Annotation:Waves of Torey (1) (The)
X:1 T:Scotch Lilt M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Country Dance Tune N:Used by Roche as "Waves of Torey [1]." S:James Goodman (1828─1896) music manuscript collection, S:vol. 3, p. 70. Mid-19th century, County Cork Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Amix g/f/|eA Ag/f/|e/d/e/f/ gf/e/|dG BA/G/|Bd dg/f/| eA Ag/f/|e/d/e/f/ gf/e/|dG BA/G/|A2 A:| |:g/f/|ea ag/f/|e/d/e/f/ g2|gd dc/d/|gd d2| ea ag/f/|e/d/e/f/ gf/e/|dG BA/G/|A2 A:|]
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).
