Irish Flute Tunes

Na Ceannabháin Bhána (slip jig)

Here's a slip jig which is really the tune of a song.  I think I have a CD somewhere including a recording of Séamus Ennis singing the song but it has been hidden somewhere more obscure than the side of the sofa by a young child. I've had to rely on memory therefore for the way the tune goes. The title means something like "The fair haired Canavans".

The Turnpike Gate (reel)

I'm not sure I've ever seen a turnpike gate so I'm not sure what qualities one might have to get a reel named after it. Anyway, here's a tune called after such a gate.

The Home Ruler (hornpipe)

Here's another request from long ago.  I don't think the tune's title refers to a domestic measuring tool.

The Mills are Grinding (reel)

I was asked back in August to play this tune.  I've at least managed it before October ended.  The flute hasn't forgiven me for spending a lot of the last hour playing a miniature version of itself (I think baby flutes have a special name but I'm always getting the 'cc's and 'll's confused in the spelling) and blowing into a big flute has proved difficcullt - (it's happenned again only worse). Anyway, thanks Mary for telling me about this tune on 2nd August, and I hope it sounds OK.

Charlie Lennon's Number 4 (reel)

I was asked to record this tune so here it is, only a few days late.  I've always just known this tune from afar so if it sounds like I'm a bit unfamiliar with its finer points (like the notes and stuff like that) then that's probably just because I am. Like most of CL's tunes, it's a fine piece of music and might be strong enough to emerge intact from my mangling.

The Hunter's Purse (reel)

Here's a popular reel - so popular that it has taken me 3 years to think of it.

Jackson's jig

I've been laptopless for a while so have hadn't been able to post any tunes.   I now have a new laptop and it and an old flute have combined to record this not so new jig.  I'm not used to the recording level on the new computer so this post may only be audible to canine creatures.   Maybe they can be persuaded to bark a louder version out if necessary.

John McHugh's Jig

Here's a nice jig.  I can't type any more as I can hear a baby stirrng; a baby who cares little about this site and the words and notes thereon.

The Torn Jacket (reel)

I've finally got around to looking at a couple of requests to record tunes.  This is the only one I've got around to playing though.  It's also the only torn jacket I've given any attention to although I seem to have several, the holes in which heavily outnumber the arms I can find to put through them.

Lad O'Beirne's reel

Here's a tune I was asked to play.  It is named after the great Sligo fiddle player whose name escapes me just now.

Mary O' the Wisp (reel)

This isn't really a flute tune.  It comes from the fiddle playing of Francie Byrne from Kilcar, Co. Donegal.

The Castlemahon Lasses (reel)

All I know about this tune is what I read about it in Ceol Rince na hÉireann vol 5.  It says there that the fiddler James McEnery composed it.  I hope I'm not decomposing it too much here.

Dúlamán na Binne Buidhe (highland)

The title of this tune (and song of the same name) translates as "The Seaweed of the Yellow Cliff". - a tune caught between a wrack and a hard place perhaps. There are a few versions of this tune but I could only think of this one just now.  I still have to think of the other tunes which are on my list to play here but my thought processes are running very slow these days.

Con Cassidy's Highland

Here's a tune I stole from a recording of Con Cassidy. I don't know much about it, except for what the notes are.  I suppose that's a start.

Gurney's Favourite (jig)

Here's a jig I heard on a recording of Michael Gorman.  It's called Guiry's favourite in O'Neill's. I was a bit distracted by an infant with a new set of noisy birthday presents but hopefully the tune recovers sufficiently frequently to make it possible to pick up.

The Lads of Laois (reel)

I'm a bit behind on recording tunes at the moment.  I'm even behind with being behind with things.  I think that's what's behind the delays. Anyway.  I was asked for "The Lads of Laois", so here it is / they are, unleashed.  I think I was asked for a nice version.  I never really had a nice version so I had to record a nasty one. I listened back to the start of this recording through my computer's speakers and it sounded as if the tune was being played underwater on a trombone but maybe once it has been hung out on the web for a while it'll dry out a bit.  I'll record the other tunes on my list once I find the list.

Higgins' Hornpipe

I've just been asked to play this tune so here it is.  I'm not too sure how reliable this version is but it is maybe a bit closer to the version common in Ireland than the version on another website near you.  I think it mightn't originally be an Irish tune so maybe the funny version is the normal version where the funny version comes from and the normal version is maybe ... etc. This is also known as "The Cliff Hornpipe".  Whether that's the Cliff of "Summer Holiday" fame, I don't know.

Bill Malley's Reel

I was asked a while ago to play this.  I think I've already played it under a different name but I'm happy enough to post it with this name and look like I know more tunes than I really do.  I can't remember what the other name I called it was so this is probably the one I'll use in future.

Mulqueeny's Hornpipe

Here's one I wasn't asked to play.  I wasn't asked not to play it either so as it doesn't seem to be here already I thought I'd give it a go.  I think I was half the age I am now when I last played this tune and if I live to be twice the age I am now I'll either have too few teeth or too much sense to play it again. There's a touch of a farting in the bath sound about it.  Maybe it's more of a windpipe than a hornpipe.

Johnny Cope (hornpipe)

Here a very long hornpipe which I've been asked to play.  I maybe played it a bit too fast the second time around but as it has so many parts I had to rush to finish it before the shops shut. (This version is vaguely like the one in Ceol Rince na hÉireann Vol. 3 - No. 208)

The Bantry Lasses (reel)

I had to look this one up in "The Book" when asked tp post it.  I found it in O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland, 1001 Gems (No. 469).  I had just previously found "The Book" on the sideboard by the door into the kitchen.  There is some audible dissent in the background but O'Neill was from Bantry so I'd trust this version OK despite the critical opinion which is to the fore in parts of this recording.

The Battering Ram (jig)

I found a 'please play the battering ram' email so here's said man-ewe (not Man U which I believe is a soccer team). This rendition is more sheepish than extraordinary but most of the notes are there.

The Song of the Chanter (march)

I was asked to record this tune so here it is. I don't know what key it should be in.  Here's a go at it in D minor and then A minor.  I heard something once about dropping a piano down a coal shaft and getting A flat minor.

The Iron Man (highland / strathspey)

There's a character in The Magic Roundabout called Mr. Rusty.  I fear that my Homme de Fer may have become a Fear Meirgeach himself.

The Jolly Seven (reel)

Here's a Paddy O'Brien reel (I think). Instead of a jolly seven here I think I have a fairly happy seven and a mildly miffed number 8.  The overall recording quality is a bit dodgy here and the sound of the sean nós shouting infant in the background maybe doesn't help things too much (no infants were harmed in the making of this post).

Cois Abhann na Séad (slow air)

I can't think of any quick tunes at the moment so here's a slow one.  I want to spell this "Cois Abhainn na Seod" but forces I don't understand take me to the spelling I used instead.  This is a song air which comes from Cúil Aodha in Co. Cork.  I probably have it all wrong but I never go to Cork so I should be safe from close quarter retribution at least.  (The title in English is "Beside the River of Gems /  Jewels - I know how to spell that anywaieieieiy).

The Pigeon on the Gate (reel)

I just got an email from a pigeon fancier, or at least someone who wanted me to post this tune.  So here's my pigeon-post, or maybe pigeon on the gatepost.  I'm surprised not to have recorded a pigeon on the gate to date, but better late than never at any rate.

The Small Hills of Offaly (reel)

Here's a reel which I think Paddy O'Brien (from Smallhillsville) composed. The hills may be small but they seemed to take an age to upload onto this site.  They must be the wrong shape for internet pipes.  I know little of hills and tend not to go anywhere more topographically elevated than upstairs in a not too tall house in a low down town.  I hope the tune's shape hasn't been too distorted, either by its journey to the web, or by its time spent in my mildly mangled music head.

Aggie Whyte's Reel

I've finally got round to playing another tune.  I stole my wife's flute to play it as I can't remember where I left my own.  The fact that this recording sounds like it was made in a sewer is no reflection on the flute.  The recording wasn't made in a sewer; I'd never bring someone else's instrument into such an environment.  Now I come to think of it, the same flute was once found in a wheelie bin after a burglary.

The Game of Love (reel)

Here's a tune I was asked to play.  Some people associate this time of year with Yule logs.  I appear just to have a backlog but this will hopefully have removed at least a sawtooth's fill from it. One reason I'm so slow about posting tunes these days is that I can't remember the names of any more of them.  I got this one by asking  Mr.Google about the name I was given.  He seems to call it 'The Girls of Farranfore'.