Kernan's D version
Much more modified is the version in D in other manuscripts of the Kernan and Kennedy Schools. Nowhere is there to be found any part based on the second of the two Donalbane parts. Only the two Reel of Tulloch parts and the first Donalbane part are chosen for adaptation. Generally it is of four parts, although Smyth has only three, and attributes his setting to Thomas Kernan, the doyen of the local fiddle school. The four parts consist of what seems to be a newly composed part beginning on a long A, which is a variant of the first Donalbane part, and which can be designated C,K. This is followed by two parts reflecting the two Reel of Tulloch parts, and one based again on the first of the two Donalbane parts, giving four parts that can be described as C,KABC,. Smyth is missing that final Donalbane C, part, resulting in a C,KAB format. The four-part version as described here is to be found in this order in the Grier manuscript, in the Meagher manuscript, and also in the Goodman manuscript. The Donalbane C, part is placed first in the O’Farrell and Reynolds manuscripts, and in the Reilly manuscripts, leaving the format C,C,KAB, and this was the arrangement that survived in the local fiddle tradition, as evidenced by the playing of Michael Francis McNerney. This ambivalence about where to place the Donalbane C, part may support Smyth’s assertion of a three-part original by Kernan. The endings are all homogenised, resulting in a further loss of the Donalbane element, which had its own distinctive endings. The second of the two Reel of Tulloch parts is given two long f♯’’ notes, which gives the Irish “Greg’s Pipes” its characteristic whine.
In all these Kernan derived settings the fiddle friendly start of the A part, which in the original scordatura setting of “Greg’s Pipes” was <e’’a’c♯’’a’> in the key of A, has been changed to <a’d’’f♯’’d’’>, rather than <a’’d’’f♯’’d’’>, in the key of D and, in the key of G, <d’g’b’g’> rather than <d’’g’b’g>. These may be accommodations designed to suit pipes or flute, instruments which might have had difficulty with certain intervals, especially in the higher register. The start of the one Donalbane part used, namely the C part, <a’d’f♯’d’>, is not so distorted, and is therefore more akin to the original <e’ac♯’a> of the scordatura setting.
Titles
This was transcribed by Conor Ward of a tape recording of the fiddle player Michael Francis McNerney (1898-1975), of Fostra, Dromard, Co. Longford who was recorded in 1973 by Fr. John Quinn.
- Parts
- C,C,KAB