Brendan McMahon's Reel
Here's a nice tune which shouldn't hut the fingers too much. I'm not so sure about the audial appendages.
May 19, 2007•2 min
Irish Flute Tunes
Traditional Irish Tunes Played on the Flute (iflute@googlemail.com)
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Episodes
Music in the Glen
Here's a popular reel. It's so well known that I know absolutely nothing about it.
May 19, 2007•3 min
Paddy Taylor's Jig
Here's another one from your man.
May 19, 2007•2 min
Paddy Taylor's Reel (2)
Here's another Paddy Taylor reel. I never know the difference in this tune between C naturals / C sharps, the first part / the last part or how it goes / doesn't go. It's a bit like the trouble I have with semi-colons / commas / -s and so on; I hope this version isn't too much of a Cat astrophe.
May 18, 2007•2 min
Drag Her Round The Road
Sorry there's no picture with this one. I did try.
May 18, 2007•2 min
The Connacht Heifers
Here's popular reel. I've played it double here but it might really be single. There was rain forecast today and I think I'm getting into Noah's Ark mode, not that two heifers would save the breed, or would they? I'm not a vet.
May 18, 2007•3 min
The Silver Spire
Maybe this reel will be renamed "The Stiletto in the Ghetto" or "The Stiffey By the Liffey" in honour of the one in the picture. It probably already has. I'm usually a few years behind the times. I think the tune is also called John Brennan's Reel.
May 18, 2007•3 min
The Glory Reel
Here's a tune from the playing of the late Mickey and Francie Byrne from Kilcar in Donegal. I think the name comes from the Irish "Ríl na nGlórtha" meaning "The Reel of the Voices", rather than from its own, undeniably splendid qualities. It's great on the fiddle as the second part gives plenty of scope for growling - The Growly Reel. You can sort of hum while playing the flute to get a drone effect but that's really, or ought to be, a private activity. (This is as close as I remember it, Brenda...
May 18, 2007•3 min
Vincent Campbell's Highland
I have a tape of the Donegal fiddle player, Vincent Campbell, playing this highland. On the tape e says he got it from Mickey Doherty and that Mickey Doherty called it "The Iron Man". He did, however cast some doubt on the reliability of Mr' Doherty's tune names. I'm starting to have to rattle my way past my skeletons and hoik out tapes in order to remind myself of tunes. I might be saved by running out of storage space on the server at some stage but in the meantime I keep on rattling.
May 18, 2007•2 min
Joe Cooley's Hornpipe
I'm sure this one is actually le hAinm but I can't remember the name. It's on a very popular record - Noel Hill & Tony Linnane's LP. I've lost this record so I can't get the name of the tune. If someone can remember the name, please let me know and I'll update the title here. I've 2 suggestions now for the name. Is it now "Kitty's Wedding to Joe Cooley"? ... Joe Cooley seems to be in the lead at the moment.
May 17, 2007•2 min
Peter Street
Here's a reel which is sometimes played in A. I always thought it sounded a bit scary in that key. Here's a slightly less disturbing version in G.
May 17, 2007•2 min
Dunphy's Hornpipe
I'm still in hornpipe mode. The is a fairly common one and is also quite cheerful.
May 17, 2007•2 min
Galway Bay
Here's a popular hornpipe named after a bay named after a popular city. It's usually in G minor but I've played it here in A minor which is a bit more flutish. There's a fairly new sewerage treatment plant in Galway Bay. I don't know whether hornpipes were used in its construction or not.
May 17, 2007•2 min
The Galway Hornpipe
Here's a popular hornpipe named after a popular city.
May 17, 2007•3 min
The Gooseberry Bush
I think this reel was found under one. I had a bit of a sour taste in my mouth when I was playing it; it mustn't have been ripe. The fact that my mouth was curled up it the manner of a cow licking pee of a nettle might help explain why the playing is a bit more miss than hit.
May 17, 2007•2 min
The Achonry Lasses
I can't tell you much about this tune. This version is fairly close to the one Sonny McDonagh recorded for Brendán Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann Vol 2.
May 17, 2007•2 min
William Marshall's Strathspey
Here's a tune I heard on a Tommy Peoples record a good few years ago. The passage of time might explain how my memory of which note go where has gone who knows where. For a fiddle tune, I think it's OK for the flute.
May 16, 2007•2 min
The Maid That Left The Country
Here's a tune I learned years ago from a transcription of John Egan's flute playing. It was in a journal called "Ceol" which Brandán Breathnach used to produce in the 1960s. I used to go to the Central Library in Belfast in the 1980s and photocopy tunes from it. There may well be another name for this tune but I don't know it. I think it's a lovely, straightforward sort of tune. The grammar in the title might be slightly amiss but the notes are OK.
May 16, 2007•2 min
The Master's Return
Here's a reliable old reel. I'm not sure what kind of master it is whose return is being commemorated here but the outcome is fairly palatable in any case; not that I'm advocating that this tune should be eaten.
May 16, 2007•2 min•Ep. 1
Paddy Taylor's Reel
Here's a reel from the playing of Paddy Taylor, a flute player from Abbyfeale in Co. Limerick who played a wooden Bohm flute.
May 16, 2007•3 min
Tim Maloney's Reel
I can't tell you much about this. I think of it as one of those common tunes which I never hear. There a lot of tunes with that air of virtual commonness about their airs (not sure about their grace-notes). I'm having to jog my memory by flicking through a few books to see the start of tunes. This particular aide memoir lives in Ceol Rince na hÉireann Vol1. I'll very likely be looking through Vols 2, 3, 4 (not sure about this one; it has some very strange things in it) and 5 to be reminded of mo...
May 16, 2007•3 min
Bímis ag Ól is ag Pógadh na mBan
Here's a jig called "Let us be drinking and kissing the ladies". I haven't really much to say about that. It's a good jig and a popular one. I believe some things in the title are also popular in certain quarters.
May 15, 2007•2 min
The Banshee
Here's a popular reel called after a Banshee / Bean Sí / Bean Sidhe. I think it's in the key of heebee G bee.
May 15, 2007•2 min•Ep. 1
Andy McGann's
Here's a reel in "C" named after the great, late fiddle player, A McG. When I play tunes on the flute in "C" there always seems to be a slightly bronchial drainpipe sound going on. Sometimes the flute sounds funny too. Being a bit parochial, I usually associate this tune with a different, fairly recently lost fiddle player, Seán McGuire. Maybe I'll just call it McG's reel.
May 14, 2007•2 min
The Ladies of Gormond
Here's a highland. The playing is a bit more gormless than Gormond here but it is getting late and I find it hard to be otherwise.
May 14, 2007•2 min
George White's Reel
This is a fairly common tune. I hope you like it.
May 14, 2007•3 min
Micko Russell's Reel
Here's a nice sparce reel Like lots of tunes that Micko Russell played, it is not cluttered by too many notes. So many tunes played these days sound like the putting to sound of a manuscript which just been sneezed on - by someone quite poorly at that. It's sometimes good to have simple things around too.
May 14, 2007•2 min
Out On The Ocean
Here's a very very very popular jig. One reason it's very very very popular is that it's fairly easy to learn.
May 14, 2007•2 min
O'Mahoney's Hornpipe
This might not be the "O'Mahoney's" you were expecting (as if people sit around expecting hornpipes of whatever name) but I noticed it under this name in "Ceol Rince na hÉireann Vol 2. I always just called it "do you know this one?". Brendán Breathnach took it down from Denis Murphy's playing for CRÉ 2. I'll go with the present name as I always believe what other people have written.
May 14, 2007•3 min
The Concert Reel
Here's a popular tune. My only doubt is that I might have leaned it at a concert of something far removed from Irish traditional music. Now I come to think of it, I'm fairly sure I've never been to a concert so I probably got the tune from a record so it should be OK. I did get taken to the zoo once when I was about seven.
May 14, 2007•3 min
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