Annotation:Dingle Regatta

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 DINGLE REGATTA. AKA and see "Jazzing with Meaig Leary," "Tom Billy's Favourite [3]." English, Jig; Irish, Slide (12/8 time). Ireland, West Kerry. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Cranitch, Mac Amhlaoibh & Durham): AABBCC (Kuntz, McNulty, Tubridy). The "Dingle Regatta" name comes from Seán Ó Riada, according to guitarist Paul de Grae, who used it as part of the score for his film The Playboy of the Western World. It was the signature tune for Ó Riada's band, Ceoltóirí Cualann, from which developed Ireland's most famous traditional band, the Chieftains, for their first radio appearances on Radio Éireann in the early 1960's (Glatt, The Chieftains, 1997). Unfortunately, the tune as played by the group was 'totally inaccurate': ''Paddy Moloney smiles at the memory. 'I gave that tune to Seán'' spontaneously at one of the rehearsals but unfortunately I mixed ''up two tunes and got the second part of it wrong. It didn't matter'' though because it blended beautifully and become our theme tune that was played at the beginning of every show Ceoltóirí Cualann ever did. (p. 47). "Dingle Regatta" has become a 'pub tune' if ever there was; one hearing and you think you've known it all your life. A pub session tradition has grown up around the tune in which the third part is sometimes sung with out words, though in many circles the 'ya-da-duh-da-da-da' singing is by now considered a hackneyed bore. Kevin Finnegan, formerly of the Liverpool Céilí Band has recently remarked that this 'dittying' to the melody originated as a joke. He says: The members of the band got along famously and when playing at ceili's ''etc. and did many strange things to enjoy the 'craic'. For example, it was'' not unusual for us to suddenly start changing seats while in the middle of ''a tune. It brought a great response from dancers when they'd look up to the'' stage and see Eamon Coyne (fiddle) walking around to change chairs with ''Frank Horan(button box) who was sitting behind him. Or to see Charlie '' ''Lennon (fiddle) switching places with Sean Murphy(banjo). It brought a'' ''great sense of camaraderie and fun to the group. Another favourite activity'' of each of the players was to suddenly stand up and straight back down  ''again in sequence across the stage. This might be condemned by some '' 'purists' but it always added to the 'craic' and certainly didn't hurt the  musical ability of the band - we still won two All-Irelands and countless ''other honours. As part of the craic the "hi-ho" stuff started in the early sixties'' ''as just another part of the fun we had playing together. It was not confined to'' the "Dingle Regatta" - as you will hear if you listen to the two LP's we made ''in the mid-sixties with Decca Records. In fact, like changing chairs, we did'' it fairly regularly with a number of tunes but I never heard another band ''do it until after our records came out. When we were in London recording'' the Lp's we started the Hi-Ho as a laugh during the recording session and never intended for it to come out on the final record - but the producer ''loved it and asked us to leave it on that particular track. That's the'' ''story of the Hi-ho sound. Of course it was always enhanced by the fact'' that most of us did partake of a few sups of the 'black milkshake'  throughout the night so I'm sure that the bobbing up and down, the  chair switching and the hi-ho were somewhat as a result of our love of the 'porter' !!! An untitled quadrille (no. 45b) in John Moore's c. 1837-1840 MS (Ashman, 1991) resembles parts of this tune.  Source for notated version:  Printed sources: Cotter (Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor), 1989; 24. Cranitch (Irish Fiddle Book), 1996; No. 21, p. 133. Cranitch (Irish Session Tunes: Red Book), 2000; 21. Jordan (Whistle and Sing), 1975; 25. Mac Amhlaoibh & Durham (An Pota Stóir: Ceol Seite Corca Duibne/The Set Dance Music of West Kerry), No. 68, p. 40. McNulty (Dance Music of Ireland), 1965; p. 18. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, vol. 1), 1999; p. 28. Vallely (Learn to Play the Tin Whistle with the Armagh Piper's Club), 1976, vol. 1; 19.  Recorded sources: Topic 12T309, - Padraig O'Keefe, Denis Murphy & Julia Clifford - "Kerry Fiddles" (1977, although originally recorded in 1952. Appears as a two-part tune called "Tom Billy's Favourite"). See also listings at Alan Ng's Irishtune.info, and Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index.

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