Annotation:Green Fields of Glentown (The)
Back to Green Fields of Glentown (The)
GREEN FIELDS OF GLENTOWN, THE (Páirceanna glasa Bhaile an Ghleanna). AKA - "Tommy Peoples." AKA and see "Eddie Kelly's Reel (4)." Irish, Reel. Ireland, County Donegal. A Minor (Breathnach): A Dorian (Vallely). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Vallely): AABBCC (Breathnach). Composed by County Donegal fiddler Tommy Peoples in the late 1960's. It is still popular with fiddlers of the region and sometimes is called by the name of the composer ("Tommy Peoples"). Caoimhin Mac Aoidh believes it may originally have been a two-part tune to which Peoples attached a third part (or variation of the second part). The title refers to the townland of Peoples' uncle's home in east Donegal, outside the village of St. Johnston, and the next townland to Peoples' in Donega. Peoples remarks: "It is a beautifully hilly area where one can look across the river Foyle to counties Tyrone and Derry. It'smain claim to fame was a slate quarry that operated in the early half of this century. The quarry holes are still there, hundreds of feet deep with very deep water. They are easily accessible and not recommended to anyone afraid of heights."
Source for notated version: fiddler Tommy Peoples (Donegal) [Breathnach, Bulmer & Sharpley].
Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ II), 1976; No. 246 (appears as untitled tune). Breathnach (CRÉ III), 1985; No. 184, p. 83. Bulmer & Sharpley (Music from Ireland), 1976, vol. 4, No. 39. Peoples (Play Fifty Reels), 1986; 47. Vallely (Armagh Pipers Club Play 50 Reels), 1982; p. 22.
Recorded sources: Canadian Broadcasting Corp. NMAS 1972, Natalie MacMaster - "Fit as a Fiddle" (1993. Learned from Sharon Shannon). Cló Iar-Chonnachta, CICD 148, Mick Conneely - "Selkie" (2001. Learned from County Donegal fiddler Brid Harper). Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Éireann CL13, "Tommy Peoples" (1976). Philo PHI 1152, "Sharon Shannon." Randy Miller - "The Lore of the Fingerboard" (1990).
See also listings at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [3]
See a Cape Breton version in standard notation, plus notes on the tune in CB at Paul Cranford's site [4]