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Kilrush Polka Set


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I stumbled apon a great video of Irish music going down somewhere far away (I think). Search 'Kilrush polka set' on u tube and you should find it. Apart from being a great video, with a concertina player, what are the tunes? What makes up the set?

 

Later, Alan.

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I stumbled apon a great video of Irish music going down somewhere far away (I think). Search 'Kilrush polka set' on u tube and you should find it. Apart from being a great video, with a concertina player, what are the tunes? What makes up the set?

 

Later, Alan.

 

Hm. Aside from it happening somewhere in Thailand (can't imagine it been in Viet Nam), what makes it spectacular?

That Asians play Irish music?

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I stumbled apon a great video of Irish music going down somewhere far away (I think). Search 'Kilrush polka set' on u tube and you should find it. Apart from being a great video, with a concertina player, what are the tunes? What makes up the set?

 

Later, Alan.

 

Hm. Aside from it happening somewhere in Thailand (can't imagine it been in Viet Nam), what makes it spectacular?

That Asians play Irish music?

 

Yes... that Asians play Irish music and have so much fun doing it. I found the video pretty astounding. They were having a great time. Banjo, pipes, guitar, PA, mando, Anglo concertina. I was grinning from ear to ear. The power of the music and the community it creates cuts across all boundaries and gathers us in to the party. Play on!

 

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Edited by Jody Kruskal
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I stumbled apon a great video of Irish music going down somewhere far away (I think). Search 'Kilrush polka set' on u tube and you should find it. Apart from being a great video, with a concertina player, what are the tunes? What makes up the set?

 

Later, Alan.

 

Hm. Aside from it happening somewhere in Thailand (can't imagine it been in Viet Nam), what makes it spectacular?

That Asians play Irish music?

 

Yes... that Asians play Irish music and have so much fun doing it. I found the video pretty astounding. They were having a great time. Banjo, pipes, guitar, PA, mando, Anglo concertina. I was grinning from ear to ear. The power of the music and the community it creates cuts across all boundaries and gathers us in to the party. Play on!

 

Link

Then you haven't seen clips from Japan.

Asians have been enjoying European folk music for decades it seems.

Many are playing Irish music.

As Jody sais, let's party on, Come on, you Irish, play some English, Russian, French, German, Swedish. Show how interested you are in the Word's music, just as the World seems to show it's interest in your music.

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A great friend of mine is a brilliant uilleann piper & irish flute player. He was born in Dublin and his father is irish; and his mother... chinese. So, is sort of bizarre to see him playing and hear him speak in english with a very strong irish accent. I mean, his looking doesn't seem to match at all with all his other features. :P

 

But indeed, the funniest story he told me was when he was playing in a festival in the Glenties - Donegal - and fiddler Vincent Campbell asked him:

 

- Wich part of Japan are you from?

 

The answer:

 

- Blackrock :lol:

 

Cheers

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... what are the tunes?

Ummm, they call them the Kilrush Polka no.1 & the Kilrush Polka no.2, followed by the Concertina Reel - it's a set from the "Paddy & Bridget & Their Great Friends" album.

I feel their albums ( and this set ) are quite popular here in Japan of course.

These two Kilrush polkas ( interestingly they are named polkas but played as reels ) are also found in the book two of

"Irish Traditional Music" published by the Craobh Naithí branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, compiled by Michael Tubridy.

JFYI

--

Taka

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I feel their albums ( and this set ) are quite popular here in Japan of course.

These two Kilrush polkas ( interestingly they are named polkas but played as reels ) are also found in the book two of

"Irish Traditional Music" published by the Craobh Naithí branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, compiled by Michael Tubridy.

JFYI

--

Taka

 

Those are two great books for starting off with.

I remember seeing "Paddy and Bridget" - in Drumshanbo, I think, but I didn't realise they'd recorded. Great stuff!

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I feel their albums ( and this set ) are quite popular here in Japan of course.

These two Kilrush polkas ( interestingly they are named polkas but played as reels ) are also found in the book two of

"Irish Traditional Music" published by the Craobh Naithí branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, compiled by Michael Tubridy.

The two "Kilrush Polka" tunes are of course reels, the first one is otherwise known as the "Kilfenora Reel" and the second one as "Vincent Broderick's", or "Donnie Nolan's". But to me that first "Kilrush Polka" on the clip is played more in polka time, and then they change into proper reel time for the second "Polka" and the "Concertina Reel".

 

The "Kilrush Polka" names probably arose for them because the playing of such tunes as polkas was not unusual in Kilrush and this part of Clare, along the Shannon Estuary and as far north as Cree, especially for the Plain Set, it's a subject I was talking to Michael Tubridy about only a few months ago.

Edited by Stephen Chambers
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Those are two great books for starting off with.

I remember seeing "Paddy and Bridget" - in Drumshanbo, I think, but I didn't realise they'd recorded. Great stuff!

If you saw them was during Joe Mooney Summer School 2002 , I have also been there :)

 

The "Kilrush Polka" names probably arose for them because the playing of such tunes as polkas was not unusual in Kilrush and this part of Clare, along the Shannon Estuary and as far north as Cree, especially for the Plain Set, it's a subject I was talking to Michael Tubridy about only a few months ago.

Well suited for the Plain Polka Set ( or polka vesion of the Plain Set ), I suppose.

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I feel their albums ( and this set ) are quite popular here in Japan of course.

These two Kilrush polkas ( interestingly they are named polkas but played as reels ) are also found in the book two of

"Irish Traditional Music" published by the Craobh Naithí branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, compiled by Michael Tubridy.

The two "Kilrush Polka" tunes are of course reels, the first one is otherwise known as the "Kilfenora Reel" and the second one as "Vincent Broderick's", or "Donnie Nolan's". But to me that first "Kilrush Polka" on the clip is played more in polka time, and then they change into proper reel time for the second "Polka" and the "Concertina Reel".

 

The "Kilrush Polka" names probably arose for them because the playing of such tunes as polkas was not unusual in Kilrush and this part of Clare, along the Shannon Estuary and as far north as Cree, especially for the Plain Set, it's a subject I was talking to Michael Tubridy about only a few months ago.

 

Indeed, I used to get very frustrated trying to play reels with the concertina player Gerald Haugh, until I found out about this and realised that that is what he does... :huh:

 

 

 

I cannot hear a difference the way the first and second tunes are played. What makes a 4/4 tune 'polka time' as opposed to 'reel time'?

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I went on a tour of Japan once with Dale Russ and Junji Shirota. During the 10 days we met many of the musicians living there and played tunes with them. One time the session was in a temple and there were no chair and everyone was in their stockings. I also got a taste for how well sushi and sake go with tunes. Great enthusiasm for the music over there.

 

I have some photos here from that tour that happened in 1996. This gallery will only be up for a month longer because I'm in the process of changing my ISP. You can see photos from the session in the temple there.

 

http://pweb.jps.net/~jgilder/gallery.html

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... to me that first "Kilrush Polka" on the clip is played more in polka time, and then they change into proper reel time for the second "Polka" and the "Concertina Reel".

 

The "Kilrush Polka" names probably arose for them because the playing of such tunes as polkas was not unusual in Kilrush and this part of Clare, along the Shannon Estuary and as far north as Cree, especially for the Plain Set, it's a subject I was talking to Michael Tubridy about only a few months ago.

 

Indeed, I used to get very frustrated trying to play reels with the concertina player Gerald Haugh, until I found out about this and realised that that is what he does... :huh:

I cannot hear a difference the way the first and second tunes are played. What makes a 4/4 tune 'polka time' as opposed to 'reel time'?

Reel time = 1 2, 1 2, 1 2 3

 

Polka time = 1 2 3, 1 2 3

 

Edited to add

 

But listening to it again, even the second "Kilrush Polka" seems to be hovering between polka and reel time, so that only the Concertina Reel is played in "proper" reel time.

Edited by Stephen Chambers
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... to me that first "Kilrush Polka" on the clip is played more in polka time, and then they change into proper reel time for the second "Polka" and the "Concertina Reel".

 

The "Kilrush Polka" names probably arose for them because the playing of such tunes as polkas was not unusual in Kilrush and this part of Clare, along the Shannon Estuary and as far north as Cree, especially for the Plain Set, it's a subject I was talking to Michael Tubridy about only a few months ago.

 

Indeed, I used to get very frustrated trying to play reels with the concertina player Gerald Haugh, until I found out about this and realised that that is what he does... :huh:

I cannot hear a difference the way the first and second tunes are played. What makes a 4/4 tune 'polka time' as opposed to 'reel time'?

Reel time = 1 2, 1 2, 1 2 3

 

Polka time = 1 2 3, 1 2 3

 

1 2 3, 1 2 3 is not a polka rhythm as I understand it. Both polkas and reels are generally written in either 2/4 or 4/4 time with a 'two' feel. I'm interested in anyone's definition of the difference between the two.

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1 2 3, 1 2 3 is not a polka rhythm as I understand it. Both polkas and reels are generally written in either 2/4 or 4/4 time with a 'two' feel.

Maybe I should have written it as 1 2 3 & 1 2 3, at least that's how it is taught to Irish set dancers...

 

Basic polka, 'down' jig & slide The step is danced much in the same way as you would run, if you were so inclined. The bodyweight drops onto the front foot on count 1 of each step with the weight change on counts 2 and 3 being much less pronounced. It is danced on the ball of the foot in the 'down' jig and to slides but should be danced much flatter to polkas, particularly by the gents. The step could be counted - drop 2 3 & drop 2 3 (2 bars) and so on.

But I'm not saying that is how anybody outside Ireland sees it. ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...
it is[irish polka] to be precise,quaver quaver crotchet,thats three steps that takes up two beats,so youare in 2/4.

You might be Dick, but not everybody else is. :huh:

 

Irish Polkas are in 2/4 with an emphasis on the off beat.

reels are in 4/4,in some areas they are plated slightly dotted,and some areas they are not.anyone that says anything else is talking boloney.

I live in an area where Irish polkas are played a lot,that is how they are played in Sliabh Luchra in 2/4 with an emphasis on the of beat.

Whether they are written out in (conventional) 2/4 or (more accurate) 4/4, Irish polkas are played in 4/4. If you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe the experts (even if they are from Kerry ;) ):

 

... the polka is international and purists would say the correct meter for a polka is 2/4. However in the Irish case 4/4 is a more suitable meter for dancing the polka set with the emphasis on the first of four beats and it is in that meter that the polkas are published here.

I am sorry I have not encountered this 123 stuff with polkas,perhaps you mean one crotchet and two quavers,which is 2/4 time.

I guess you've never learnt any Irish dancing then? I have (indeed two of my girlfriends have been Irish dancers, one of them a teacher of set dancing and sean nos step-dancer from Mayo, the other a champion hornpipe dancer whose Kerry parents danced a polka set for one of the Chieftains LPs), and the "123 stuff" (as you call it) is how reel and polka (etc.) time are commonly counted out, especially by dancers and dance teachers, in Ireland (you might notice that I was quoting from the Set Dance Glossary).

 

Did you never hear an Irish person talk of "learning your 123s" - i.e. learning Irish dancing? :blink:

 

"Boloney" - would you like some mustard on that? :lol:

 

Reply rewritten with more quotes

Edited by Stephen Chambers
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The "Kilrush Polka" names probably arose for them because the playing of such tunes as polkas was not unusual in Kilrush and this part of Clare, along the Shannon Estuary and as far north as Cree, especially for the Plain Set, it's a subject I was talking to Michael Tubridy about only a few months ago.

Well suited for the Plain Polka Set ( or polka vesion of the Plain Set ), I suppose.

Indeed it was not unusual, in former times, for set dancers/musicians from Kerry to cross the Shannon Estuary by boat (when it was the easiest way of getting around) for dances, especially on Scattery Island.

 

And then there was also the influence of the travelling Kerry fiddle master George Whelan (who taught in the area in the 1880s) on the music of West Clare.

 

Edited to add brackets

Edited by Stephen Chambers
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