Annotation:Colonel Rosse's Reel

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X:1 T:Colonel Rosse's Reel B:Rev. Luke Donnellan music manuscript collection (c. 1909, south Ulster) M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel N:Gerry O'Connor set the tune in A major K:Amix c2 cB ceae|eAcA GBBd|cAEA ceaf|ecBc A2 Ad| c2 cB ceae|eAcA GBBd|cAEA ceaf|ecBc A2 Ag|| a2 ea caea|eAcA GBBg|aece fece|aece a2 ae| faea fcec|Bcde fefg|eAfA gAaf|ecdB A2 Ad||



COLONEL ROSSE'S REEL. Irish, Reel (cut time). A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "Colonel Rosse's Reel" is contained in the music manuscript collection in the possession of Rev. Luke Donnellan, a cleric and fiddler from Oriel, south Ulster, parts of which he published in 1909 in the Journal of the South Louth Archeological Society vol. II [1]. The reel is in two sharps (A mixolydian) in the ms., making the tune sound like it belongs in piping repertoire, but Donnellan researcher Gerry O'Connor set it in three sharps (A major), which seems to be the intended key.


Additional notes
Source for notated version : - Rev. Luke Donnellan music manuscript collection (c. 1909, south Ulster) [O'Connor].

Printed sources : - O'Connor (The Rose in the Gap), 2018; No. 55, p. 47.






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  1. Donnellan researcher Gerry O'Connor came to believe the ms. is not the work of the curate but rather was originally compiled by an unknown but able fiddler over the course of a playing lifetime, probably in the late 19th century. The ms. later came into the possession of Donnellan, who was also a fiddler.