Chiff and Fipple Forums

Yep. This is on fiddle, now. And I seem to be playing lots and lots of tunes in D min (of various hues, but mainly Dorian). Some that tripped off the bow this evening:

Mama's Pet
The Broken Pledge
Sgt Early

... and one that I wrote, called, for reasons I'm now hazy about, Frunobulax. I must have played each of those about half a dozen times or more.

Wow! But Dmin is a fantastic key on fiddle. Especially the Dorian form of it. Brilliant, it is!


Oh, and if anybody has a mind to, please do feel free to let me know your own particular favourite D minorish tunes (like, ya know, here, on the thread, like). Can't get enough of them.

A quick search through the Norbeck collection turns up these D Dorian tunes in my own repertoire:

The Peacock's Feather
The Walls of Liscarrol (or Liz Carrol!)
The Maids of Mitchellstown
Julia Delaney
Tuttle's Reel
The Porthole of the Kelp
The Tempest
The Corn Boy
The Road to the Glen
The New Mown Meadow

As a whistle player, these tend to stick in my mind and muscle memory because I usually just play the F-nats on D whistle (or less commonly, change to C whistle). Which can also make them exclusionary to some wind players at a session (though they really needn't be).

Thank ye kindly, Mr MTGuru Sir! I'm gonna have to make sure I know all of them. I must do, mustn't I? Better check ...

benhall.1 wrote:Oh, and if anybody has a mind to, please do feel free to let me know your own particular favourite D minorish tunes (like, ya know, here, on the thread, like). Can't get enough of them.

Doubt it's quite what you were expecting, but reckon you get what you deserve!

X:1
T:Chief Nine Fingers
C:Peter Duggan
H:Composed January 1996
M:9/8
R:Slip Jig
L:1/8
K:Dm
"Dm"^G2A z2G A^cd|"G"=B2D GAB "Dm"AFD|"A7sus4"EAA, GA,F GA,E|"Dm"FED- "Bbmaj7"DFD "A7sus4"E^GA|
"Dm"^G2A z2G A^cd|"G"=B2D GAB "Dm"AFD|"A7sus4"EAA, GA,F GA,E|"Dm"FED- DA,C DED|
"Gm"^CDG B2G CDG|"C"E=CE c2C EDC|"Gm"^CDG B2G CDG|"C"E=CE c2C "F7"cCF|
"Bb9"=B2c- cCF _AGF|"F7"_ECE c2C EDC|"Bb9"=B2c- cCF _AFA|"A7"=A^cA aA^G AGA|]

Well, going through the list ...

Peacock's Feather. The version I play is in D major. It's my favourite by far. Suppose there's no harm in learning one or two of the others versions ...

The Walls of Liscarroll. I play it all right. I always think of it as in D major, maybe 'cos I put a fair few C#s in. But the absent third makes it ambiguous as to mode.

The Maids of Mitchellstown. Yeah, funny one that. The first part is ambiguous because it has no third, and the second part (at least the way I play it) is ambiguous because I play the high F as an F#, which means there's only one Fnat in the whole thing (since I also play F#s in the triplet run-ups earlier in the part).

Julia Delaney. One of my all time favourites. Been playing it as long as I can remember. I follow it up with something about bushes, or green rushes, or something. Bunch of Green Rushes, that's the one.

Tuttle's. Yep. Good one. I play a sort of 'magic' high F in that second part - a tad sharp. Deliberately. The way I was taught it a long time ago.

I'll probably have a look at the other half tomorrow.

Thanks Mr Guru Sir!

Peter Duggan wrote:Doubt it's quite what you were expecting, but reckon you get what you deserve!

Thanks Peter! I'll have a go tomorrow.

Swap you for Frunobulax?

benhall.1 wrote:Peacock's Feather. The version I play is in D major. It's my favourite by far. Suppose there's no harm in learning one or two of the others versions ...

The minor setting followed by the major setting actually makes a nice set, or part of one.

benhall.1 wrote:Tuttle's. Yep. Good one. I play a sort of 'magic' high F in that second part - a tad sharp. Deliberately. The way I was taught it a long time ago.

That climactic high F ... I like to hold it for 3 and slide slowly up to it, as if straining for the pitch. It does seem to call for some kind of special treatment, doesn't it?

MTGuru wrote:

benhall.1 wrote:Peacock's Feather. The version I play is in D major. It's my favourite by far. Suppose there's no harm in learning one or two of the others versions ...

The minor setting followed by the major setting actually makes a nice set, or part of one.

I'll try it. If I put something else in, I'll let you know.

MTGuru wrote:

benhall.1 wrote:Tuttle's. Yep. Good one. I play a sort of 'magic' high F in that second part - a tad sharp. Deliberately. The way I was taught it a long time ago.

That climactic high F ... I like to hold it for 3 and slide slowly up to it, as if straining for the pitch. It does seem to call for some kind of special treatment, doesn't it?

It sure does. I dunno - it's just one of those individual notes in tunes that I have in my head a certain way from a long time back, and that's the way they still want to come out.

Tam Lin-both in D minor and A minor. On the fiddle it's pretty much the same in either key,but on the 5 string banjo it's like learning 2 different tunes(fingering wise)

By the way,for some reason Dm sounds great on the 5 string,too. something about the way the strings resonate...A lot of old American mountain music is in this key.

5 string fool wrote:Tam Lin-both in D minor and A minor.

Oh, Ben is going to love that suggestion.

MTGuru wrote:

5 string fool wrote:Tam Lin-both in D minor and A minor.

Oh, Ben is going to love that suggestion.

Oh Good God.

Ed Reavy called it The "Lane" to the Glen (not Road), and with the low C# at the end of both parts only on the repeat. FWIW.

Sheep in the Boat in Dm is very nice.
Another Ed Reavy one, Leddy from Cavan is great, but it's not strictly in Dm (unless you play one of the non-Reavy versions), as there are F#s and C#s throughout.

Lots of the rest that I know have been mentioned.

I mentioned The Ewe in the piping thread but I don't know if I mentioned *my* favorite ... The Tempest. I'm not sure it's technically in D Dorian but it's got some nice bendy F naturals in just the right place.

There's a lovely version on "The McCarthy's Family Album" recording. There's also a kickbutt fiddle version of Statia Donnelly's which, though it's more in D mix, maybe?, comes from a similarly "shady" place.

Seek the Clare tunes and ye shall find ... IIRC Martin Hayes does a lovely version of The Glen of Aherlow in D Dorian.

Humors of Scariff.

I like to play Slieve Russel in Dm.