Kingston Irish Slow Session TUNE BOOK Sponsored by The Harp of Tara Branch of the Association of Irish Musicians, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCE) 2 CCE Harp of Tara Kingston Irish Slow Session Tunebook CCE KINGSTON, HARP OF TARA KINGSTON IRISH SLOW SESSION TUNE BOOK Permissions Permission was sought for the use of all tunes from Tune books. Special thanks for kind support and permission to use their tunes, to: Andre Kuntz (Fiddler’s Companion), Anthony (Sully) Sullivan, Bonnie Dawson, Brendan Taaffe. Brid Cranitch, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Dave Mallinson (Mally’s Traditional Music), Fiddler Magazine, Geraldine Cotter, L. E. McCullough, Lesl Harker, Matt Cranitch, Randy Miller and Jack Perron, Patrick Ourceau, Peter Cooper, Marcel Picard and Aralt Mac Giolla Chainnigh, Ramblinghouse.org, Walton’s Music. Credits: Robert MacDiarmid (tunes & typing; responsible for mistakes) David Vrooman (layout & design, tune proofing; PDF expert and all-around trouble-shooter and fixer) This tune book has been a collaborative effort, with many contributors: Brent Schneider, Brian Flynn, Karen Kimmet (Harp Circle), Judi Longstreet, Mary Kennedy, and Paul McAllister (proofing tunes, modes and chords) Eithne Dunbar (Brockville Irish Society), Michael Murphy, proofing Irish Language names) Denise Bowes (cover artwork), Alan MacDiarmid (Cover Design) Chris Matheson, Danny Doyle, Meghan Balow, Paul Gillespie, Sheila Menard, Ted Chew, and all of the past and present musicians of the Kingston Irish Slow Session. Publishing History Tunebook Revision 1.0, October 2013. Despite much proofing, possible typos and errors in melody lines, modes etc. Chords are suggested only, and cannot be taken as good until tried and tested. Revision 0.1 Proofing Rough Draft, June, 2010 / Revision 0.2, February 2012 / Revision 0.3 Final Draft, December 2012 Please report errors of any type to [email protected]. Errors in revision 1.0 will be listed, with cor- rected pages, on the Harp of Tara web site. Copyright and Fair Use Permission has been sought from all Tunebook authors for tunes used in this book. To the extent that lay- out and arrangement by the editorial team are original, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. You can use this book or any part of it for educational purposes in whatever manner you wish, so long as you do not attempt to sell or otherwise make monetary profit from it, and proper credit is given to the origi- nal source Tunebook author and to the CCE Harp of Tara “Kingston Irish Slow Session Tunebook.” A few tunes are newer copyrighted works e.g. Jerry Holland’s “Brenda Stubbert’s” - clearly noted on the sheet music page - and are not licensed under the Creative Commons license. If you wish to use these works, do the same as we did, and please contact the original artist/composer to get permission. The musicians we contacted were universally helpful and supportive Despite the effort to seek permissions, and properly credit all sources, for a very small number of tunes con- tact information was not available or requests were not answered. If there are any issues of Copyright, they will be addressed immediately. E-mail [email protected] Introduction CCE Harp of Tara Kingston Irish Slow Session 3 GENERAL LAYOUT OF THE TUNEBOOK (entries in bold font are hyperlinked) Introduction Permissions and Credits, Revision History General Layout of the Tunebook Table of Contents Repertoire of the Tunebook, criteria and philosophy A note on the use and mis-use of scores A note on the arrangements and interpreting the scores Some Remarks On Irish Music (history, types of tunes) by L. E. McCullough Short Histories of Comhaltas, the Harp of Tara , The Kingston Céilí Band, and The Kingston Irish Tune Collection Slow Session Etiquette Listing of local Sessions and tunebooks The Tunes Note: There is a Table of Contents listing by arranged sets at the beginning of each section of tunes. An Index of individual tunes can be found at the back of each section. Airs Airs, some sets, then arranged alphabetically Carols, (A small selection of Irish carols) Alphabetical order Harp tunes, O’Carolan and others, alphabetical order Slow Airs. Alphabetical order Fiddle Friendly Tunes (flat-key or wide octave range). Some sets, then alphabetical order (Book 1) Hornpipes, Barn Dances, Flings, Set Dances, Highlands and Strathspeys. In sets. (Book 1) Jigs, Arranged in sets. Jigs: Slides, and Jigs: Slip Jigs, Hop Jigs, Arranged in sets. (Book 1) Marches Arranged in sets Mazurkas, one set Polkas and Single Reels, Arranged in sets; Polkas followed by Single Reels Reels, Arranged in sets, then alphabetical. (Book 1) Waltzes, Some sets, then alphabetical Appendices Bibliography Modes and Scales PC as a better alternative to Scores Some simple ways to vary a tune Index of Musician Biographies Index of all tunes, by most common name Index of all tunes, including alternate titles e.g. Rolling Wave and Humours of Trim… Note: Spiral-Coil Bound Books . The tune book has been divided in two. Book 1 - Session Tunes (Introduction, Hornpipes, Double Jigs and Slip Jigs, Reels) Book 2 - Slow Session Tunes (tunes not normally played in a regular session: Airs, Marches, Slides and Polkas, Mazur kas, and Waltzes. Appendices, including the index of all tunes in the combined books) 4 CCE Harp of Tara Kingston Irish Slow Session Introduction THE REPERTOIRE This is a Kingston Tunebook and the repertoire and settings reflect the musical environment of Kingston and surrounding areas The Kingston Céilí Band, originally started by Harp of Tara but now an independent organization, has for 30 odd years played for the dancers and taught the workshops that many now playing benefited from. The Irish Dance Collection put together by Marcel Picard, Aralt Mac Giolla Chainnigh, and Dennis Wilson (variously known as ‘The Kingston Céilí Band Tune Book’, ‘Music for the Sets,’ and ‘Marcel’s Irish Music Collection’) has been a valuable source of tunes for almost as long. The Kingston Céilí Band and ‘The Wild Canadian Geese in the Bog’ (Aralt Mac Giolla Chainnigh, Dennis Wilson, and Jack Hickman), the house band for Harp of Tara’s monthly Céilís, are still playing the tunes from that vast repertoire of Irish dance music. There has been a very strong regular session ongoing in Kingston for a decade or so, with a great selection of tunes, and many of them are included in the tune book. The book also reflects the many workshops spon- sored by Harp of Tara over the last decade, which have brought to Kingtston such outstanding musicans as: Irish bands Diorma, Spraoi, and Flook; Steafan Hannigan, Saskia Tomkins, and Karen Light; June McCor- mack and Michael Rooney; Liz Carroll and John Doyle: multiple visits by Maeve Donnelly, accompanied by Stephen Bauman on one occasion and Tony MacManus on another; Liz and Yvonne Kane accompanied by Edel Fox; Paul Legrande, and especially the repertoire of Patrick Ourceau, who, as of 2013, has come to Kingston for nine annual immersion weekends, often accompanied by Debbie Quigley. Both the Brockville Irish Cultural Society and the Belleville ‘Quinte Irish Canadian Society’ have in the past sponsored work- shops, with the likes of Tommy Peoples, Martin Hayes, and the Angel Band. Individual slow session members have also brought in tunes from the Goderich Celtic College, the Catskills Irish Arts Week, the Orillia ‘Whit’s End’ annual immersion weekend with Patrick Ourceau, and from Belleville, Brockville and surrounding areas. Although there has been an attempt to include a balanced repertoire from all regions, there is a definite tilt to Clare/ Galway tunes, partly due to the preference of a few of the members most active in contributing tunes, and partly due to the multiple workshops that have been held with Patrick Ourceau, Maeve Donnelly, and the Kane Sisters. With regard to the tune settings, we have tried hard to include better settings, and realistic transcriptions from recordings and workshops. It is always possible to dumb down a setting, but this book is an attempt to provide an educational resource for at-home use, not to sight-read a tune you’ve never heard or seen before. The tune sections are generally arranged with easier tunes at the beginning of the section, graduating to some very difficult tunes further on. A Word to Beginners, Musicians new to irish music, and the Score-Dependent ON THE USE AND MIS-USE OF SCORES. Scores can be useful in various ways, but for various reasons they are not the best way to learn Irish music. For one, the music is not played as written. e.g. jigs are not played as 6 even 1/8 notes, Listen to an old-time or classical musician ‘playing’ straight from a score, and what you get is old-time or classical-fusion, which may or may not be interesting, but is definitely not Irish music. For another, it is intrinsic to the music to ornament and vary the music - scores would be pages long, and so intricately detailed as to be almost unreadable. In addition, there is no ‘National Academy for the Stan- dardization of Scores.’ The same tune will be played completely differently in Donegal and in Clare, or even by any two musicians in Galway, so it’s important to know where your score came from and how reliable it is. Introduction CCE Harp of Tara Kingston Irish Slow Session 5 An example of this is given in Brendan Breatnacht’s biography of O’Neill where O’Neill is determining the best method of collecting good settings of tunes: “The appointment of a committee of musicians to assist in the selection and revision of the vast amount of material assembled suggested itself.