tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?

Subject: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: GUEST,Nancy
Date: 02 Sep 01 - 10:26 PM

Hi Folks, Looking for a good tune to medley with Maire's Wedding, any suggestions?

I posted this on another list Im a member of and someone said "whatever you do don't pair it with an Irish tune as it just won't work," That struck me as a little odd.

Thanks in advance, Nancy

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Sorcha
Date: 02 Sep 01 - 10:50 PM

Several questions: It is usually listed as a march in D, ending on the note 440 A. Do you want another "march", another tune in D, another tune that BEGINS on A, a rousing jig or reel.........what are you thinking of? I can think of several that might work, but need to know what you want.

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: GUEST,Nancy
Date: 02 Sep 01 - 10:57 PM

Hi Sorcha,

I'd like to play Maire's Wedding three times through, I'm tired of following it with Scotland the Brave, so how about a jig to speed the dancers/listeners along? However, Im open to any and all suggestions. In the same key is nice, but not absolutely necessary.

Let's see what land-speed records you can break in answering this one.....you ARE very fast!

Cheers, Nancy

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Sorcha
Date: 02 Sep 01 - 11:07 PM

I was thinking of RedHaired Boy/Little Beggarman for a fast one......it actually starts on E, but the b part has the A for a pick up note, and you could use that. Or, for a slow air, Ashoken Farewell. Perhaps 100 Pipers March in A, which actually starts on A. (I had thought of Scotland, too, grin)

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Sorcha
Date: 02 Sep 01 - 11:10 PM

Hundred Pipers at JC's. I would play it a little faster than this. The others are all well known, so I don't think you need links to them, do you?

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: GUEST,Nancy
Date: 02 Sep 01 - 11:19 PM

Hi Sorcha, Actually I know Red-Haired Boy and Ashoken Farewell, I've never heard of 100 Pipers....but I will now!

Thanks for the suggestions!

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Sorcha
Date: 02 Sep 01 - 11:28 PM

Nancy, did you catch the link to JC's? I sent you to the sheet music; if you scroll down a little and click on the M (return in other format) you can minimize the WinPlayer and listen and watch the sheet music at the same time. Nifty little march and I thought it was easy to learn.

Probably "they" said don't use an Irish song becaue Mairie's Wedding is Scottish. It's also known as the Lewis Bridal song.

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 12:40 AM

Our lot does Mhairi's Wedding coupled with "Ettrick Valley" [Tune---"Spanish Lady"]; good medley.

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Sorcha
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 02:28 AM

Spanish Lady Sounds good with Mairie's too!

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 09:42 AM

G'day Nancy,

here in Australia, we often have:
Kelvin Grove,
Loch Lomond and/or
The Black Watch
in sets with Maire's Wedding (for something like a Gay Gordons).

All seem to work quite well.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Bruce from Bathurst
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 10:22 AM

Nancy,

It's a fine tune, even hosting a parody of it's original fine lyrics (and that's always a good sign!)

To the west of Bob Bolton's part of Australia, over the Blue Mountains, we often used Maire's Wedding as part of the old safe D-G-D mix, such as in:

Maire's Wedding (D) Siege Of Ennis (G) Rose Tree (D)

Australian bush bands of the 70's and 80's cut their teeth on such tunes, happily ignorant of both the questionable cross-celtic mix and the audience's silent plea for an occasional tune in a minor key (not to mention our lack of awareness of the many excellent Australian tunes being played at the time by more adventurous musicians such as Mr Bolton)

Of course, it is possible to play Maire's Wedding throughout a complete dance set, raising the key by a fifth each time around. This tactic annoys the heck out of box players, such as Mr Bolton, so is not recommended for general use. But it works a treat if you want to sing "Please Release Me" at a party.

Bruce

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From:
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 11:00 AM

Mairi's Wedding is that you're talking about.

You can combine it with a lot of tunes. Depends on the feeling you want. You can start with it, or you could end with it. If you're ending with it, you could start slow with a slow air and build up to finish with it. On the other hand, you can start with it, and run into several jigs and reels.

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: CET
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 11:15 AM

Actually, from Charmion who was too lazy to re-set the cookie.

Here in the Ottawa Valley of Ontario, Mairi's Wedding is most often heard played on the bagpipes -- in fact, it seems to be one of the first tunes any young piper learns, the others being "Scotland the Brave," "The Barren Rocks of Aden" and "Highland Laddie". Be kind to your audience and don't include any of those in your set!

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Barry T
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 02:07 PM

Here's a ready-made medley that ends with the tune... My Love She's But A Lassie Yet / Cullem Beg / Mairi's Wedding. This was one of my earliest efforts at midi making in 1997, so please ignore the chord blunders and errant base line.

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: smallpiper
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 02:53 PM

Our lot play it with the Rowan Tree it works

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 11:54 PM

G'day again,

Bruce from Bathurst wrote: " ... Of course, it is possible to play Maire's Wedding throughout a complete dance set, raising the key by a fifth each time around. This tactic annoys the heck out of box players, such as Mr Bolton, so is not recommended for general use. But it works a treat if you want to sing "Please Release Me" at a party."

Actually Bruce, I made just this suggestion (in the general sense of it being a traditional dance music approach) last night, at my Monday Night Workshop. However this was most common on the piano, which lends itself to the style and the most likely portable instrument accompanying would be the fiddle, which could tune to wherever the piano's pitch had ended after 150 miles on the back of a bullock dray.

The obsession with playing every dance set as twice through a tune and on to the next is very "Folk Revival". Out in the station homestead and shearing shed, things were different and that is where the squeezebox played in whatever key it happened to be in - and the accompaniment was probably just some bloke banging on an empty kerosene tin or rattling the bones.

That said, I have a a couple of arrangements for Backblocks where one tune, specific to a dance (such as The Prince of Wales Schottische) is indeed played in 3 or four harmonically related keys - with the button accordion often moving a fourth in one direction while the fiddles move a fifth in the other direction, producing an interesting change in dynamics at each key change. (And I have to pick up the right 3-rower for the set ... and, maybe, do some playing in the key past the last row.)

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 03:01 AM

I play it as a medley with The Flowers Of Edinburgh.. All the best.

Seamus

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Stewart
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 05:20 PM

There's a nice medley here. Click on Medley.

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Stewart
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 05:24 PM

Sorry, should be here.

S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: tune to medley with Maire's Wedding?
From: Jock Morris
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 05:39 PM

We play it with Piper's Cave for a Morris dance.

Scott