Paddy Clancy’s jig

This is one of the happiest tunes I know without it being too sappy. It will renew attention into a set of jigs.

Mark

John McKenna, the Leitrim flute player did this tune as Clancy’s Dream, and there is a sound file of his old recording as well as history on this page, Clancy’s Dream, 1928
http://www.iol.ie/~jfflynn/kenna.htm
Michael Coleman recorded it as Paddy Clancy’s in 1928.
More about tunes shared between McKenna and Coleman and others are on the link above.

To quote from that,
“Though Coleman and McKenna did not record together, the common background which they shared can be seen in the number of pieces which were recorded by both. Apart from ”The Sailor’s Bonnet“, McKenna’s ”The Ballroom Favourite“ (Decca 1934) was a version of the tune recorded by Coleman as ”Mrs. Kenny’s Barn-dance“; and ”Clancy’s Dream“ (Columbia 1928) was recorded by Coleman as ”Paddy Clancy’s“. McKenna recorded many polka selections, particularly on his duet recordings. Polkas, among the most recent dance forms to enter the Irish tradition, are regarded these days as being exclusively the property of the south-west of Ireland, in Kerry and West Cork. The existence also of many fine polkas in the repertoire of Michael Gorman, the late Sligo fiddleplayer who spent most of his life in London, reminds us how much more widespread these tunes were earlier this century than they are now. How arbitrary the titles of these tunes were is shown by the fact that McKenna recorded the same polka twice with different titles, ”The Merry Girl“ (Dacca 1934), and ”The Kiss Behind the Door“ (Decca 1937). A favourite device of McKenna’s was to mix tunes in 6/8 time (double jigs) and in 9/8 time (slip jigs) in one selection: ”Clancy’s Dream“, double jig, and ”Leitrim Town“, slip-jig (Columbia 1928); and ”Dever the Dancer“, slip-jig, and ”Connie the Soldier“, double jig (Decca 1934). This practice was not unknown at the time: the only jig selection recorded on disc by the great uilleann piper Patsy Touhey (1865-1923) also mixed slips and doubles in the same selection. The duet recordings of John McKenna contain some of the finest Irish dance music from the period. He was an enthusiastic duettist: James Morrison the fiddle player was his most celebrated recording partner.”

Good tune for the dance Thady you Gander played AAABB to fit the dance with Thady You Gander and Cock O’ The North

As a new Session member I’m loving the facilities on offer - great software package with its presentation of tunes, play-back and the sheetmusic etc and thanks a lot to everyone who takes the trouble to provide stuff! The only thing that isn’t as good as I’d like is the readability of the printed sheet music which has rather poor resolution. The problem isn’t the web browser - I’m using is Internet Explorer 5.2 (Mac) which is the most up-to-date version. Does anyone know if I can take down-loaded files of sheetmusic and represent them in a more readable form when printed off?
Cheers
Alan g

The best way to get a good print-out would be to download the ABC of the tune and use some ABC software to do the printing. Check out the “links” section for some suggestions on tracking down good ABC software for PC and Mac.

IMHO Clancy’s Dream and Paddy Clancy’s, at least as it is notated here, are two different jigs. The Clancy’s Dream with which I’m familiar is the one you can hear by listening to the sound file mentioned in aliceflynn’s October 2002 post. I think another name for Clancy’s Dream is Up Leitrim. On their Playing with Fire CD, Dervish includes Up Leitrim in a great set that also includes:
o I Buried my Wife and Danced on Top of Her, and
o Andy De Jarlis

A lot of people play a more singable B-part with long rolls, something like this:

X: 1
T: Paddy Clancy’s
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
f|afd edc|dcB AFA|~d3 efg|fdf efg|
afd edc|dcB AFA|~d3 efg|fdc d2:|
|:e|~f3 ~g3|faf fed|~f3 ~g3|afd ede|
~f3 ~g3|faf fed|~f3 ede|fdc d2:|

In the liner notes, Mike says Don Meade gave him the name for this tune. Mike and Mary play it as follows:

X: 1
T: Thrush in the Meadow, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
D: The Dangerous Reel, Mike and Mary Rafferty
K: D
f|:afd edB|dcB AFA|dcd ede|fed efg|
afd edB|dcB AFA|dcd ede|1 fdc d2f:|2 fdc d2e||
faf ~g3|faf {g}fed|faf g2 b|afd e2d|
faf ~g3|faf {g}fed|faf ede|1 fdc d2e:|2 fdc d2f||

Meaning no disrespect to Mike, but I didn’t actually give him the name “The Thrush in the Meadow” for this jig, but it’s a fine name anyway!

A Scots pipe friendly version:

X: 1
T: Paddy Clancy’s
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
f||:afd edB|dcB AAA|dcd ede|fdf efg|
afd edB|dcB AAA|dcd ede|1 fdc d2f:|2 fdc d2e||
fff ggg|fff fed|fff gfg|afd e2d|
f2f ggg|faf fed|fff ede|1 fdc d2e:|2 fdc d2f||

“Call the Set III”
https://thesession.org/recordings/5713

another Bothy Band favourite!