Annotation:Doran from Kesh
X:1 T:Doran from Kesh M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B:Alex Sutherland music manuscript collection N:Sutherland (1873-1967) was a fiddler from Toome, Drumreilly, County Leitrim, who N:submitted his extensive music manuscripts to the National Folklore Commission in 1959 K:D f2 fd e2 ed|f2 fd e(B{c}BA)|f2 fd e2 dB|ABde fdde| f2 (fd) efde|fgfd (eB) B2|dfaf bgaf|(3efg fd e2 dB|| |:ADFA B2 (3Bcd|ADFA B(E{F}ED)|ADFA B2 (Bd)|1 ABde fedB:|2 ABde fdde||
DORAN FROM KESH. AKA and see "Mac Cabe," "McCabe's Reel," "Patsy Hanley's (2)," "Ríl Mhic Cába." Irish, Reel (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABB'. "Doran from Kesh" is contained in Book 1 of the large early 20th century music manuscript collection of musician Alex Sutherland of Toome, Drumreilly, County Leitrim. Researcher Conor Ward finds both strains cognate with "Patsy Hanley's (2)" (parts reversed). In addition, he finds the first strain of "Doran" cognate with the second strain of "John O'Neill's Reel" printed by Francis O'Neill in Music of Ireland (1903, No. 1265). A version of the reel was recorded by Mick, Louise and Michele Mulcahy on their recording "Reelin' in Tradition" (2009) under the title "McCabe's/Ríl Mhic Cába," and by the group Dervish on their recording "Spirit" (2003) as one of the reels in the set "The Siesta."
In a very astute observation, Conor also finds a cognate tune in Francis O'Neill's "John O'Neill's Reel," the second strain of which is immediately recognizable as version of the first strain of "Doran from Kesh" and "Patsy Hanley's (3)." Further, Conor hypothesizes the first strain of "John O'Neill's" is also a cognate, albeit with a bit of melodic manipulation. As he explains:
...If you add a placeholder of two beats (two crochets) to O'Neill's Part A at the start of Bar 1 and remove two crochets at the end of Bar 3 (which O'Neill may have added to make the part work), the part aligns melodically with Part B of Patsy Hanley's/Doran from Kesh.
It's not the first instance of this kind of melodic gymnastic, Conor points out, as he and Fr. John Quinn found a similar sort of displacement (of one beat) occurs with "Come West Along the Road" and its precursor, the Scottish reel "Miss Maria Dundas"[1].
- ↑ Personal communication 2.11.22.