Annotation:Waves of Torey (1) (The)

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WAVES OF TOREY [1], THE. AKA - "Waves of Tory." Irish, Long Dance (2/4 time). E Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. This tune belongs to the "Hillside (1) (The)" group of tunes--for more on this tune family see Bayard's (1944) note for "Annotation:Red Brick House in Georgia Town." The melody appeared under the generic title "Scotch Lilt" in the large mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper Canon biography:James Goodman.

The Waves of Torey is the name of a ceili dance with a distinctive duck/diving and rising figure like a series of waves on the ocean. Many tunes have been played as an accompaniment to the dance. Reg Hall (in A Few Tunes of Good Music, 2016, p. 194) notes that the dance swept through London Gaelic League brances in 1906; "'The Waves of Tory' and some succeeding dances were invented in Ireland using country-dance figures wedded to the steps and style of the 'London' figure dances" (referring to the four- and eight-hand reels, St. Patrick's Day and the Rinnce Fáda).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 2), 1912; No. 292, p. 37.

Recorded sources: Tradition 2118, Jim MacLeod & His Band "Scottish Dances: Jigs, Waltzes and Reels" (1979).

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