The Sweetness Of Mary strathspey

Several pages on the web credit Joan MacDonald Boes as the composer. BTW, I was glad to find this tune, I was particularly looking for it. I believe it’s also on Lisa Carthy’s album Red Rice.

Isn’t it a Jerry Holland tune? Eliza Carthy recorded it as a traditional tune, though.

yes, jerry holland plays it. but if you check the notes for his ‘master cape breton fiddler’ album, he attributes it to joan macdonald boes.

sarah in portland

This also gets played with the last four bars of the A part being substituted for the last four bars of the B part the second time through. Kind of a nice way to bring it to an ending. This is in one of my scottish tunebooks in A, but G is a bit easier for many instruments.

I was just copying over the abc from the site into Navigator, and discovered a load of miscodings in the dots. From extrapolation from the original notes posted by Geoff back in ‘02, here’s some ABC that should work:

X: 802
T: Sweetness Of Mary, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: strathspey
K: Gmaj
(3DGA|B2 (3BAG E2 (3EGA|B<d c<e d2 (3def|g>fe>d d>cB>c|d<g B<G A2 (3AGA|
B2 (3BAG E2 (3EGA|B<d c<e d2 (3def|g>fe>d d>cB>c|d<g B<A G2:|
g>a|b>dg<b a>df<a|g>fe<g d2 c<B|e>dc<e d>cB>c|d<g B<G A2 g>a|
b>dg<b a>df<a|g>fe<g d2 c<B|e>Gc<e d>cB>c|d<g B<A G2:|

It’s also in the Ho-Ro Gheallaidh book in A:

X: 1
T: Sweetness Of Mary, The
C: Joan MacDonald Boes
S: Ho-Ro Gheallaidh Scottish Fiddlers’ Session Tunebook, v. 1&2, p. 84.
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: strathspey
N: Moderately slow
K: Amaj
(3EAB|:c2 (3cBA F2 (3FAB|c>e d<f e2 (3efg|a>gf>e e>dc>d
|1 e<a c>A B2 A>B:|2 e<a c>B A2||:a>b|c’>e a<c’ b>e g<b|
a>g f<a e2 d>c|f>A d<f e>dc>d|1 e<a c>A B2 a>b|c’>e a<c’ b>e e<b|
a>g f<a e2 d>c|f>Ad>f e>dc<d|e<a c>B A2:|2 e<a c>A B>EA>B|
c2 (3cBA F2 (3FAB|c>e d<f e2 f>g|a>gf>e e>dc>d|e<a c>B A2||

This is pretty close to the way Alasdair Fraser plays it – the Saltfishforty version is played with much more of a slow Shetland swing, with dotted crotchet pairs instead of some of the triplets.

All that said, what a lovely tune!

Actually, the transcription in that Session Tunebook has another oddity – the first part is single, and the second part doubled. The way Alasdair Fraser plays the first part is evened out to an 8-bar doubling something like:
(3EAB|:c2 (3cBA F2 (3FAB|c>e d<f e2 (3efg|a>gf>e e>dc>d|e<a c>A B2 A>B
(3EAB|:c2 (3cBA F2 (3FAB|c>e d<f e2 (3efg|a>gf>e e>dc>d|e<a c>B A2:|

Sorry ’bout that.

And everyone can see where I messed up that correction. Oy.

One last time, with the repeat bars fixed:
(3EAB|c2 (3cBA F2 (3FAB|c>e d<f e2 (3efg|a>gf>e e>dc>d|e<a c>A B2 A>B|
c2 (3cBA F2 (3FAB|c>e d<f e2 (3efg|a>gf>e e>dc>d|e<a c>B A2:|

I’ve played it through roughly in G and then A; it really sounds great in both, and I may practise it playing twice through in G then once through in A. I play two or three tunes this way, changing key on the same tune; as an example, Bill Harty’s Jig, going from D to A. (a simple change for fiddle/banjo/mandolin, just going across one string higher.)

saccharin sweet?

Whatever happened to Geoff? 😏

I noticed that when the automatic “setting from comments” feature was enabled on the site, the two transcriptions I left in one comment were combined into one monster of a transcription, in the wrong key. These are fixed. Also, I apologize for the tone of my first comment from years ago– lambasting someone’s ABC was very rude, especially when I responded with some poorly-formatted ABC in kind.

Credit: MarcusDisessa appears to have pieced the G major transcription out of the combined posting, so this is now listed as both settings #2 and #5. His post showed up on the home page, which got me looking at this in the first place. 🙂

I just corrected my setting #3, which had curly right-apostrophes rather than straight ones on the c’ notes, and they were not displaying correctly. Thanks to JoJofidhlear for pointing it out!

Here’s the way we play it in our mostly Scottish session, sort of with more snaps and pans than bouncy triplets. I have included the chords that were given to me, but don’t know if they work. It would be great if someone could check them out and let me know if they are OK.

Thanks, Greg, for checking the chords. I made the changes you suggested.

chords on x:2

Sweetness of mary - Harmony anyone?
for the a version? How about chords?
Mary was my Grandmother.

Patt: for an arrangement with an accompanying line, see :http://www.rudemex.co.uk/library/RM_arrangements/Sweetness%20of%20Mary,%20The%20(a).pdf and for a version arranged for English concertina: http://www.rudemex.co.uk/library/RM_arrangements/Sweetness%20of%20Mary%20(English%20concertina%20arrangement).pdf

As played, in F major, by Calum Stewart (Track 3 Calum Stewart & Heikki Bourgault, self-released CD 2010).
(I have added transpositions of his setting in G and A within the one ABC addition.)

As Calum & Heikki’s eponymous 2010 album is currently unavailable in hard copy or anywhere online to stream, you can (for the time being) listen to/download the track featuring this tune here: https://app.box.com/s/9ngvjr79lat87ikem1zc9mgfhd5s3qzu

As often in traditional music, transcribing the actual timing of the figures on the 2nd and 4th beats of bars A1, A5 and B 2nd time 5 accurately isn’t really possible – I chose quaver plus 2 semiquavers, others choose a triplet of quavers: neither choice is quite right as those groups of three notes are actually played somewhere between the two choices, with the 1st note of each group of 3 slightly emphasised and long and the 2nd and 3rd notes shorter, without the even emphasis of a true triplet, yet not quite as clipped as in an accurately timed quaver plus 2 semiquavers. For that matter, the dotted quaver-semiquaver pairs and the scotch snaps – semiquaver-dotted quaver – wouldn’t be played absolutely strictly 3:1 (1:3), nor yet are they in triplet time played 2:1 (1:2), but again, somewhere between those timings.

You can also download my transcription document (staff and ABC notations) from: https://app.box.com/s/nsw33hbdht1pwcxq1h83wlogq2t5z0jn