Annotation:Let's Have a Ceilidh
Back to Let's Have a Ceilidh
LET'S HAVE A CEILIDH. AKA and see "Maids of Ardagh." Canadian, Polka. Canada, Prince Edward Island. D Major ('A' part) & A Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune is attributed to British musician D.K. Finlay who gave the tune the name "Swing o' the Kilt." The "Let's Have a Ceilidh" title is from a song by the Alexander Brothers, and is the name of a dance in Cape Breton/P.E.I. However, the tune is a member of a large and varied tune family, many of whose titles were collected in a thread on the Bob Dunsire bagpipe forum [1]: "Liberton Boys (The)" ( also an arrangement by Peter McLeod Jnr. 5 parts. John Wallace acknowledged as composer ), "Liberton Polka (The)," "Liberton Boys Pipe Band" (formed 1883 at Dr Guthrie's Ragged School, Liberton, Edinburgh), "Liberton Pipe Band," "Liberty Boys (The)," "Piper's Polka (The)," "Polish Polka" (Michael Turner's MS,Sussex c1841-51), "Old Country Polka" ( appears in an early fiddle MS), "Sligo Polka" (1st part), "Tuar Mor Polka (2)," "Tourmore Polka (2)," "Toormore," "Miss Mense's Polka," "Mrs Carter Menzies Polka," "Captain Menzies," "Kilberry Ball Polka (The)" ( parts 3 and 4, composed PM Robert Meldrum), "Sliabh Mhachaire," "Johnny Leary's," "Ballyscadden," "Back o' the Haggard," "Ta Boinead Agam," "Green Hills of Dublin (The)" (Reel version), "Maids of Ardagh," "I Have a Bonnet Trimmed with Blue," "Caubeen Trimmed with Blue" (or Caubeen), "Swing o' the Kilt," "London Irish Rifles (The)"
"Miss Campbell's Polka" (parts 1 and 2), "Come to Fiona's Wedding" (comp Finlay Hayes), "McKay's Polka" (parts 1 and 2)
"Toberua Marriage Walk" (Played by Fiji Piper (member of these Forums) and Stuart Cheyne at the wedding of Billy Connelly, on Toberua, Fiji), "Dr. Guthrie's Polka" (5th and 6th part added by J. Montague, harmony added throughout, and named so as to keep the history of the tune circulating for the future), "Irish Two Step (The)."
Source for notated version: Attwood O'Connor (b. 1923, Milltown Cross, South Kings County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman].
Printed sources: Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 161.
Recorded sources: