The Pullet reel

Found this tune in a book named “An Irish Tunebook” so no fear of being told off there.

I have played this tune both as a reel and as a hornpipe…works well for both rhythms!

I hope the ABC is right

Almost the same but not quite and in Eminor
https://thesession.org/tunes/1148
submitted November 19th 2002 by Shanaway.

I haven’t heard this version in decades and have never played it but it has remained in memory all that time.

Instinct tells me to play this without the repeats. It’s one of those tunes that goes on ad infinitum as the ‘B’ music leads itself straight back into the ‘A’ again and-so-on.

I second the motion… 😉

Having just conversed with my trusty scottish band colleague we conclude this to be Scottish in character/feel but “D H R the D” is definitely Irish in character.

From wikipedia---

A pullet is a young chicken, more specifically a hen (female) at least 20-weeks-old which has begun to lay eggs but has not yet moulted. Pullets are more productive than the older laying hens; they often produce eggs for an entire year, while hens will lay for six-to-seven months.

[Middle English pulet, from Old French polet, diminutive of poul, cock, and poule, hen, both from Latin pullus, young fowl, young animal, chicken; see pau-1 in Indo-European roots.]

I love the linguistic derivatives of such words. This is a sweet tune indeed.

Dang English names for all these pure Irish tunes…

Yes MH, and then they’re killed and sold off as cheap meat and the next batch of pullets begin…because “pullets are more productive than the older laying hens”… 🙁

This tune also appears (as a hornpipe) in Levey’s second collection of The Dance Music of Ireland (1873).

rwwt…slight correction, it’s in Levey’s first collection (1858), page 37. I was just researching this tune and came across it in that book.

Played by the master “Liam Og’O Flynn” in the Planxty LP “The woman I loved so well” : in a set of reels associating the Pullet with “the woman I never forgot” and “Ladies’s pantalettes”.

This particular “Pullet” is a completely different tune from the “Pullet” played by “Planxty” in the set of 3 reels you refer to.

From the Leo Rowsome collection