Howe's 1,000 Jigs and Reels

Monster · Post by **Monster** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 8:52 am

Does anyone have this book?

Howe's 1,000 Jigs and Reels - Clog Dances, Contra Dances
In the middle of the 19th century, fiddler and publisher Elias Howe of Boston, published his Howe's 1000 Jigs and Reels which turned out to be a ground-breaking book. Howe's 1000 Jigs and Reels is once again brought to light for the first time in over 100 years. This book of jigs, reels, clog dances, contra dances, fancy dances, hornpipes, strathspeys, breakdowns, Irish dances, Scotch dances, and more is suitable for the violin or fiddle, flute, guitar, mandolin, tinwhistle, recorder, or any treble instrument. It is a must have for fiddlers as well as music historians.
Price: $24.00 + 3.00 shipping.

http://store.lollysirishgifts.com/irtinwh1jian.html

I was looking for a Feadog and came across this book, did a C&F search on it and MarkB was the only person that had an entry about it. I was thinking about ordering it, but thought it best to see if anyone had a review they could offer first.

thanks

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 10:10 am

That is a forerunner of Ryan's Mammoth Collection which was re-issued by Mel Bay with Pat Sky as editor. i have that as a reference book but never learned a tune out of it . There are far more useful books out there.

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 10:33 am

Here's one you wouldn't want to be without over here, esp in the NW USA. A compilation of Irish Tunes played at Seattle Sessions, self published by Caoimhin Gaimh, sometimes known as Kevin Gow. Our fiddler has this and simply lays it on her lap if she doesn't know the tune. Hasn't failed her yet, IOW, it has most of the popular tunes you'd need to know, and it's not loaded with tunes you seldom or never hear.
http://kinetic.seattle.wa.us/fish.html

Monster · Post by **Monster** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 11:56 am

I do have this book called "King Streets Sessions Tunebook", collected by Michael D. Long it has somewhere in the area of 1200+tunes, now that I think about a little more I'll probably just order the Feadog and be done with it.

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 12:49 pm

Because I hadn't seen the book, I held back comment but generally I would advise anybody to use the Internet for abc tunes frankly and save their money for whistles. They are almost all there somewhere, usually just by checking the World Wide ABC Index. If you are persistent, I swear, you can find any tune that is not copyrighted and transcribed pretty close to the way you hear people play it.

Many of these old re-print books use non-standard keys, piano accompaniments etc. There is also the tendency to take the tunes OUT of their modes and make them major or minor. That drives me nuts. You can end up with an armload of em that you don't use, except as reference as Peter said. It's helpful for intellectual and reference use, but maybe you just wanna play...

I do recommend the Breathnach books for Irtrad. I love the versions I find in there and I learn a lot from them. One of the volumes is note-for-note off of CDs that I own. Maybe an Oneills, but that is even online now.

I also regret spending money on Peter Kennedy books before I knew better. They are oddly harmonized and the guy has made so many enemies that you kinda feel like leaving the book closed. He has a ton out.

If you want contradances, the Portland collection is good. I haven't seen a good Scots book. I have the Gow, but it has some weird keys and stuff and is basically an old reprint..

Redwolf might know a good Morris and clog book..

And I bet there are some good OldTimey books. I think that the Fiddler's Fakebook has many. It has versions of Irtrad tunes that I don't care for much. They seemed to have been squared up for contradancers and such.

I would be interested in that Smoke book, I guess.

To sum up, the best thing about an armload of books is that you can find out all the other titles for the same tunes and MAYBE find an unknown tune, usually a hornpipe!. But Alan Ng has a website that takes care of that even, giving an absolute catalog number for each tune, listing an entire discography of it, and showing many other titles.

IDEA: CHIFFY ABSOLUTE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS AS A STICKIE, ALONG WITH VERBOSE DISCLAIMER ABOUT HOW WE SHOULD NEVER USE SHEET MUSIC! But it could cover these non-Irtrad areas mentioned above, like Morris etc.

McHaffie · Post by **McHaffie** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 1:21 pm

Yes BUT (the almighty subject twister) , there are those of us out here in whistle land who want the list of jigs and reels, hornpipes, etc that we don't know i.e. haven't heard yet that are deemed most popular in sessions.

What I mean is that locally, the session I play in, Most people stick with the very basics such as Kesh, Morrison's, Drowsy Maggie, Maggie In The Woods, Kiss The Maid, etc. HOWEVER when I had the pleasure of attending St. Louis this past weekend and a few other seesions around and about, there are always a multitude of tunes I have to sit out on simply because I don't know them. (and it was like half or more of them.

kind of embarrasing not to mention dissapointing. Although the experience itself did make up for it.)

Of course there is also the bit that I don't know the titles of the tunes, don't catch the titles since they fly by or are yelled out too far away to be heard by me, and then there is the fact I learn by ear. So it would be nice for me to grab the tune name and go find the MIDI or an mp3.

So now that I've done all my whining... the basics are... what's a good source for really common session tunes AND great for whistlin'

Looking at that list of 1000 tunes is great and all, but learning 600 or likely many more tunes you'll probably never play? What's the point?

Maybe someone out there has a list of 50 to 300 tunes they have under their belt they use regularly for sessions?

Take care,
John

(Sorry for such a long novel there, thanx for any help)

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 5:01 pm

What the heck is this "Kiss the Maid"? That's the second time I've heard it referred to in the last couple of days. The others you mention are all super familiar, but I've never heard of that one, and the Fiddler's Companion doesn't list it. (There is a great great four-part reel called "Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel", but I don't think it's a common session tune anyplace I've ever played.)

vomitbunny · Post by **vomitbunny** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 7:38 pm

Aw man, Kiss the Maid rocks. It's on Mick's virtual whistle. Tune and sheetmusic too. One of my favorites.
http://www.fingertrip.net/whistle/index.html
down there somewheres

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 8:17 pm

Woah, that's Kiss the Maid Beihnd the Bar all right. I can't imagine calling that a super-common session tune, but I'm very glad to know people are playing it out there someplace. Sweet.

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 8:28 pm

I haven't found one place, John, really. A lot of people here have used the McCullough and they were familiar. Then a friend lent me 110 Most Popular Session tunes and they were a different set almost completely! I guess its by region. Okay, so you need a CapeCod book, a Chicago book, a Seattle book, a Minnesota Book...not to mention Ireland!

But, there are folks in those places who publish their own tune lists in abc online so you can get them. I think most of them WANT people to know tunes so they can jam together so they put em up for the locals. Next thing you know, its on the WWW. I guess its just a matter of finding who the local tuneguru is and finding his site.

HEY Thats another idea for a stickie. Session hardcores here on the Forum should post the links to their local alphaabc site then we could view em if travelin to those places...

For starters, I would ask Feadan, if he's listening.... is there a master tunelist for that session in Cape Cod? Brewster or somewhere?

And Nano... yer in Minn, right? How about there?

How about Chi-town from Skinny??

Eskin could do LA...

Well, just an idea so McHaf can gadabout and know tunes. Thoughts??

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 2:43 am

I think it's strange and very scary to have session lists, go somewhere and know that are the tunes played. That is not what a good session is about. The nice thing about playing with other people is sitting down, start off with a few chestnuts and then whille chatting make inroads, find tunes you have in common by association get to tunes you may not have played for years. Last sundaynight our usual accordeonplayer couldn't make it so we had Josephine Marsh in and the four of us sat around chatting and playing tunes until two in the morning. You talk about people you know and you play tunes they played, the whole thing is about finding out things about eachother and the things and background you have in common as it is about playing tunes. It's about people and places an associations connected with the tunes. It's great to do that sort of thing. Having a set program makes you loose out on all that, it limits you ('OY, you can't play that one it isn't on the list')to rolling of a standard package of tunes. Just learn any good tune you come across, it will come up somewhere eventually.

And Kiss the maid behind the Barrel IS. in my estimation, a common tune. Less common but very nice is it's six part version that I learned during a late night with Caoimhin O Raghallaigh and Gerry Harrington last summer . It is played in Kerry I think, Connie Connell, Denis McMahon and that crowd I would say.

McHaffie · Post by **McHaffie** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 6:39 am

Peter Laban wrote:I think it's strange and very scary to have session lists, go somewhere and know that are the tunes played. That is not what a good session is about.

I can agree with this whole heartedly but there's a catch... if you've not been playing long enough to know enough tunes to 'reach back and pull up the good times' then all I'm saying is I'm looking to learn some 'new-to-me-tunes'.

All I'm saying is that my arsenol itsn't all that big. I'd say I only know about 50 songs real well, and way over half of them are the very basic or regional. I'd simply like to add some more trad and nifty tunes in my pocket that people here have heard/played/like and since I play in the local hoolie here on Monday nights whenever possible, I figured hey... session tunes would be great!

It's great to sit down, play the tunes you know, grasp the ones you can that you don't, and BS the night away... that is what it's all about for certain. But if you land in a spot where you reall don't know hardly any tune being played and end up watching most of the night... I daresay all you have to do is really read my original post.

Again, point well taken.

(And yes, Kiss The Maid Behind The Bar(rel) kicks butt!!! and is a tune we play here locally. I leanred The Congress at St. Louis and I like it quite a bit... might try to find something to slap it along with.

)

Take care,
John

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:11 am

I know very well what you mean but I don't think there's much point in learninga few yards of reels and jigs unconnected to anything. When you pick them up when you hear them, they have a place, if they come off the page unconnected to any place or person they rarely have a life.

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:30 am

Further proof that the session in the USA is something different than its homeland version. I don't get the feeling that the people are as relaxed as they are competitive or at least nervous to work thru the tunes... But I am just speculating as I haven't gone to them all over like some here.

I went to a local session. It had a defined beginning and a defined end. There was little bs'ing about tunes or anything and everybody packed up and left simultaneously at the end...a canned performance. That just seemed to miss the point of what Peter describes.

After our gig at the pub last Tuesday, we sat around and drank and talked about the set with a few fans who stayed. We tried a few more tunes and thought about new ways to arrange them. We left happy. That's why I like being in a band, though I miss the opportunity to hear new players, as MurphyStout has pointed out.

Monster · Post by **Monster** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 10:10 am

Yeah Weekenders, it just doesn't seem to be the same sort of thing here in the States. Although I've only been to a few sessions locally, I certainly didn't think anything like Peter described was going on here. Seems more like friends/aquaintences getting together to play and learn, pass on, music there, maybe something to work towards here. Also maybe sessions here tend to be too big for a good time, seems four or five whistles don't blend together very well, least when everyone wants to play all the time.