Four comments
Phil the Fluter’s Ball
I’m posting this in response to a tune request from user Taminka.
It is of course really only the melody for a song of that name, rather than a tune in its own right. However, with a little re-arranging it can be used by a ceilidh band for hornpipe dances.
Music At The Gate
From th4e sleeve notes to Seamus Ennis’s "Forty Years of Piping".
Music at the Gate is an old reel my late father had; very lively in its melodic sequences. I do not think I have ever heard anyone else play it, but it is obviously the tune to which "Phil the Fluter’s Ball " is sung, though more elaborate in its present form. The Pigeon on the Gate was and still is a very popular reel among Irish traditional musicians. My version is one which my father had from the old pipers.
Courtesy of ‘The Fiddler’s Companion’ ~ Andrew Kuntz
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/PET_PH.htm
"Songs & Dances of Ireland"
Collected & edited by Peter Lavender
Wise Publications, 1982
ISBN-10: 071190099X
ISBN-13: 978-0711900998
X: 2
T: Phil The Fluter’s Ball
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R:Hornpipe
N: Marked "Moderato e marcato"
K: Dmaj
FE |\
DDDD dddc | BABc d2 FE | DDDD dddB | ABAF E2 EF |
DDDD dddc | BABc d2 ee | fded dcBA | BBcc d2 ||
de |\
f2 fd e2 ec | dedB AFDA | fffd eeec | dcBe A3 d |
f2 fd e3 c | dedB AFDF | ABAF dBAF | ABAF E2 ||
"CHORUS"
EF |\
D2 DD d2 dc | BABc dd d2 | DDDD dddB | ABAF EEFE |
D2 D2 dd d2 | BABc d2 de | fded dcBA | BBcc d2 |]
& Bayard
Bayard (1981, No. 250, pgs. 213, 214) collected the tune as a fife march called "The Fluter’s Ball." Carlin (Master Collection), 1984; No. 230, pg. 134. Sing Out, pgs. 22, 23.