Week 2
Week 2
Michael Preston's Reel
Michael Preston is the name of two flute players, a father and a son. Michael Sr. was from Ballymote, Co. Sligo and worked with the Irish railroad. After his son Michael Jr. was born in 1926, he resettled in County Clare. Michael Jr. joined the famed Tulla Céilí Band in 1956 before immigrating to Boston and later New York City. Again, I don't know where I got this tune, but it's also known as Peter Horan's, The Five Crossroads, and Fred Finn's #2. Beneath my recordings is the tune as played by Johnny Henry of Doocastle (1922-1996), brother of flute player and piper Kevin Henry of Chicago.
Slow Medium Fast
Paddy O'Snap (Hunt the Hare, hop jig)
I don't know where I learned this slip jig, but I as was going through Chief O'Neill's Music of Ireland I was reminded of it. Here's some info I found out while researching:
" The earliest reference to "Paddy O'Snap" is as a song in The Five Lovers, a comic opera by Tom Cooke [1] (1782-1848) staged in Dublin in 1806, where it was sung by "Mr. Lee." Cooke was a composer, conductor, singer, theater musician, and music director who worked primarily in London, but whether he composed the melody is unknown, although he is credited with composing the opera (he may have adapted an existing air). The first printing of the tune was in Dublin publisher Smollet Holden's Collection of Old Established Irish Slow and Quick Tunes (1806) issued the year Cooke's opera was performed in the city. "Quick, we have but a second" is the name of a song by Thomas Moore set to the tune of "Paddy Snap" printed in his Irish Melodies. Peter K. Moran composed a rondo called "Paddy O Snap," printed in Dublin by S. Holden about the year 1798."
In America, the jig can be found in New York City publisher Edward Riley's Flute Melodies, vol. 1 (1814), and in the music manuscript copybook of amateur flautist Dan Henry Huntington (Onondega, New York, 1817). "
In the video below, the tune is performed by Liz Kane with the Irish-American band Cherish the Ladies.
Shaving Baby with a Spoon
This fabulous hop jig was written by uilleann piper Patrick Hutchinson, who was born and raised in Liverpool, then went on to learn pipes from Toronto-based piper Chris Langan, and who now lives in Providence, Rhode Island. He was inspired to write this tune after trying to feed his baby son, and scraping his messy food with a spoon as if shaving him. He wrote some hilarious words to it, too! Beneath my recordings of the tune is a clip of Leonard Barry, an uilleann piper from Tralee, County Kerry.
