The Golden Eagle hornpipe

I love this hornpipe because it stand out and sounds like no other. Keiran Hanrahan was the first person I heard playing this and fell in love with it striaght away.Not the easiest tune to play on the Banjo for people with small fingers.

i first heard this on the kevin/seamus glackin album and it’s paired with the galway hornpipe.
it’s a pleasant tune,i think.
worth playing just to see the look on the guitarist’s face (those who claim to be able to back a tune that they’ve never heard before) but it usually ends in disaster.

This hornpipe is one that many culture (ireland,scotland,shetland) claim.Some people ascribe it to James Hill of Gateshead though GrahamDixon does not include it in his authorative catelogue “The Lads like beer”.
By its feel, its a late nineteenth century tune, so it should be possible to track down an original composer and nail down its origins.

The Blackberry Blossom by Mary MacNamara

Does anybody have their own take on this, or a transcription from someone else’s playing of it? That would be a plus addition, very welcomed.

It is a reasonable courtesy to ask ~ that if one copies from somewhere else, whether it is a book or ripped off ABCs from elsewhere on the Internet ~ please show a little respect and credit your sources… This identical transcription can also be found in Richard Robinson’s collection of ABCs:

Richard Robinson’s Tunebook
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/RRTuneBk/tunebook.html

“The Golden Eagle”
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/RRTuneBk/gettune/000008f0.html

http://www.rogermillington.com/tunetoc/goldeneagle.html

X: 2
T: Golden Eagle, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: Gmaj
|: {A/-} B>A |\
G>BD>G [B,B]>D (3GAB | d>G (3Bcd g>ba>g | f>Ae>d c>FB>A | (3GAG A>G F>D (3cBA |
G>BD>G [B,B]>DG>B | d>G (3Bcd g>ba>g | f>ed>^c =c>FB>A | (3GAG F>A G2 :|
|: (3b^ab |\
b>B^d>f b>ag>f | e>^de>f g>^fg>^g | a>A^c>e a>g (3gfe | (3ded ^c>e d2 a>b |
c’>af>d ^c>de>f | g>^fg>a b2 a>g | f>ed>^c =c>FB>A | (3GAG F>A G2 :|

Almost forgot my promise to offer up a dinxterless (>) version…

X: 3
T: Golden Eagle, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: Gmaj
|: BA |\
GBDG [B,B]DGB | dGBd gbag | fAed cFBA | GDAG FDcA |
GBDG [B,B]DGB | dGBd gbag | fed^c =cFBA | G2 FA G2 :|
|: b^a |\
bB^df bagf | e^def gfg^g | aA^ce agfe | dA^ce d2 ab |
c’afd ^cdef | gfga b2 ag | fed^c =cFBA | G2 F2 G2 :|

Luke Daniels does a nice version

I’ve just been reading the liner notes on Paddy Hayes’ Return to Kilty album and it says he wrote the Golden Eagle. I never knew that before!

Is it widely known that dear Paddy wrote this?

The Golden Eagle appears in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection and pre dates Paddy Hayes by about a century. So no, it’s not only not known he composed the tune, it’s also not true.

Thanks! Got that sorted and learnt about a previously unkown collection of tunes.

I’m really liking this one at the moment, I love any opportunity to play crisp tongued triplets. The recording of Donncha O Briain that the Prof links to above is gorgeous and although I’m not doing a note-by-note copy I like to put a bit more bounce into the tune like he did, although I can’t play it quite so fast!

the best way to play this hornpipe is very very softly in your head (like faintly tinkling fairy bells) at midnight at the end of a long happy sunny day, while counting the stars in the milky way on your virtual desktop wallpaper. :- )

http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/IrelandsBirds/Raptors/GoldenEagle/tabid/1049/Default.aspx
reintroduced in 2001 if I remember well, after an absence of 200 years.

Blazin’ Fiddles have a great version in their album “Thursday Night in the Caley”

I would be happy to add my interpretation to this list, but I do not know ABC. I would be willing to send a MIDI copy or a Finale copy.
thestonecrusher@gmail.com

“worth playing just to see the look on the guitarist’s face (those who claim to be able to back a tune that they’ve never heard before) but it usually ends in disaster.”
Quite true, so hopefully this chord progression will be of some benefit to accompanists…..

||: G | | D |G D |
G | | D | G :||
||: B7 | Em | A7 |D7 |
D7 | G | D | G :||

A bit of harmless fun in Bb 😀

As learned from Teresa Hogan (Full Set)

“He clasps the crag with crooked hands …… then like a thunderbolt he falls” Alfred Lord Tennyson, a wee short poem of his which is y I still recall bits of it.

This setting comes from Joe Derrane. I have tried to get in all the fancy variations on the second time round. I have omitted the instrument-specific ornamentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdSUk1j89Bk&t=83s

play video

^@1:24

What playing by Joe Derrane

A slight variant I play from the first version posted.

I have just looked at The Session to check on this tune that I haven’t played for ages but found that none of the various settings have it in the way we play it in Northumbria so I have written it out as I play it.

This is clearly the same tune as given in various settings at https://thesession.org/tunes/974, and it’s not clear how this differs from one or two versions given there. Could you identify the unique phrasing here, Noel? Can’t see why it needs a separate entry.

I’m always challenged by the high c in bar 5 of the second part. I’m not skillful enough to play in anything but first position, so I usually slide up with the pinkie from b to c. What do other fiddlers do?

Nothing that isn’t covered in one of the other versions but the combination of the Low B in the starting arpegios , the high c’ , the slide through a a c# in the final floor and other examples of chromaticity and the placing of some of the triplets is not represented as a coherent whole in any of the other settings.. One of the earlier postings asked people to post their takes on the tune so I responded with the version I’ve heard and played up here in Northumbria. Clearly its the same tune as all the other settings but the whole is distinct, particularly if it is played in the Tyneside hornpipe style.