Annotation:Atlantic Roar (1) (The)

ATLANTIC ROAR, THE (Tuam na Farraige). AKA and see "Atlantic Hornpipe," "Atlantic Wave," "Tuam na Farraige." Irish, Hornpipe. Ireland, County Donegal. G Major. Standard tuning. ABB (Feldman & O'Doherty): AABB (Kennedy). A County Donegal hornpipe popularized by fiddler John Doherty and recorded by him on a CCE LP. Caoimhin Mac Aoidh, a Donegal musicologist who has studied Doherty, states that the translation is Doherty's but that the Irish title translates loosely as "The Roar of the Sea." He records that at different times Doherty credited the tune to the travelling fiddle masters Anthony Helferty (of the Inishowen and Ardara areas) and John Mhosai McGinley (a native of Glencolmcille). The evidence would seem to award composition of the tune to Helferty, who may have called it "The Roar of Loughros Mor" (a peninsula near Ardara). According to Mac Aoidh, the inspiration for the melody arose from the circumstance of Helferty finding himself too fatigued and inebriated while making his way home from playing all night for a dance--he stopped for a nap near the sea cliffs and the rhythm of the waves heard in his sleep formed the basis of the tune. Mac Aoidh maintains it is important to play the melody with G string double stops to get the effect of the droning of the waves, and also points out that most Donegal musicians play the tune at a slower tempo than a hornpipe, almost as a slow march, rendering it a listening piece rather than a dance tune.

Source for notated version: fiddler John Doherty (1895-1980, County Donegal) [Feldman & O'Doherty].

Printed sources: Feldman & O'Doherty (The Northern Fiddler), 1979; pg. 83. Kennedy (Traditional Dance Music of Britain and Ireland: Rants & Reels), 1997; No. 2, pg. 3.