now and the boats now work from Port Seton a few miles down the coast. The harbour is still used but it’s more like a marina nowadays with lots of small yachts.
I have played this tune myself but it’s not too common in Scottish sessions. I’ve not tackled the Irish version as yet.

John, wow! I didn’t know where the place actually was. I’m going to introduce this to the people at my session. They’re always looking for cool settings of common tunes, like Micho Russell’s Mason’s Apron, Coleman’s Merry Blacksmith, Maid Behind The Bar in C, Sally Gardens in D, Pigeon on the Gate in G, that sort of thing. They’ll love this one.

At the moment, you can listen to Brian Conway play this reel on his Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/brianconwayfiddle

Slightly more relaxed fiddle playing of the reel by Maeve Flanagan: http://www.myspace.com/maeveflanagan

She’s Brian Conway’s niece, I believe.

ok - here’s the mighty Liz C launching into it

http://www.youtube.com/user/paulgoelz#p/u/8/UqoE5wu6svU

….at about 13:27

The first part, the tune, of this reel is used to sing, The Hurricane of Reels, see: https://thesession.org/discussions/7341#comment156855 and https://thesession.org/recordings/541

Here’s a nice simple 2-part version close to the original Scottish tune.

X: 1
T: Bonny Kate
S: Seamus Quinn, Fermanagh (fiddle)
D: Tape of recital, Irvingstown, Fermanagh 1993
N: As played
H: Short version. He played this and then the Coleman setting to show how tunes can develop.
Z: Bernie Stocks
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
A2dA BdAF | DFAF {G}EDEB | AFAd BGBd | cABc dcdB |
A2dA (3.B.c.dAF | DFAF ~E3B | AFAd BGBd | cABc defg ||
a2fd fafd | fafd [e3c3]f | g2{a}gf gbag |1 (3fgf ec defg :|2 fdec d4 ||

“Bonnie” is an Anglo Gaelic word that comes from the Irish word “bainne” for “milk” which is cognate with “bán” meaning “white” and also “bean” meaning “woman.” The word is an ancient European root word found in the German “von” meaning “of” which may originally have conveyed the sense of ‘motherly origination,’ which may be why the word is essential to surnames. The most famous “bonnie” was Prince Charles who failed to resecure the throne of Scotland for the Stuarts from the Hanovers. In the wake of Culloden, the Gaels were systematically slaughtered and disenfranchised in a protracted genocidal campaign that persists in sneaky forms to this day. The appreciation of Irish women in Irish America, (“Bonnie Kate”) for example, has been somewhat successful in slowing the Hanoverian agenda to breed Gaelic and Celtic peoples generally out of existence.

This is Mickey Doherty’s setting from the “Garvan Hill” album. The first part is unlike almost any version I’ve heard, including those played by his brother John. I wrote the second part twice to show Mickey’s two principal variations on it.

In honour of the late great box player Joe Burke, here’s his setting of Bonny Kate in CMaj transcribed by Graeme Smith from Joe’s 1973 LP ‘Traditional Music of Ireland’.

Graeme says that Joe’s inspiration was the fiddle playing of Michael Coleman recorded in New York in 1930.

I am going to have a go at learning this today - wish me luck!

Matt.

A straightforward version from Allan’s Irish Fiddler #44.
It’s a single reel played AB. Parts A and B each have a 4 bar phrase repeated to give the full 8 bars.
I’ve removed slurs, accents and fingering that were in the original as I believe that’s a matter for the player.