Tune Req: Tam Lin/Fairy Dance

Subject: Tam Lin/Fairy Dance
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 05 Jul 02 - 03:42 AM

Help - has anyone got the dots for this reel ??? It's not the normal fairy dance reel.

Thanks in advance! I know someone out there will find it. Past experience!!!

Sarah

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Tam Lin/Fairy Dance
From: Mikey joe
Date: 05 Jul 02 - 04:24 AM

Try JCs tunefinder. Guaraunteed (sp?) results. I can't remember the address unfortunately. But go to google and search for JC tunefinder. its at M.I.T. and you'll get it from there. Tam Lin is also known as the Glasgow reel or The Howling Wind

Mj

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Tam Lin/Fairy Dance
From: mooman
Date: 05 Jul 02 - 04:28 AM

I play it and if someone doesn't beat me to it, can try and get you the dots.

Best regards,

mooman

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Tam Lin/Fairy Dance
From: GUEST,Davetnova
Date: 05 Jul 02 - 05:51 AM

Tam Lin can be found in this downloadable tunebook with lots of other good stuff. http://www.uptospeed.net/irish/eskin/tunebook.pdf

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Tam Lin/Fairy Dance
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 05 Jul 02 - 11:03 AM

What a brilliant tune book - tempted to download all 115 pages but didn't! Got Tam Lin tho' Thanks - what a horrible key - never mind - i'll get the C whistle and bung the nasty bits up an octave - when will someone invent a whistle that goes down lower than the end????

Thanks again

Sarah

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Tam Lin/Fairy Dance
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 11:35 AM

A very nice book. My POTS connection is so slow that navigating to look at on the web was pretty painful, so I did the "save copy" thing so I could open it direct on my machine. The whole thing is about 4MB - just time to get a fresh cup of copy and walk out for my morning newsrag.

My local session book notes the key as D-minor, and I suspect that our couple of local whistlers probably use the D whistle and "half-hole" down to make the minor. Generation does make an "F" whistle, but the only ones I've seen are a high F that would sound like a picolo in this piece - usually played in lower registers.

The Eskin book gives the alternate title Hand Me Down the Tackle. Our locals more often call this one The Howling Wind, and play it in a sinestro mode.

John

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: Tam Lin/Fairy Dance
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 12:07 PM

The Tam Lin Reel is also known as Tamlyn, and, as Mikey Joe pointed out, The Glasgow Reel and The Howling Wind. It's generally ascribed to Davey Arthur of Dublin; the Howling Wind name seems to have been invented by Paddy O'Brien, who didn't like the name the tune's composer had given it. More information and notation in abc format of three performances of the tune (all in different keys) can be seen at Andrew Kuntz's invaluable site The Fiddler's Companion:

TAM LIN REEL

A search at J C's Tunefinder for Tam Lin will return examples in several keys; Am, Bm, Dm, Em, and Gm. Most of the hits will be the reel, though a few will be tunes for the ballad.

Hand Me Down the Tackle, incidentally, is not an alternative title for this tune; it's just the piece that follows it in the pdf collection.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tam Lin/Fairy Dance
From: Davetnova
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 11:25 AM

Johninkansas: Any chance of acopy of your local session book, in any format. I love to see different versions of tunes and every book I've come across seems to have at least one gem slightly different from any other.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tam Lin/Fairy Dance
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 07:53 PM

I had tried for several years to get a copy of the tunebook that quite a few people in my area used, but the original "collector" seemed disinclined to be identified, and I couldn't find anyone to loan me one to copy. A friend did get one to copy, and made an extra for me.

I found a "core" collection of fairly legible stuff, with several other independent "additions," some usable and some not. It took about 2,000 hours to punch them all into a good music program and get them organized into a reasonably coherent "book." About a half-dozen tunes were "withheld" because of verified copyrights. So far as I can tell, all the tunes included are trad - but it's really tough to be sure. It is likely that the original "source book" and most of the additions to it came intirely from internet downloads.

806 scores, plus cross-index entries. 614 distinct tune names. (Some tunes appear with more than one title, and some tunes appear in up to 3 different forms.)

The book includes 415 tunes from the original local collections. For tunes known to be played differently in "West Coast" sessions I had attended, 261 "Western Session" versions are shown for comparison. Where the local session version differs significantly from common usage (especially in other local groups), 130 Generic versions are given. Note that this is not a "scholarly" comparison, it's just what seemed interesting while I was cleaning up the collection.

I've included a crude .mid file for each score, in self-extracting .zip file on a DOS format floppy. The .zip (352 KB) opens to about 1.5 MB worth of small .mid files - cluster loss prevents putting them all on one floppy without compression.

It costs me just about $25 per copy to print, whether I do it one at a time on my laser printer (at about 4 hours per book) or "job" them in small quantities to a copy shop. I haven't checked since the recent (July 1) postal rate changes, but could mail a copy (in the US) for $4 before that.

I use PostScript printing exclusively, so the print files wouldn't be useful to most people - and are nearly 50MB.

I did distill a .pdf of an early version, which ran about 8 MB, which is still too large to email through most services.

My intention was to clean up the book and make it available locally. I've placed about 25 copies "in good homes," thus far (it figures to about 100 mh per placement - I feel like a social worker).

PM me an email (or snail mail) address & I can send you a sheet (.pdf) with details for US delivery.

I'll also try to have a few copies with me at the WVA (Winfield KS) Festival Sept 19-22 (I'll probably be there anytime after Sept 8).

John