The Primrose Lasses reel

A traditional reel… Apparently there’s notation on the highland pipes for this, called “The Drunken Piper”, also the name of the set that this is usually played in, but I can’t find it….

The Drunken Piper I know - well, I’ve met many - but the one that usually goes by that name is a very different tune - a Bagpipe reel in Amixolydian, played as a march in Donegal.

My own 2 cents: I know this as the Primrose Lass and more commonly played at sessions in A major.

It’s in O’Neill’s as the Primrose Lass pretty much as the setting here. Good tune.

Geoff Pollitt

Dervish list this as “Byrne’s” on “Harmony Hill”, and the parts are switched round.

Number three in Garry Shannon’s set Windwood

K: G
g | edBA G2 GE | DEGA BAAg | edBA G2 GE | DEGA BGG2 |
BdAB G2 GE | DEGA BAAg | edBA G2 GE | DEGA BGG ||
z | d2 gd edgd | Bdgd BAA2 | d2 gd efge |dBAc BGG2 |
d2 gd edgd | Bdgd BAA2 | dBde g2 ge | dBAc BGG||

This is almost identical to what Wendy MacIsaac played on the compilation album “The Hear of Cape Breton.” Nice one on the flute and whistle.

The Camber Lasses (in G): https://thesession.org/tunes/1947
The Camber Lasses (in A): https://thesession.org/tunes/4275
The Primrose Road: https://thesession.org/tunes/5073

R: highland
K: D
f2f>e d2d>B|A>Bd>e f<BB>e|f2f>e d2d>B|1 A>da>g f<dd>e:|2 A>da>g f<dd>B||
A>df>d a>df>d|A>df>d e<BB2|A>df>d a>df>d|f/g/a e>g f<dd>B|
A>df>d a>df>d|A>df>d e<BB>e|f2f>e d2d>B|A>da>g f<dd>e|]

As played by Harry Bradley. You could play this as a reel, transposing it in G.

K: G Major
|: G>A |
B2- B>A G2 G>E | D>EG>A B>AA>c | B>cB>A G>AG>E | D>EG>A B>G :|
| G>c |
(3Bcd g>d e>dg>d | B>dg>B c>AA>c | (3Bcd g>d e>d g2 | B>c (3ABc B>GG>c |
(3Bcd g>d e>dg>d | e>dg>B c>A (3AAA | B2 (3cBA G2- G>E | D>EG>A B<G ||

Hallelujah! An improvement, the ‘less than’ sign now works here in yeller land. Thanks for telling me ‘slainte’, I had to give it a try, besides, I like highlands a bit lower down and the key of G suits this one nicely. You could throw in a few more ‘snaps’ if you were so inclined, and if you wanted it as a reel, well, just play it ‘flat out’…
😉

It also goes nicely in the key of ‘A’…

‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ - haha - geddit? 🙂

Larry, Moe & Curly Joe… Now that was threesome that had an interesting upbringing. Anyone remember a theme tune?

Hmmm, actually, three is a wildly conservative estimate. Stop slapping my head guys I’m not a drum. Anyway, as I was saying, OK, that hurts, alright already, I’m getting to it. I was wrong, so what’s new eh? I was way off the mark, there are more than 3 of us…

Go here for a tune that might be a variant of this https://thesession.org/tunes/6577.

X: 1
T: The Primrose Lass
R: reel
D: Dervish - Harmony Hill
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
~b3a ~g3e|dB~B2 dega|~b3a ~g3e|dBGA BA~A2:|
|:Bd~d2 edgd|edgd edgd|Bd~d2 edge|1 dBGB A2GA:|2 dBGB A2G2||

isnt this the tune that steeleye span sings “5 drunken nights” to?

and also i think its on the planxty live album but listed as the pullet.

Major Moran’s: https://thesession.org/tunes/6762

this is very interesting. it is known that “4 nights drunk” is an English folksong (the English variant of “7 drunken nights”) and that a melody so simmilar (if not identical), is that of an Irish tune.

Recorded by Leo Rowsome in 1944:
http://www.archive.org/details/LeoRowsomePrimroseLassTheIvyLeaf

for the link to Leo’s piping, Ramiro. Great Shtuff.

slainte, your H/highland version called to mind none but this little ditty;
The Rattlin’ Bog !https://thesession.org/tunes/583

Dow, the version you posted has also been recorded by Matt Molloy, who typically gives it the ‘second octave’ treatment:
X: 1
T: The Primrose Lass
R: reel
S: Matt Molloy
M: 2/2
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
b3a ggge|dBBB dega|1 b2ba ggge|degb adga:|2 b2 ag gede|gedB A2GA:|
Bddg edgd|edgd edg2|1 B/c/ddg edge|dBGB AAGA:|2 B/B/Bd edge|dbgd adga||

does anyone actually play any F#s in bar 7, either ‘dcBA GFED’ (transcription here) or ‘dcBA GFEF’ (in O’Neill’s)? I’ve never been convinced by that Ionian/major, more like ‘dcBA G~E3’ or ‘dcBA ~G3E’ (for the setting here). Maybe that’s just me?

Irish national treasure, sean nos singer and storyteller Joe Heaney, who passed on while a faculty member in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington (1984), used to sing a version of “Seven Drunken Nights” to this tune:
“As I came home, drunk as drunk could be-o, there I saw a horse where a horse shouldn’t be/ I says to me wife, tell it unto me-o, whose-a horse where a horse shouldn’t be? / Oh you fool you silly fool, can’t ye plainly see, now, it’s nothing but a milch cow me mother sent to me?/ Miles I have traveled, six hundred miles or more/ saddle on a milch cow I’ve never seen before…”

He also has a wonderful version of Cunnla that’s probably still up on YouTube or somewhere. Playful man, took it seriously enough but didn’t let that stop him from having fun.

“Irish national treasure, sean nos singer and storyteller Joe Heaney, who passed on while a faculty member in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington (1984), used to sing a version of “Seven Drunken Nights” to this tune”

Martin Carthy also sings the song to this tune.

On the Star of Donegal record Johnny Doherty plays the air and reel of An Tseanbhean Bhocht = Primrose Lasses. Frank Quinn sang the song with the same medley on one of his 78s.

A friend played some reel by this title, couldn’t hear the resemblance myself, don’t think it was one of these settings from Dervish et al. They have their own setting in Cape Breton - and aren’t sure if it’s a native or wandered in at some point.

There is a setting of this tune in one of Joyce’s manuscripts under the name “The Kilworth Lasses”. He notes that is is from the O’Sullivan Bruff (?) manuscripts, and that “Kilworth is in the County Cork”.

“He notes that is is from the O’Sullivan Bruff (?) manuscripts,”

Joyce obtained tunes from “a very old well‑written manuscript lent to me in 1873 by Mr. J. O’Sullivan, of Bruff, Co. Limerick”.

Thanks, Weejie!

# Added by ceolachan - March 8th, 2014
https://thesession.org/tunes/13452

I got this version of the tune from Dicky Deegan a brilliant Australian piper. Some say Dicky is more Ennis than Ennis was.

As published in Robertson / Ramsay collection but heard on Gaelic College Pipe Band of Cape Breton Island CD “Taisbeanaidh / Revelations”

From the album “Fiddle Case”, played by Eimear Howley.

A setting played by Wild Asparagus & Nightingale among others