Irish Flute Tunes

Here’s one I’ve been asked to play.  I was never sure what to do with the first part (maybe play it on a fiddle) so I might be floundering a bit here.  I hope I haven’t mangled it too much.  If I was Charlie and was welcomed by an attempt like mine here I wouldn’t be too pleased with Jenny but I did try.

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Here’s a Crowley’s reel.  There are a few of them.  Michael Coleman must have been a fan of Mr. Crowley as he recorded a few tunes named after him.  I’ve played this one on my plastic flute.  I hope Mr. Crowley doesn’t mind.

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I know that I heard this tune from the Donegal fiddle player James Byrne but I don’t know for sure whether this is it’s name. He does play one of this name so there’s a chance I’m right. As for whether I remembered how it goes; who knows? I think it sort of goes like this. There’s a record of James Byrne’s playing which has this tune on it but I have it as an LP and my machine to making LPs sing has lost its voice and so I can’t check.

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Here’s a tune I was asked to play and used to hear in sessions all the time.  Maybe that’s got something to do with the fact that I used to go to sessions all the time.  I made slightly heavy weather of it here.  Maybe I should try playing the crowbar and floating the flute.

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Here’s a common reel.  I played it here on a plastic flute.  I’m not sure whether playing reels into a computer using a plastic tube is really all that wholesome, or holy for that matter.  I’m pleased with the flute, though.

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Here’s a nice thing, except if you’re a fox.  I suspect no foxes ever look at this site so I’ll not be overly concerned about upsetting any of them.

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Here’s a fairly popular reel from Fermanagh which I heard on a record of Cathal McConnell.  That’s all I have to say on the matter.

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This reel is also known as “The Mountain Lark”.  Neither playing with packets of steam nor larking on mountains are particularly safe activities but playing this tune on a flute should be fairly harmless.

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Here’s a reel which fairly popular and which I like despite never knowing whether E, F natural of F sharp should be in second part.  Here’s a go at it anyway.

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Here’s a nice reel which Michael Tubridy played on his LP “The Eagle’s Whistle”.  I’ve been stealing a lot of tunes from that LP lately which is odd as I haven’t heard it for at least ten years.  I have it buried somewhere in my record collection which is, in turn, buried somewhere in my dust collection.

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There are world wheels of the reel variety but here are the ones in jig time.  This jig can be found on one of Mary Bergin’s records, among other places.

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I had intended to post a different tune but I must have forgotten to upload it and as a result it is languishing on my computer at home.  I, on the other hand, am languishing somewhere else.

Here’s this tune instead.  I think Bobby Casey used to play it.

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Here’s a reel written by the great flute / whistle / saxophone player and singer Josie McDermott. I think it was called as above but I’m not totally sure. I’m sorry about the minor choking fit towards the end. I should really rerecord the tune but I have to go out before the shop shuts.

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Here’s a jig which had this name put on it when it was put on “Kerry’s Own” Paddy Cronin’s LP.  It was made into dots in Ceol Rince na hÉireann Vol. 3 (number 7).

I don’t think it’s played all that often but it is a comfortable tune for playing on a flute.

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Here’s a nice jig (I have yet to admit to playing any horrible ones but I’m sure there are plenty of emetic melodies on this site) which comes from the tin whistle playing of Paddy Breen from Co. Clare.  Michael Tubridy put it on his LP “The Eagle’s Whistle”.  There’s a recording of Paddy Breen to be got too, in case anyone is really keen.

http://www.folktrax.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/menus/cassprogs/078.htm

(26/09/2008  The link above doesn’t work any more.  This one does: http://web.archive.org/web/20020605035813/www.folktrax.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/menus/main.html

A search on the page for 078 will then find the recording. It a fine recording of a great musician.  I hope it is still available.  The contact details on the site will hopefully lead you to it.)

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I might start using this road myself instead of the train which took 5 hours last Saturday to get there from Belfast.

This is yet another popular reel which I hadn’t remembered until now.

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Here’s yet another one that got away.  This is close to the version the box player Joe Cooley from Peterswell, Co.Galway, played.  He mightn’t have had a blocked left ear, though.  I think it’s either blocked with bits of forgotten tunes or else maybe that’s were all the odd socks are.

The stereo version of this reel is very popular in sessions.

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Here’s another tune which I thought I must have recorded already but doesn’t come up in a search of this site.  I suppose it’s like so many other things I think I’ve ever learned which don’t come up in a search of my head either.

I seem to remember this reel being quite pleasant and also quite popular in sessions.

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I did a search for “Fairy” on this site and nothing came back for it.  I’ll take that to mean that this is the first time I have posted this tune.  It’s a fairly popular fairy tune.

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Here’s a reel which I think comes from Fermanagh.  Eddie Duffy came from Fermanagh so that’s who I’m associating the tune with.  This is all a but tenuous but it might be right despite my best efforts.

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I was asked to post this popular jig so here it is.  I’ve recently heard some people playing a couple of extra parts at the end of this tune.  I get the impression that the only function of the other parts is to make those who play them feel pleased with themselves for being able to remember four bits all at once.  As a two part jig I think it an excellent tune.

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I’m putting on a Father Kelly’s (2) without first posting an FK’s (1).  I know that this is the wrong way to go about things and I also know that this tune isn’t either of the tunes which I think really are called Father Kelly’s.  I saw this tune with the FK tag on it in a book.  If anyone has another name for it, please let me know.

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Thanks for the name, Harry. I’m glad it wasn’t Nelly.

I’ve been trying to be organised by recording tunes in advance and then posting them over athe subsequent days. This is OK when I have names for them but I’ve labelled this mp3 file as “ganainm17-18″ and I can’t really remember what it is. I suspect that it is a reel from which appears on pages 17 - 18 of the book “A Trip To Sligo”. If I’m right then it’s a good flute reel and the Trip to Sligo version comes from the playing of Colm O’Donnell (although I have neither access to the book or to a sound source to check). On the other hand it might just be Danny Boy or Nelly the Elephant. That mightn’t be so bad either as I’m probably posting too many reels anyway.

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I’ve not much to say about this one.  It’s called by this name in the “Trip to Sligo” book.  Some of it (the tune and / or the book) is fairly pleasant.

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Here’s a barndance by way of a change from all the tunes that aren’t barndances.  This tune is called “Jamesy Gannon’s Barndance” on a record of Michael Gorman, the Sligo fiddle player but then so are about half a dozen other tunes on the same recording.  I’ve also heard this tune in more Northern climbs such as Donegal.  Here it is in no geographical setting at all.

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Here’s a popular reel.  I’ve seen this reel called “Dillon’s Reel” on www.thesession.org where someone has written that this isn’t called the Bellharbour Reel.

Wharever about its name, some of its notes are pleasant enough.

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Here’s a good simple jig.  As for the sentiment in the title; well …

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Here’s a nice hornpipe.  The second part is supposed to have a couple of D sharps in it but my flute wasn’t really convinced.

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Here’s a tune that was probably not written by a horse.  Very few are.  In fact, it was definitely not written by a horse.  It was written by Co. Galway flute player Vincent Broderick.

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I put this on before but in company.  I’ve just been asked to play it so here it is on its own.  It’s only about 9:00am which is a bit early for trimming velvet or anything more elaborate than toast or toenails but I did my poor best.

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