Annotation:Rakes of Kildare

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RAKES OF KILDARE (Na Racairaide/Racairi Ua Cill-Dara). AKA and see "Ailteoiri na Cille," “Art McBride (2),” “Barn Door Jig (The),” “Fair of Drumlish (The),” "Galbally Farmer (The)," "Cranbally Farmer (The)," "Get Up Early," "Barn Door Jig (The)," "Old Barndoor (The)," "Let us leave that as it is" (Fágamaíd Súd Mar Atá Sé). Irish, Double Jig. A Dorian (Haverty, Johnson, Kennedy, Kerr, Levey, McDermott, O'Neill/Krassen): G Dorian (Roche, version #2): G Major/Mixolydian (Cole, O'Neill, Williamson): G Major (Harker/Rafferty, Roche, first version). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Kennedy, Kerr): AABB (Cole, Haverty, Johnson, Levey, O'Neill, Roche [#1], Williamson): AABB' (Harker/Rafferty, McDermott). The word ‘Rakes’ in the title appears to be short for ‘rakehell’, which itself stems from the Old Icelandic word reikall, meaning "wandering” or “unsettled." However, in 18th and 19th century usage the term 'rake' was used to denote unruly and spirited young gentlemen. The name Kildare in Irish means ‘Church of the Oaks’. O'Sullivan (1983) finds the tune (which appears in many collections of Irish music) earliest in print (in this form) in the first volume of R.M. Levey's Dance Music of Ireland (1858), where it is called only "A jig." O’Neill (1913), however, is convinced the tune was derived from an ancient march melody called “Get Up Early,” which the Irish collector Edward Bunting obtained in 1802 from one R. Stanton at Westport, County Mayo. American versions have been collected in New England and Michigan. It is sometimes used as a tune for morris dancing in England. Various sets of words have been set to the tune, including the Irish song “Goidé sin don té sin.” Canon James Goodman entered the tune into his large mid-19th century music manuscript title (vol. 2, p. 134) as "It was in the year 1804," which sounds like it may have been the name of a song set to the tune, but the title appears crossed out in the original ms. and Goodman may have realized he made a mistake.

Source for notated version: fiddler Andy Keezer (Bear Lake, Michigan) [Johnson]; New Jersey flute player Mike Rafferty, born in Ballinakill, Co. Galway, in 1926 [Harker].

Printed sources: Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 60. Giblin (Collection of Traditional Irish Dance Music), 1928; 95. Harker (300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty), 2005; No. 235, p. 72. P.M. Haverty (One Hundred Irish Airs vol. 2), 1859; No. 107, p. 49. Johnson (Kitchen Musician No. 7: Michigan Tunes), 1986-87; p. 11. Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune-Book: Jigs & Quicksteps, Trips & Humours), 1997; No. 159, p. 38. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880; No. 21, p. 37. R.M. Levey (First Collection of the Dance Music of Ireland), 1858; No. 1, p. 1. McDermott (Allan's Irish Fiddler), 1922; No. 25, p. 7. Moffat (202 Gems of Irish Melody), p. 1. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 32. Ó Lochlainn (Irish Street Ballads), 1939; No. 42. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 847, p. 157. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 108, p. 33. Robbins (Collection of 200 Jigs, Reels, and Country Dances), 1933; No. 184, p. 59. Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 1), 1912; No. 87, p. 39 (appears as "The Galbally Farmer"). Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 3), 1927; No. 103, p. 32. Williamson (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes), 1976; p. 70.

Recorded sources: Canadian Broadcasting Corp. NMAS 1972, Natalie MacMaster – "Fit as a Fiddle" (1993). Columbia 230737 (78 RPM), John J. Kimmel (1920). Folkways 8826, Per's Four – "Jigs and Reels." Fretless 122, "Oldtime Fiddling, vol. 10." Leader LEDCD 2060, John J. Kimmel – "Early Recordings of Irish Traditional Dance Music" (1998). Angus Cameron – “Strings to the Bow” (1977). Pibroch MacKenzie – “The Mull Fiddler” (1969). Bob Smith’s Ideal Band – “Better than an Orchestra” (1977). Shanachie 34014, James Kelly, Paddy O’Brien & Daithi Sproule – “Traditional Music of Ireland” (1995). Topic TSCD 669, Davie Rogerson (et al) – “Ranting and Reeling: Dance Music of the north of England” (1998. Northumbrian fiddler Rogerson was born in 1901). WMT002, Wendy MacIsaac – “That’s What You Get” (1997?).

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]
Hear John J. Kimmel's 1920 recording at ITMA [4] and at the Comhaltas archive [5]
See the tune in the Dunn Family manuscript collection [6]

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