The Templehouse reel

Source: Matt Molloy_Matt Molloy
Transcription: gmpietra@inwind.it

I learned the tune this lazy morning from Maeve Donnelly and Peadar O’Loughlin’s duet playing. I might misremember, but it goes like this:

K: Emin
EFGA BFAF|D2FD ADFD|EFGA BE~E2|1 dBAc BEED:|2 dBAc BEE2||
g2ef gfeg|f2df afdf|g2ef gfed|B2Ac BE~E2|
g2ef gfeg|f2df afdf|edef gfed|B2Ac BEED||

I wondered why it was so easy for me to pick it up from the recording and found this is related to "The Ships are Sailing" and "The Green Groves of Erin."

https://thesession.org/tunes/7279

Recordings of this tune that I’ve heard, including Matt Molloy’s, seem to have a Cnat everywhere that C# appears in this transcription. That of course would make the key something other than Edorian, but my knowledge of modes is pretty rusty so I can’t say what it really is if not Edorian. Personally I think Cnat sounds more appropriate in this tune.

Lovely tune, though. Thanks for posting it.

I don’t see a way to edit my remarks after posting, so I’ll have to make do with this subscript. Taking the sixth tone in this scale down a semitone (i.e., C# down to Cnat) changes the scale from Edorian to Eminor (i.e., the natural minor of E).

I always heard Mike Rafferty play Cooley’s Reel followed by this tune. It sounds amazing.

slight variation on Slainte’s, using the c# sparingly as in the first part (as in O’Neill’s first part)

X: 1
T: The Templehouse
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: Reel
K: Emin
|EFGA BE (3GFE|D2FD ADFD|EFGA BAB^c|dBAc BEED|
|EFGA BE (3GFE|D2 (3FED AD (3FED|EFGA BAB^c|dBAc Beef||
g2ef gfeg|f2df afdf|gfef gfed|B2Ac BE~E2|
gfef gfeg|f2df afdf|edef gfed|B2Ac BEED||

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOB9iCe8Bkk&feature=more_related

play video

Carignan’s version

There is a supreme version of this tune on Track 1 of Tony MacMahon and Noel Hill’s album "I GCnoc Na Grai". It comes after The Humours of Castlefin. Brilliant driving set!

X:4 from John Vesey. He played a lot more variations than I’ve noted. Liner notes of some LP stated that the Templehouse itself was in Sligo. James Morrison played a solo of this on a 78 with piper Tom Ennis, Tom soloed on his own on another tune, an early example of a trad music arrangement.

Does anyone know the history of this tune, other than who’s recorded it? From an old collection? Certain area?

Claire Keville writes that this tune "possibly derives its title from a Georgian Mansion / Guest House situated near Ballymote in Co. Sligo." She didn’t recorded it, but Tyrone-born fiddler John Weir did on "An Tri is a Rian."

Noel Hill and Tony MacMahon playing the tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpffkcVDWrc

play video

And here’s Jim Donoghue playing the tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOLIJUq9Lg0

play video

A nice rendition from Dermot Byrne and Floriane Blancke following The Monaghan Jig.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY0OkhY-sGU

play video