Tunes

These are the notes which accompany the selected tunes. They provide insight into each tune in both the Collected Compositions and The Collection of Irish/American Traditional Tunes and is another reason that these books are a treasure of the music.

Selections from the Collected Compositions

Love at the Endings, who can forget the impassioned speech of O'Killigan in O'Casey's Purple Dust, especially when he sets to woo Avril away from her British lord. O'Killigan has only the simples things in his favor. But Avril finally succumbs to his grand talk as he urges her "to spit out what's here" and make a home with him out in the west of Ireland where they'll both find "things to say and things to do, and love at the endings"

Hunters House, it would be furnished with every evidence of the prize game he caught. It would be a place where the best men would choose to gather and listen to Ireland's finest players. This is the setting Ed provides for the this the most popular of this tunes.

Maudabawn Chapel (page 1, page 2), the local chapel in Ed's parish where he first learned the simple ways of faith.

The Lone Bush, there was a bush that bloomed alone outside Ed's farmhouse. Many times he has wondered about that bush and why it survived whan all around it perished. It has meant many things to him and has always been a life-sustaining thought.

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Selections from The Collection of Irish/American Traditional Tunes aka "The Music of Corktown":

Dances at Kinvara:
a Reavy tune composed about 1945. The Dmajor chord in the second and sixth measures gives this barn dance its unique flavor. It is a classic dance tune: a perfect match for the patterns in this uniquely Irish Ceili Dance

The Ace and Duce of Pipering,
Francis O'Neill lists two settings (1781 and 1782). Ours is like the first one, with the biggest changes occuring in measures 2, 5, 6 and 8. O'Neill also fails to use C sharp where it really belongs in this strangely modal tune. (Forgive me, Francis for my indiscreet comments on your great pioneering work.)

The Job of Journeywork,
listed 1792 in F. O'Neill. Ed's setting is grand; the selection of notes and sequence of phrases is matchless. It's somewhat like taking a journey through strangely familiar regions and yet recognizing that somehow your've never really been there before. This great modal melody has majestic strains that beguile the player and listener. And it has oddly enough fourteen measures in the second part. I give it a coveted spot in the top five on the all-time charts. (And its a great title too.)

The Shaskeen,
presented on page 14 in Selena O'Neill's little book and listed as a clog in F. O'Neill's volume (number 1703). A tune that Ed featured when he was at his best. Another tune reserved for the man of the house.