Annotation:Blue Ribbon Polka (1)

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BLUE RIBBON POLKA [1]. AKA - "Blue Riband Polka." AKA and see "Maurice O'Keeffe's (1)." Irish, Polka. D Major ('A' part) & G Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A polka from the Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border. Cranitch keeps the C# note through the 'B' part, which may or may not be a mistake in the notation, although it could be played that way in Sliabh Luachra. Two key tunes are rare in Irish music. Philippe Varlet remarks that the tune was fairly popular in the early recording era and was waxed by both Michael Hanafin and Dan Moroney, both originally from County Kerry and members of Dan Sullivan's Shamrock Band in Boston. John and Julia Clifford, respectively an accordion and fiddler player originally from the Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork/Kerry border, recorded the tune in London in 1977. See also a related, untitled, polka collected by Brendan Breathnach (CRÉ V, 1999, No. 85) from a Radio Éireann recording of musician John Ryan.

Source for notated version: Paddy Ryan [Treoir].

Printed sources: Cranitch (Irish Fiddle Book), 1996; No. 44, p. 142. Cranitch (Irish Session Tunes: Red Book), 2000; 44. O'Brien (Jerry O'Brien's Accordion Instructor), Boston, 1949. Treoir, vol. 32, No. 1, 2000; p. 22 (appears as "The Blue Riband").

Recorded sources:

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