The Sally Gardens reel

No relation to the William Butler Yeats poem and song "Down by the Sally Gardens", this is a lively reel just made for playing at sessions.

The second part has a great "ascending" feel to it which can be emphasised with the right accompaniment. A chord sequence rising in whole tones works well: G Am Bm finishing with a C, a D and back to G.

Here is a slightly different setting I learned in a workshop in Sligo last summer and have been playing since:

BA|G2DG BAGB|dBeB dBAB|d2Bd efge|dBAB GEDE|
G2DG BAGB|dBeB dBAB|d2Bd efge|1 dBAB G2:|2 dBAB G4||
dggf g2dg|gabg agfg|eaag a2ea|agbg ageg|
dggf g2dg|gabg ageg|d2Bd efge|1 dBAB G4:|2 dBAB G2||

I’ve made an arrangement where I shifted the downbeat and played around a little with the melody until it fitted. Any comments are welcome!

http://malcolm.schonfield.free.fr/zik.php?lang=en&tune=shifted_sally_gardens

My dad likes this tune.

Is it just me, or is the end of the third bar in the B part dying to be made into a triplet?

No, it’s definitely gagging to be a triplet. I’ve just played the last two notes in the 1st, 3rd and 5th bars as triplets and it makes them into a cute fluid "chirrup" that playing the notes cleanly just doesn’t.

Can someone post EVERY bit of ornamentation that comes to their head with this tune. When ever I play it at sessions, the way I play it never sounds right. It varies from county to county I think!!!

Thanks

Variation I mean!!!#

I play it like this

DE|G2DG BAGB|dBeB dBAB|d2Bd efge|dBAB ABAG|
EDG2 DGBA……

This was probably one of the first Irish tunes I learned.
I learned it on tinwhistle and play it a similar way on the mandolin.
I don’t know, but this tune and the poem "It was down by the Sally Gardens where my love and I did meet—-" are linked in my mind, both because how I played the tune slowly and how sad it sounds. When I speed it up, it turns a sad tune into a somewhat lively and happy one, almost seeming to say: "Hey, bad days happen, but there’s another side to every story."
I love this tune, both because it’s opened up a couple doors for me and I’ve learned alot trying to play it.

Whenever I hear it, the first part starts:

G2DG BdGB | dBeB dBAB

Brother Ryan Duns take on it ~ 😉 ~ and does quite a nice job on it too. Now if only he’d work on understanding and managing hornpipes a bit better. 😀

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1rUGU6m_M8

play video

The whistle version on the video is excellent.

It’s identical to the first version I heard played by an English folk musician on a Shand Morino accordion in London in the 1960’s, so it has a certain vintage.

I’m now playing it again on the piano-accordein myself, which is more legato than staccato but the sound of the whistle is much better, it’s "sharper" and immediate - rather like a button-key box, which is more staccato than legato

James D

So who changed the title of this to "Cronin’s", and why ?

Many song/tune titles can be quite mysterious - even impenetrable sometimes - but a sally garden is a willow plantation (genus Salix). Bit of educated slang.

Love this playing :
https://youtu.be/4k4nkXir4PU

play video

A truly lovely tune - and song with words by W B Yeats (maybe adapted from trad?

It’s a totally different tune from the Sally Gardens Reel, Susan, though I agree the tune for the song is beautiful. Here’s a nice version from Transatlantic Sessions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=027ZJX5XVjs

play video

See this thread for more info re the origins of the tune for the song: https://thesession.org/tunes/1314