INTRODUCTION
The Bulmer & Sharpley Music from Ireland tunebooks were published in the
early 1970s and quickly established themselves alongside the O'Neill volumes as
the tune books for traditional musicians to have.
The four volumes were all dated 1974. Apparently a fifth volume was rumored
to be in preparation but did not materialize. As best I can determine, Volume 4
was the last of any published tune collecting efforts by B & S.
Of the four volumes only 1, 2 and 3 seem to have achieved "mass" circulation
(in ITM terms). Evidently Volume 1 was so successful that it was reissued in an
expanded and more professional-appearing format, with what appears to be
professional engraving replacing the crude handwritten entries in the earlier
edition. (No music engraving software of the Finale / Sibelius breed existed in
the day.) Six tunes of the "miscellaneous" variety were added to the dance tunes
in the first edition. Some relocation and renumbering of tunes in that volume
also took place, quite possibly required by the classier look of the new edition.
The professional engraving format was used in volumes 3 and 4, but apparently
volume 2 was never re-done this way.
Volume 4 - although to all intents and purposes the same as its predecessors
with regards to quantity and quality of content - did not seem to reach the same
number of musicians as Volumes 1, 2 and 3 did. In fact most people - myself
included - were surprised when the existence of "BSMI4" was revealed
(possibly I had known of it years back and just forgotten it because I never had
a copy). In any event, a copy of it has been made available to me and its
contents are included in this project.
From a musical notation standpoint, the content of the Music from Ireland
volumes is excellent. Whoever did the drafting was aware of the significance of
such musical fine points as pickup notes and multiple endings. Ornamentation
is at a minimum and as a result the settings are uncluttered, very easy to read
and to transcribe into ABC.
Regarding the tunes:
In the process of transcribing this material, I have been amazed by the
realization that so many of the tunes and settings in these volumes have
remained the "session standard" for (dare I say it?) the past forty years. As
anyone who has spent time learning tunes from the two O'Neill's volumes will
attest, not all of the Chief's settings are quite what are heard today - for
example, the Chief's sharps have become flats and vice-versa, or a five-part
setting of a particular tune will now be played as an ordinary two-part tune, etc.
The same is as true or truer for the lesser-known 19th century and early 20th
century collectors like O'Farrell, Ryan, Roche, Darley & McCall, Levey, Petrie,
and others.
This is no way is meant to disparage the tremendous work of these early
collectors, who did what they did without benefit of modern recording devices
or the computer assistance that we tend to take for granted. Those of us
engaged in tune collecting today realize that we indeed stand on the shoulder
of giants (which must of course include Breandan Breathnach and his great
Ceol Rince na hEireann volumes). What it does mean is that traditional music
is a living entity that is as subject to change as any other living entity. B & S
seem to have been in the right place(s) at the right time(s) to accomplish two
important tasks: (1) to make a written record of the way the music was being
played at the beginning of the ITM renaissance in the 1970s (2) to circulate their
research in such a way as to ensure - unwittingly perhaps - that their material
would be as familiar to a traditional musician in Tokyo 2013 as it was to a player
in Boston in 2003, Chicago in 1993, or London in 1973.
The Music from Ireland volumes became part of a "virtuous circle" in which
they were both an effect (of a revival of interest in traditional music in the pubs
of Ireland and the UK) and a cause (of an ordering of a growing interest in the
music, an interest that may not have been present before). By "ordering" I
mean the establishment of a canon of tunes that could be shared across
geographic or cultural boundaries, so that musicians in city A would have the
same basic vocabulary of tunes as those in cities B, C, and D, or that novice
musicians in a junior ceili band would be playing the same tunes as their
grandparents.
I would argue that such standardization as the B&S volumes provided was
necessary to the growth and survival of the ITM movement in those prehistoric
days before CDs or the internet. They certainly were a godsend to musicians
who were more comfortable learning via "the dots" than by ear; those who
could do both were - then as now - doubly blessed. And since the material in
the Music from Ireland volumes was gathered from live sources, there was an
excellent opportunity to relate their contents to such recordings of ITM as were
beginning to make themselves manifest, starting with Seán O Riada and the
Chieftains through De Danann, the Bothy Band, and others.
One of the goals of any tune collector is to assemble his material in such a way
as to establish not so much a historical record as a medium of continuity. Such
continuity seems to be required by the very definition of "traditional". I like to
believe that none of the 19th century collectors mentioned above would be
scandalized in any way by hearing a current version of some tune they had
gathered. Traditional musicians - players, collectors, even composers -
understand that change will be a part of the process. But the beginning of the
process is to capture the way the music is being played at one point in time. No
fermentation can take place until the grape juice is put into the vats; no musical
fermentation can take place before the establishment of a single point of
reference. It is this establishment of a reference point that seems to me to make
the Music from Ireland volumes so valuable, and so worth the labor of
transcribing and archiving.
My thanks to all who stepped up to help with offers of missing pages,
background material, etc. And as always a special shout-out to Phil Taylor,
without whose BarFly ABC program none of this would have happened.
BB's webABC Archive
Tunes from "Music from Ireland" volume 3 (1974)
Dave Bulmer & Neil Sharpley
Reels
Ambrose Maloney’s (reel)
Anderson’s (reel)
Beech Tree (reel)
Neil Sharpley
Billy Brocker (reel)
3 3
3 3
Boston Boys (reel)
Brendan Mulhaire’s (reel)
Unnamed in ’Music from Ireland IV’
3 3
3
The Burren (reel)
1 2
Callaghan’s (reel)
The Cedars of Lebanon (reel)
Paddy O’Brien
Croghan Hill (reel)
Off in the Morning/Speed the Plough/Kane’s
Cronin’s (reel)
A cousin of "Belles of Tipperary"
Danny Meehan’s (reel)
3 3
3 3
Dowd’s #9 (reel)
Summer in Ireland
Droney’s Favorite (reel)
Bellharbour
Chris Droney (Clare)
Eel in the Sink (reel)
Hills of Kesh
Farewell to Cailroe (reel)
Finbarr Dwyer
Farewell to Miltown Malbay (reel)
Bobby Casey’s
Floating Crowbar (reel)
Rathcroghan
3 3 3
3 3 3
The Galway (reel)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
Larry Redican
3
Gillespie’s (reel)
Donegal Traveller
Glentown (reel)
3
Green Fields of Glentown (reel)
Tommy Peoples
Holy Land (reel)
Johnny Cronin’s Fancy (reel)
3 3
Jug of Punch (reel)
Tuttle’s
3
Julia Delaney (reel)
The Killavil (reel)
Unnamed in "Music from Ireland" IV
3
The Killfodda (Culfada) (reel)
Larry Redican
Setting in G
Last Night’s Joy (reel)
Key of G
Log Cabin (reel)
Little Thatched Cabin
Finbarr Dwyer (?)
Matt Molloy’s #1 (reel)
Matt Molloy’s #2 (reel)
Said to be a setting of "Pride of the Bronx"
Mrs. Delaney (reel)
1 2
1 2
Mick O’Connor’s (reel)
Lansdowne Lass
Josie McDermott
Mulhaire’s #9 (reel)
O’Mahoney’s Fancy (reel)
Carmel Mahoney Mulhaire
Martin Mulhaire
3
The Otter’s Holt (reel)
Titled "Aughdarra" in "Music from Ireland IV"
Junior Crehan
Paddy Cronin’s (reel)
3 3
Paddy Fah(e)y’s (reel)
Fahy at the Fair
3 3
Paddy Fah(e)y’s Finest (reel)
Sean Ryan’s (reel)
The Dash to Portobello
1 2
Sweeney’s Buttermilk (reel)
The White Leaf (reel)
3
Jigs,
Slip Jigs
& Slides
Bank of Turf (jig)
6
8
1 2
1 2
Daniel O’Connell (jig)
A cousin of "Larry O’Gaff"
6
8
Dinny Delaney (slide)
12
8
Eileen O Riordan’s (slide)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
12
8
Gary Cronin’s (jig)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
6
8
Hills of Tipperary (slip jig)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
9
8
Humors of Derrycrossane/Derrykissane (slip jig)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
9
8
Humors of Ballyloughlin (jig)
6
8
Ken Fahey’s (jig)
6
8
King’s Jig
6
8
1 2
1 2
1 2
1 2
Knocknagow #1 (jig)
6
8
Knocknagow #2 (jig)
6
8
Lark’s March (jig)
6
8
McGreavy’s
6
8
McHugh’s #1 (jig)
The Pride of Erin
6
8
McHugh’s #2 (jig)
6
8
Micky O’Callaghan’s (jig)
A cousin of "Patsy Geary’s"
6
8
Millpond (jig)
6
8
Nancy Hynes (jig)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
= 320
6
8
The Nightingale (jig)
Dan Dowd’s
Sean Ryan
6
8
Old Favorite (jig)
Club Ceili/West Clare
= 320
6
8
1 2
The Old Flail (jig)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
Vincent Broderick
6
8
The Orphan (jig)
Cousin of "Miss Casey’s"
6
8
Paddy Glackin’s (jig)
segno
6
8
1 2
1 2
DS
Road to Lisdoonvarna (slide)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
12
8
Rosie Finn’s Favorite (slide)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
12
8
Templeglantine (slide)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
12
8
Third Down and Six (slide)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4" Me fein a bhaist fonn seo! (BB)
12
8
Whistler at the Wake (jig)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
Vincent Broderick
6
8
Yellow John (slide)
12
8
Hornpipes
& Polkas
The Ballyoran (hornpipe)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
Sean Ryan
3 3 3
3
3 3
Happy We’ve Been ... (polka)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
2
4
Home Ruler (hornpipe)
Frank McCollum
Japanese Hornpipe (hornpipe)
3
3 3
1 2
John Egan’s (polka)
2
4
1 2
Kelly Hornpipe (hornpipe)
3
3 3 3
3
3
Lakes of Sligo (polka)
(Usually played in D)
2
4
Lisheen / Tarrant’s #2 (polka)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
2
4
Mulqueen(e)y’s (hornpipe)
3
3
3
3
3 3 3
3
3 3 3
1 2
3
3 3 3 3
1 3 2
3
3 3 3
Murroe (polka)
2
4
1 2
Reilly’s (hornpipe)
Cross the Fence
3
3
3
3
3
Sailor’s (polka)
Barren Rocks of Aden
2
4
1 2
1 2
Peg Ryan’s (polka)
2
4
Setting in D
Slievenamon (hornpipe)
Originally unnamed in "Music from Ireland 4"
3
3 3
Toormore #1 (polka)
2
4
Toormore #2 (polka)
Maids of Ardagh
2
4
Mazurkas
Sonny Brogan’s (mazurka)
3
4
3
3
