Tune Req: Germans or Barn Dances

Subject: Germans or Barn Dances
From: dulcimer
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 09:29 AM

What are some names of tunes played as Germans or Barn Dances in Ireland. What speed are they normally played at?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Germans or Barn Dances
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 09:48 AM

You may perhaps find the following entries from  The Fiddler's Companion helpful:

BARNDANCE.  A two-hand dance form in Ireland, thought to have been originally introduced from England, where they still exist.. Caoimhin Mac Aoidh says: "Barn dances and Germans - These are the same thing.  The term German seems to be restricted to west and central Donegal.  They are in 4/4 time and played at the speed of a hornpipe.  Their characteristic is in the rythym of the tune.  Typical barn dances have a recurring set of two or sometimes three crochets (quarter notes) at the end of a number bars which give it a very determined rythym.  Hornpipes can be easily pared down to make a german.  As for their geographic spread, see my comments above of highlands though barn dances are appearing to be on the increase outside Ulster."

GERMAN.  The generic name used in (northwest and central) County Donegal, Ireland, for a 4/4 time Barndance tune.  The tempo is close to hornpipe speed.  Caoimhin Mac Aoidh (1994) states the structural characteristic is groups of two or three crochets used to accent the dance.  The name German for this genre is thought to have dervived from titles on sheet music covers of about a century ago, which identified tunes as "German Schottisches" or "Highland Schottisches" as the case may be.  Mac Aoidh speculates that older musicians, lacking formal musical training, probably assumed that by implication the two were different.

HIGHLAND.  A dance form with accompanying music in 4/4 time.  The name highland is a regional name in northern Ireland for the dance form elsewhere usually called a schottische.  It is also called a German, and elsewhere in Ireland is called a fling, highland fling or highland schottische.  According to Caoimhin Mac Aoidh (1994) highlands were adapted by Donegal fiddlers from strathspeys and reels, and are played much slower than a reel but faster than a Scots strathspey.  When borrowed from a strathspey the triplets tend to be simplified.  In previous times the Highland/Fling/German form was to be heard played over much of Ireland, however, in the 20th century they were increasingly confined to the northern counties, principally in Donegal.


Malcolm

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Germans or Barn Dances
From: dulcimer
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 07:33 PM

I looked those entries. Thanks for your suggestion I just wanted some specific examples.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Germans or Barn Dances
From: Snuffy
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 08:35 PM

Not much help. I have a tape by the Shamrock Ceili Band with a barn dance on, but it is just called Barn Dance! Also on Shaskeeen's tape My Love Is In America, the last track is listed as:

Hornpipe and Barn Dance: Breen's hornpipe (Banjo and Guitar intro). The all star barn dance (Accordion and fiddle added).

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Germans or Barn Dances
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 09:40 PM

Well, I answered your second question; if you already knew the answer, perhaps there wasn't much point in asking. ÿAs for specifics, you could always have a look at ÿJ C's Tunefinder ÿfor, for example:

Donegal Highland
Fermanagh Highland
Highland Gan Ainm
the McConnell's Highland
Niel Gow's Highland

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Germans or Barn Dances
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 09:47 PM

G'day Dulcimer,

Here in Australia there are many collected schottishes that have come from Europe, UK and (to a lesser degree) from Ireland. One set that I played at my Workshop last night, collected from an old bloke named Mick Pilley, obviously has some "Irish" content, because it starts off with the "Stage Irish" song tune Paddy McGinty's Goat.

We tend to see schottisches as either plain schottisches or Highland schottisches ... most obviously separated by whether they use a lot of triplets, in the original German fashion or have a lot of "Scotch snaps", presumably flowing across from the Strathspey tunes that must have been adapted for the Highland Schottische - and then "leaked" over into more general schottisches.

One collected tune we call the Whistled Schottische, because Rita Baker, an old Gulgong area fiddler, could no longer manage to play it ... so she whistled it to John Meredith, the collector, is traceable to a published tune of c. 1848 called the Little Dorrit Schottische. In the original published form, all the decoration is in the form of triplets. The tune collected in 1981 has, within its 32 bars, 27 Scotch snaps ... something of a record!

Many of this tunes survived as tunes for the Barn Dance, a sort of degenerate descendant of the Military Schottische and were still popular where the dancers remembered the more complex stepping of the schottische, rather than the "one, two, three, kick &c" of the (post 1924?)Progressive Barn Dance.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Germans or Barn Dances
From: Snuffy
Date: 16 Mar 01 - 06:35 PM

Dulcimer, here's 4 Barn Dances I got from a couple of books of Shaskeeen. If you can't do ABC, send me a PM and we'll sort out a midi or the dots.

X: 37
T:The All-Star Barn Dance
M:4/4
L:1/8
S:The All-Star Ceili Band, Boston Mass
D: Shaskeen, My Love is in America, Side 2, track 7, tune 2
K:A
|:cd|
"A"efec Acea|"D"~g2fe fdBc|"E"dedc Bcde|f2e2 "A"c2cd|
efec Acea|"D"~g2fe "Bm"b3a |"E"gagf edcB|"A"A2cc A2:|
AB|
ce~e2 e^def|"D"e2d2 dcBc|de~f2 f^efg|"E"f2e2 c3d|
"A"e2f2 g2a2|"D"a2g2 g3a|"E"g2f2 fefg|f2e2 c4|
"A"ce~e2 e^def|"D"ed~d2 dcBc|def2 f^efg|"E"f2e2 c3d|
"A"e2f2 g2a2|"D"b2a2 f3f|"E"gagf edcB|"A"A2c2A2||

X: 38
T:Ballroom Favourite No. 1 (Barn Dance)
M:4/4
L:1/8
S:John McKenna, Co. Leitrim
D: Shaskeen, Joys of Life, Side 1, track 3, tune 1
K:D
|:B|
"D"A2F2 A3A|"G"B2G2 "E7"B4|"A7"cBcd edcd|(3efe (3dcB (3ABA FG|
"D"A2f2 "D7"A3A|"G"B2g2 "E7"B4|"A7"cBcd edcd|(3efe dc "D"d3::f|
a2ba fed2|"A7"cdef "Em"g3f|gfge ~B2A2|"A7"defg a3f|
"D"a2ba fed2|"A7"cdef "Em"g3f|"A7"gfge cABc|(3efe dc "D"d3:|

X: 39
T:Ballroom Favourite No. 2 (Barn Dance)
M:4/4
L:1/8
S:John McKenna, Co. Leitrim
D: Shaskeen, Joys of Life, Side 1, track 3, tune 2
K:D
|:"D"(3fed A2 (3fed A2|(3afa bf "F#dim"a3a|
"Em"(3gfe B2 (3gfe B2 |cdec "A"A4|
"D"(3fed A2 (3fed A2|(3afa bf "D7"a3a|
"G"~g2f2 "Em"B2c2|"A7"edBc "D"d4:|
|:dfed "A7"BAFA|"D"(3dcd ed "Em"B3c|
"D"dfed "Em"BAFA|"G"B2"A7"c2 "D"d4:|

X: 40
T:Barn Dance - Kieran Kelly's
M:4/4
L:1/8
S:Kieran Kelly's Ceili Band, 1960s
D: Shaskeen, Atlantic Breeze, Side 1, track 4, tune 1
K:D
|:(3A,B,C |
"D"D2A,D FDFB|A2F2 F3F|"A7"G2E2 EFGE|"D"F2D2 D2 (3A,B,C|
D2A,D FDFB|A2F2 F3A|"G"G2E2 "A7"B2A2|"D"D4 D2:|
zB|
A2FA DAFA|"G"B2GB "D"A2FA|"G"G2EG "D"F2DF|"Em"EDCD "A7"EFGB|
"D"A2FA DAFA|"G"B2GB "D"A2FA|"Em"G2E2 "A7"B2A2|"D"D4 D2zB|
A2FA DAFA|"G"B2GB "D"A2FA|"G"G2EG "D"F2DF|"Em"EDCD "A7"EGFE|
"D"D2A,D FDFB|A2F2 F3A|"Em"G2E2 "A7"B2A2|"D"D4 D2|
K:G
|:"D7"zF|
"G"G2DG BGBe|d2B2 B3B|"Am"c2A2 ABcA|"G"B2G2 "D7"G2(3DEF|
"G"G2DG BGBe|d2B2 B3B|"Am"c2A2 "D7"e2d2|"G"G4 G2:|
K:D
|:"A7"zB|
"D"A2FA f2d2|d2cd e2dc|"A7"BA^GA EAGA|BAGF E2AG|
"D"FAdf afdf|"G"gfec dcBA|"Em"G2E2 "A7"B2A2|"D"D4 D2:|



Wassail! V

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Germans or Barn Dances
From: dulcimer
Date: 18 Mar 01 - 04:48 PM

Thanks for the help.