Help: Road to Lisdoonvarna/The Morris Dance

Subject: Road to Lisdonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Eric
Date: 23 Aug 02 - 09:11 PM

Does anyone know anything about these two tunes, age, composer,etc? Just figured them out on the guitar. They make a nice set.

Subject: RE: Help: Road to Lisdonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Eric
Date: 23 Aug 02 - 09:13 PM

If nothing else a good lie will do.

Subject: RE: Help: Road to Lisdonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Sorcha
Date: 23 Aug 02 - 10:14 PM

There is a big Bachelors Festival in Lisdoonvarna every year; fellas looking for wives.

Subject: RE: Help: Road to Lisdonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Eric
Date: 24 Aug 02 - 07:58 AM

I could build a good intro story around that...So do people get hooked up at this festival, any matches made in Lisdonvarna?

Subject: RE: Help: Road to Lisdonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 24 Aug 02 - 08:23 AM

It is sometimes done as a single jog or hornpipe, though the concensus seems to be that it's a slide, and probably not all that old (not in O'Neill's collection, etc).

Try looking it up HERE, which is a hugely informative site about Irish traditional by a chap called Alan Ng, who is in Wisconsin I think.

Subject: RE: Help: Road to Lisdonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Aug 02 - 08:44 AM

More info on the matchmaking festival here.

Subject: RE: Help: Road to Lisdonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Aug 02 - 10:12 AM

The first tune originally appeared in print in Scotland, it seems, as The Galway Girls (Aird's Selections, i780-1803), and in the 19th century was generally known as All the Way to Galway (or Gallaway, or Galloway); plus many other names, of course. More information can be seen at The Fiddler's Companion, a far more useful resource, to my mind, than Alan Ng's site:

Road to Lisdoonvarna (search results).

The Morris Dance is a generic title, and could be almost anything. Where did you learn it?

Subject: RE: Help: Road to Lisdonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Eric
Date: 24 Aug 02 - 05:12 PM

I see I've been spelling Lisdoonvarna wrong. I play both tunes as Jigs. Road to Lisdoonvarna with A part 8 bars and B part 16 bars. The Morris Dance both A & B parts 8 bars. At least thats how a friend showed me and he picked it up by ear from someone who also played by ear. Passed down through the ages. Ended up in Cape Breton.

Thanks for the link Fionn, lots of info there. I've found several different versions of both tunes.

The matchmaking thing is facinating, after being divorced and single for a long while maybe there is hope yet.

Subject: RE: Help: Road to Lisdonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Eric
Date: 24 Aug 02 - 05:17 PM

Thanks Malcolm, so much information. Just getting my bearings on the net. Fast learner though...

Subject: RE: Help: Road to Lisdonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Aug 02 - 06:28 PM

On looking around, I see that Lisdoonvarna and a piece called The Morris Dance are paired in several recent "Celtic" collections for flute, piano, lute and so on. One of them has an accompanying CD by one Andrew D. Gordon, with Lisdoonvarna mis-spelt Listonvarna. I've now listened to a sound sample of this, and The Morris Dance, so-called, is actually Morrison's Jig, a very well-known piece which used to be called The Stick across the Hob until James Morrison recorded it in America in 1936. More info at The Fiddler's Companion; a direct search doesn't work, so some of the material returned is irrelevant:

Search Results

Subject: RE: Help: Road to Lisdonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Aug 02 - 07:08 PM

Ah yes, Lisdoonvarna and Morrison's go very well together. The Lisdoon I play is in 9/12 (technichally making it a slip jig) in E Dorian. Both neat tunes.

Subject: RE: Help: Road to Lisdonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Eric
Date: 24 Aug 02 - 09:37 PM

I play both tunes in D/Em in 6/8 time. Haven't put them to paper yet, just figured them out Friday. Usually I try to do that before I forget them. Just like to have a record of how I heard them. My friend is a genieus at sorting things out by ear and then he takes on the tedious task of teaching me the tunes so I can put it all to paper to have the tunes for future reference. I usually do it the old fashioned way with pen and paper but I have now entered the electronic world and downloaded some score editing software. Works well but can't figure out how to enter grace notes. A graced triplet for example. Still have to make room for the grace notes, mathmatically. I guess I'll have to read the help files.

Subject: RE: Help: Road to Lisdoonvarna/The Morris Dance
From: Max
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 03:35 PM

refresh

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.music.folk/6Pl_7vtaXI0

https://thesession.org/tunes/250