Joe McCool wrote:
>My kids and I play the battle of Aughrim something like:
>
>
>(ABAG) (ABAE) | (ABAG) (ABAE) | (ABAG) (ABAE) | (ABAG) (ABAE) |
>((3AGA) ((3AGA) ((3AGA) A>E | ((3AGA) ((3AGA) ((3AGA) A>E |\
>((3AGA) ((3AGA) ((3AGA) A>E |
>{C/E/F/GA}B3c d3e | d2e2 d2f2 | d2e2 d2f2 | d2e2 d2e2 | Td8 | cBAG HE4 |
>(ABAG) (ABAE) | (ABAG) (ABAE) | (ABAG) A>E |
>((3AGA) ((3AGA) ((3AGA) A>E | ((3AGA) ((3AGA) ((3AGA) A>E| (GABc) d3e|\
>((3AGA) ((3AGA) ((3AGA) A>E | ((3AGA) ((3AGA) ((3AGA) A>E| (GABc) d3e|\
>d3e d2f2| d2e2 d4 | (cBAG) HE4 |]
>
Phil Taylor wrote:
Searching through my collection of abcs I found that tune in the O'Neil's
project files, complete with its header (makes it a lot easier to work
with :-)
X:1845
T:The Battle Of Aughrim
M:2/4
L:1/16
B:O'Neill's 1845
Z:"Transcribed by Bob Safranek, [EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Z:There is no way to duplicate the notation of the grace notes in bar 8
K:G
[...about the same abc..]
There are some other unusual tunes on that page of O'Neill's:
Ulster Outcry, Leinster Outcry, and he doesn't give attribution for any of
them, which probably means that he picked them up from books, rather than
from someone's playing. So there's no guarantee that it survived into
this century. (If anyone has more information on any of these tunes, I'd
be interested.) There is a related tune, probably even an ancestor, which
was published in Dudley Colclough's Tutor for the Union Pipes (c.a. 1830),
called "A Bagpipe Concerto call'd the Battle of Aghrem, or the Football
March." This is a six-part piece---abc included below---which seems to be
a descriptive bagpipe tune---you can just hear the birls. Here's what
Dennis Brooks wrote about it in Iris na bPiobairi VI, 1986:
"The construction of this tune dates it to the end of the
seventeenth century. Because of its limited range, an octave plus the
lower leading tone, this tune was likely made on the warpipes. In its
multiple parts, each represents a portion of the actual battle at Aughrim,
July 12, 1690. This is truly a descriptive piece of music, from the
gathering of forces in the first part to the retreat of the Irish horse in
the last part."
He went on to say that the only other comparable piece of Irish
bagpipe music we have which dates back that far was Alasdruims March,
played at the battle of Knockanos, Kanturk, Co. Cork, in 1647.
There are other tunes and songs connected with that fateful
battle, of course--in addition to the march (sometimes polka) that has
been mentioned. There's a lovely slow air, the Lament for Aughrim. The
McPeake Family recorded it as Francis had learned it from his teacher,
John Reilly, first the air, then a march, then the air again. Quite
moving. Strangely enough, the march wasn't the Battle of Aughrim, but the
Return from Fingal, which commemorates an earlier Irish battle, a victory
rather than a defeat (it is said it was played by the troops of Brian Boru
returning from the Battle of Clontarf.)
Cheers,
John Walsh
(some of the following lines have been thoughtfully truncated by the
email program. Shouldn't cause trouble.)
X:1
T:A Bagpipe Concerto call'd the Battle of Aghrem
T:or the Football March
R:misc
K:C
DDD2 D2D2 DDD2 E2D2|DDD2F2D2 DDD2 G2D2|DDD2 F2D2 DDD2 E2D2|DDD2 GFEF G2C2
E2D2:|
DDD2 GFEF G2D2 F2D2|DDD2 E2C2G2C2 E2D2|DDD2 B2D2 A2D2 F2D2|DDD2 B2D2 G2C2
E2D2:|
DDD2 B2D2 DDD2 F2D2|DDD2 B2D2 DDD2 E2D2|DDD2 B2D2 DDD2 d2D2|DDD2 B2D2 DDD2
E2D2:|
DDD2 dcBc d2D2 F2D2|DDD2 cBAB c2C2 E2D2|d2B2c2A2 B2G2 A2D2|GFEF G2C2 E2D2
DDD2||
d3B d3A d3B d3D|d3B d3A d3F d3D|d3B A2d2 F2d2 G2D2|BdAd GdFd BdAd GdDd||
FdGd FdEd FdGd EdDd|EdFd GdEd EdFd GdDd|EdFd GdEd EdFd GdDd|EdFd GdEd EdFd
GdDd||D.C.
To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
