Annotation:Tommy Coen's Reel (1)
X: 1 T: Tommy Coen's (Reel) [1] R:reel C:Tommy Coen Z:By T. Coen, of Co. Galway. Z:John Walsh Dec 99 S:John Walsh <walsh:math.ubc.ca> irtrad-l 2001-12-7 M:C| K:G GE|D3 E ~G3 A|B2 dB ABGB|ABGE ~D3 E|G2 BG ABGE| ~D3 E GFGA|B2 dB ABGA|BA ~A2 GEBG| ABGE G3:| A|BA (3Bcd edeg|agge g2 eg|a2 ge gage|dedB ABGA| BA (3Bcd edeg|agge g2 eg|a2 ge d2 BG| ABGE G2:| dc|BG ~G2 dGBd|eg ~g2 egdc|BG ~G2 dGBG|EA ~A2 EA ~A2| BG ~G2 dGBd|eggf ~g3 a|bgag edBG|ABGE G2:|
TOMMY COEN'S REEL (Ríl Thomáis Uí Chomhain). AKA and see "Christmas Eve (2)" (Oíche Nollag), "Castle Reel (1) (The)." Irish, Reel (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. The tune was composed by Irish musician Tommy Coen (1910-1974). Coen was born in Urrachree, East Co. Galway, but moved with his family to Salthill, just west of Galway City, in the late 1920s. He started out as an accordion player, but later switched to the fiddle and it is for his skill on the latter instrument he is remembered. Coen worked as a conductor on Connemara buses and is said to have been inspired by the local scenery when composing his tunes. Flute player Mike McHale was overheard to tell a story about Coen during a concert at the East Durham Irish Arts Festival in 2000 (communicated by Mike Hogan). McHale was a boy who had picked up the tin whistle, and was entertaining himself by noodling around with it during his bus ride on his way home from school. Hearing him, the vehicle’s conductor approached him a asked, “Can you play that thing?” McHale answered, "A couple of tunes, Sir." "Well then" said the conductor, "My name is Tommy Coen, will you come to the back of the bus, I have a fiddle under the seat." Later, according to his student Séamus Walshe (Taylors Hill, Galway), when Coen’s health failed he returned to accordion playing, “putting his fiddle playing into the box. I think he wrote a total of about six tunes” (Miller & Perron, 2006).
