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Irish On The English


Chris Drinkwater

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This follows on from a topic about Irish Traditional Music played on the English concertina and my attempts at learning and playing a couple of tunes I heard and liked a while back. Though admittedly not a great fan of ITM, I occasionally went to a local Irish session, some years ago and learned a couple of tunes I liked. These were Out on the Ocean and the more recent Calliope House, written by Dave Richardson of Boys of the Lough. On this recording, I play Out on the Ocean slower to start with and play it again at the end of Calliope House, quite a bit faster for a change/challenge! Comments welcome. :)

 

https://soundcloud.com/aeolaman/out-on-the-ocean-calliope-house

 

Chris

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I love these tunes Chris. I play them both on my EC. Indeed, I'm off to a jam in about five minutes and will request these when it is my turn to choose. The people I play with often pair Calliope House with Morrison's Jig -- Morrisons first, then Calliope. The shift seemed very awkward to me at first, but it's pretty fabulous when it works.

 

Sarah

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  • 1 month later...
Out on the Ocean and the more recent Calliope House, written by Dave Richardson of Boys of the Lough. On this recording, I play Out on the Ocean slower to start with and play it again at the end of Calliope House, quite a bit faster for a change/challenge! Comments welcome. :)

 

Only just spotted this. Nicely played. But I get really obsessive about Out on the Ocean so here's something to try. Many people I know play the tune just as you do. Even some of the Irish greats play it the same way. But to me and many others, the internal logic of the tune is a little different. So this is an alternative, not in any way a correction.

 

I'm referring to the second half/turn/B music. It starts with efe edB (or ege edB) played twice. A very similar "phrase" follows but starting two semi-tones down - ded dBA. Play this twice too then finish the part. But on the repeat, introduce a lovely surprise by going up to the top g (ded def|gfe dBA). By going up to the top g both times, you ruin the surprise/variation. It's played this way here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq1ZfUw0G5E (You'll find lots of examples of your way too!)

 

People do the same thing with Inis Oirr, incidentally.

 

Hope that helps

Signed the tune police!!!

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I'm referring to the second half/turn/B music. It starts with efe edB (or ege edB) played twice. A very similar "phrase" follows but starting two semi-tones down - ded dBA. Play this twice too then finish the part. But on the repeat, introduce a lovely surprise by going up to the top g (ded def|gfe dBA). By going up to the top g both times, you ruin the surprise/variation. It's played this way here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq1ZfUw0G5E (You'll find lots of examples of your way too!)

 

 

That's funny because I thought the high ending of Out on the Ocean was actually the standard way of playing it, I don't remember hearing it differently!

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Out on the Ocean and the more recent Calliope House, written by Dave Richardson of Boys of the Lough. On this recording, I play Out on the Ocean slower to start with and play it again at the end of Calliope House, quite a bit faster for a change/challenge! Comments welcome. :)

 

Only just spotted this. Nicely played. But I get really obsessive about Out on the Ocean so here's something to try. Many people I know play the tune just as you do. Even some of the Irish greats play it the same way. But to me and many others, the internal logic of the tune is a little different. So this is an alternative, not in any way a correction.

 

I'm referring to the second half/turn/B music. It starts with efe edB (or ege edB) played twice. A very similar "phrase" follows but starting two semi-tones down - ded dBA. Play this twice too then finish the part. But on the repeat, introduce a lovely surprise by going up to the top g (ded def|gfe dBA). By going up to the top g both times, you ruin the surprise/variation. It's played this way here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq1ZfUw0G5E (You'll find lots of examples of your way too!)

 

People do the same thing with Inis Oirr, incidentally.

 

Hope that helps

Signed the tune police!!!

 

 

That's a big issue with our big open contra dance band. We play Out on the Ocean a lot, and most of the fiddlers play the unauthorized version. I agree the original version of the B, with the two halves of the section slightly different, is much better. But in our case, fighting this is a losing battle.

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I don't see anything wrong with two surprises in the B part!

 

Does one version pre-date the other, or perhaps a variation through the folk process or personal preference?

 

I recently had a most depressing moment with this wonderful tune - playing in a session at the foot of a Hawaiian volcano with salt spray almost splashing the musicians, but with a dead monotone delivery from the group that made the tune completely dead in the water. I know it's hard to beat Hoover the Dog's brilliant version - but this is fantastic tune that can really "surprise" if you let it!

 

Gary

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I'm referring to the second half/turn/B music. It starts with efe edB (or ege edB) played twice. A very similar "phrase" follows but starting two semi-tones down - ded dBA. Play this twice too then finish the part. But on the repeat, introduce a lovely surprise by going up to the top g (ded def|gfe dBA). By going up to the top g both times, you ruin the surprise/variation. It's played this way here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq1ZfUw0G5E (You'll find lots of examples of your way too!)

That's funny because I thought the high ending of Out on the Ocean was actually the standard way of playing it, I don't remember hearing it differently!

 

Same here. And there are other tunes which I learned up to 40 years ago that I find are now commonly played in "simplified" form. Some of those, like this one, "used to" show differences between first and second times through the B part, a distinction which seems to have been lost in the session culture.

 

Oh, and I don't consider them "surprises", but inherent parts of the "taste" of the tunes.

 

That's funny because I thought the high ending of Out on the Ocean was actually the standard way of playing it, I don't remember hearing it differently!

Oops! I just re-read that, and now I'm wondering whether you're saying that you're used to playing "the high ending" both times through the B, rather than only the second time through, which is how I learned it.

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Out on the Ocean and the more recent Calliope House, written by Dave Richardson of Boys of the Lough. On this recording, I play Out on the Ocean slower to start with and play it again at the end of Calliope House, quite a bit faster for a change/challenge! Comments welcome. :)

 

Only just spotted this. Nicely played. But I get really obsessive about Out on the Ocean so here's something to try. Many people I know play the tune just as you do. Even some of the Irish greats play it the same way. But to me and many others, the internal logic of the tune is a little different. So this is an alternative, not in any way a correction.

 

I'm referring to the second half/turn/B music. It starts with efe edB (or ege edB) played twice. A very similar "phrase" follows but starting two semi-tones down - ded dBA. Play this twice too then finish the part. But on the repeat, introduce a lovely surprise by going up to the top g (ded def|gfe dBA). By going up to the top g both times, you ruin the surprise/variation. It's played this way here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq1ZfUw0G5E (You'll find lots of examples of your way too!)

 

People do the same thing with Inis Oirr, incidentally.

 

Hope that helps

Signed the tune police!!!

 

 

Thanks, Chas. Interesting. I had no idea about variations, surprise or otherwise with this tune! The version I play on my recording, is exactly, or near enough, the way I heard it played at the session I used to go to.

 

Chris

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