Tom Mhic’s polka

Does anyone have a name for this lovely polka - I’ve had a search (using all the tips!) in a couple of keys, with no luck, but I just seem to manage to post duplicates so far 🙁
Again, this is from DH’s fiddle teacher who got it from Lawrence Bell - so it’s default current name is Lawrence Bell’s Polka.
Pair it with Maurice Manley’s or Johny Leary’s(Maid of Ardagh)
https://thesession.org/tunes/238
https://thesession.org/tunes/466

Lawrence Bell’s ~ please, not so loose at reassigning names. I’ll see if I can dig out something other than ‘gan ainm’, but this is a case where I prefer ‘gan ainm’ to free association. This little number is familiar and is played in other keys. Here are the other two I know it in, using this transcription rather than my own ways with it:

K: G Major
G>A Bd | ed BG | A>B cd | ed B/c/d |
G>A Bd | ed BG | A>B cF | AG G2 :|
gG fG | e>f ed | ed Bd | e>f ed |
gG fG | e>f ed | A>B cF | AG G2 :|

K: D Major
D>E FA | BA FD | E>F GA | BA F/G/A |
D>E FA | BA FD | E>F GC | ED D2 :|
dD cD | B>c BA | BA FA | B>c BA |
dD cD | B>c BA | E>F GC | ED D2 :|

If I can find my own notes on it, hoping for a name or an early source, I’ll return with that and another take…

X: 2
T: Gan Ainm
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: A Major
|: c/B/ |
AA/B/ ce | fe cA| B>c de |fe c/e/c/B/ |
AA/B/ c/d/e |fe cA | B>c dB | BA A :|
|: c/e/ |
aA gA | fA eA | B>c de |fe ec/e/ |
aA gA | fa/f/ ec | B>c d/c/B | BA A :|

So, there’s some of the other ways possible with this one, and that can also happen in the other two keys as well ~ G & D…

Many thanks C. I live in hope of a real name - and I like the lead-ins.

“Lawrence Bell’s ~ please, not so loose at reassigning names. “

Well it’s family shorthand for … “that polka in A that you got to learn 3 lessons ago that we play with Johnny Leary’s”. I haven’t spread it around 🙂

Chris
ps Hope your missus is feeling better

Thanks spin, and for the tune ~ who luv’s yuh… 😉

She is ‘recovering’ well…

I play this tune in D and I know it as Begley’s No 2. I came across the music of two simple polkas a few years back. The first was Begley’s No 1 played in G and that was followed by Begley’s No 2. (Your tune) We play them as such in our group.

Many thanks Free, it’s nice to have a name 🙂
Any chance that you could post Begley’s no. 1 for me ?
tia
Chris

Key signature: D Major
Submitted on July 22nd 2005 by ceolachan.
https://thesession.org/tunes/4763

Key signature: D Major (& G & both ways round)
Submitted on March 24th 2008 by ceolachan.
~ /tunes/8378

Transcribed from the playing of Brendan Begley, melodeon ~ who, it seems, has played it both ways, with either part starting of as the A-part, in this case t’other way round ~

X: 5
T: Tom Mhic’s
S: Brendan Begley
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: Dmaj
|: d2 c2 | BA FA | B2 B>c | BA FA |
d2 c2 | BA FD | EF GE | ED D2 :|
|: DE FA | BA FD | EF GA | BA FE |
DE FA | BA FD | EF GE | ED D2 :|

“Tom Mhic’s No. 1” ~ how I’d tend to take it, the other way round ~

X: 6
T: Tom Mhic’s
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: Dmaj
|: F/E/ |\
D>E FA | BA FD | E>F GA | BA F/G/A/F/ |
DD/E/ FA | BA FD | E>F G/F/E | ED D :|
|: A |\
d2 c2 | BA FA | B2 B>c | BA F/G/A |
de/d/ cd/c/ | BA FD | E>F GE | ED D :|

“Tom Mhic’s No. 1” ~ in G ~ low part first (more possibilities) ~

X: 7
T: Tom Mhic’s
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: Gmaj
|: GA Bd | ed BG | AA/B/ cd | ed B>A |
GA Bd | ed B>G | AB cA | AG G2 :|
|: g2 f2 | ed Bd | e2 e>f | ed B/c/d/B/ |
g2 fg/f/ | ed B2 | A>B cA | AG G2 :|

~ or ~ the other way round ~

X: 8
T: Tom Mhic’s
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: Gmaj
|: g2 f2 | ed Bd | e2 e>f | ed B/c/d/B/ |
g2 fg/f/ | ed B2 | A>B cA | AG G2 :|
|: GA Bd | ed BG | AA/B/ cd | ed B>A |
GA Bd | ed B>G | AB cA | AG G2 :|

This isn’t the first and won’t be the last tune to be taken either way round…

# Posted on March 24th 2008 by ceolachan

It seems I did come back with a name for this as promised, and alternate ways with it, but forgot why I was looking for it in the first place, till spindizzy reminded me in the comments for the duplication. I looked for this, sure it was already here, in other keys but may have forgotten to check A, or at least both parts in A, or I didn’t try enough variations on the bars submitted to ABC searching under the ‘Advanced’ tab… 😏

There’s no problem with playing it in A, a common alternative for raising the pitch a little from G, though it works both ways, however, a considerable number of the old and not so old recordings, including by Begley, are a full step out, upwards, so that tunes in G sound in A and tunes in D sound in E, etc… Was this some idiotic way to fit them on to 60 minute tapes? Maybe, but the same is true of the CD this tune can be found on…

The 3rd polka from Brendan Begley’s recent workshop in Aberdeen. [ The 2nd one had already been posted by “ceolachan”. ] It may be here already, but I couldn’t find it.
If anyone has a name for it please let me know.

I recognise the tune; the turn is not quite how I have it but close enough. Not sure what Breanndán calls it but I believe it’s one of Tom Mhicks.

Asking around, no-one here has a name for though everyone seems to have it from directly from Tom or from Tom via Breanndán (who I now know calls it Tom Mhick’s No 1).

ceolachan has it the usual way round in his comments to the entry “Tom Mhick’s No 1” which explains why the search didn’t work.

It’s not uncommon though to switch parts out of sheer devilment!

~ confusion, drink or old age…

The more usual order of a dance tune is as here, ending on a high, the A-part being generally the lower half of a two part melody….

I was pretty sure this set of polkas had a much earlier presence here, but we have lost a few contributors in circumstances where everything they’d contributed went with them, and at least in one case I know it meant a substantial loss here in the tunes section…