King of the Fairies - what speed?

[Jock Sparrow]

Hi,
I've just about memorised this tune from a TablEdit version arranged by Mike Strangeland, the tempo of which is a fair old pace for a beginner like me

I checked a few versions on YouTube and they are almost all played much slower.

Is King of the Fairies usually played slower?

Thanks,
Gary.

[Daithio]

Kevin Burke played it very slowly on a recording once; consequently people tend to follow his lead. For general playing I prefer a moderate hornpipe tempo with plenty of swing. I don't like it fast, but I also don't like it too slow--just right in the middle.

[Jock Sparrow]

Thanks Daithio.

I must admit that since I've been learning bluegrass banjo for almost a year now, the lively version certainly entertains me more

Having said that, all Scottish and Irish music played at a lively tempo sets my toes tapping so I may be a lost cause as far as slow music goes

[Lou Scuderi]

I've always played it relatively slowly, but by no means does that mean that you should. Some of the fun of irish music is making your own arrangements, so if you like playing it fast, go for it! Whatever sounds and feels best to you.

[Ravenwood]

It is most often played at a slow to moderate tempo with a lot of swing, but I've also played at a blistering tempo in session. It's a tune you can have a lot of fun with.

[Richard Moore]

I generally play it at a fairly moderate tempo but with a fair bit of bounce in it. In general I take tunes at a slightly more relaxed pace these days.

[Martin Jonas]

Great tune! I agree with most of the previous posters: it's generally played relatively slowly. When I play it, the version I try to channel is the Horslips version, as seen in this Youtube clip. This is faster than many others play it (the Dubliners version, for example, is much slower), but not nearly as fast as most session tunes. Alan Stivell's version here is also very good (and quite similar).

Martin

[Jock Sparrow]

Both these versions were great to hear Martin.

I normally prefer acoustic versions of this sort of music, but the last part of the Horslips version - from when the keyboard player changed to whistle - fairly had me tapping away

Gary.

[Bertram Henze]

In sessions, we usually do an acceleration feat, starting off with a solmn funeral pace and speeding up to just over hornpipe over 4 rounds.

Bertram

[Jock Sparrow]

How very heartwarming to receive replies from foreign lands concerning Celtic music

It makes me feel I sometimes don't appreciate my heritage, but it wouldn't be the first time I felt choked listening to Scottish or Irish music

Many years ago I was in travelling through Brittany as a young man and heard the sound of the pipes from a pub - I've never been so homesick as then.

Thanks again.

Gary.

[Eddie Sheehy]

I play it slowly when I want it to sound haunting... sometimes I like it at hornpipe speed to "lift" me along...

[man dough nollij]

Kevin Burke played it very slowly on a recording once; consequently people tend to follow his lead. For general playing I prefer a moderate hornpipe tempo with plenty of swing. I don't like it fast, but I also don't like it too slow--just right in the middle.

Sorry to be ignorant here. I'm familiar with the west coast and east coast styles of swing dancing, but I'm not really familiar with playing a tune with "plenty of swing". What does that mean?

[Martin Jonas]

Sorry to be ignorant here. I'm familiar with the west coast and east coast styles of swing dancing, but I'm not really familiar with playing a tune with "plenty of swing". What does that mean?

It means syncopating the quavers (eighths notes) by playing the first note of each pair of quavers longer than the second note. That's sometimes written out by substituting two consecutive quavers with a dotted quaver followed by a semiquaver (or "1/8+1/8=3/16+1/16" written above the score), although for most fiddle tunes that's a crude simplification; it's very rare that one swings a tune quite as much as would be suggested by that notation.

Martin

[Tim2723]

Within the context of this kind of music, 'lilt' might be a better word than 'swing'. Think Irish lilt.

[John Flynn]

It means syncopating the quavers (eighths notes) by playing the first note of each pair of quavers longer than the second note. That's sometimes written out by substituting two consecutive quavers with a dotted quaver followed by a semiquaver (or "1/8+1/8=3/16+1/16" written above the score), although for most fiddle tunes that's a crude simplification; it's very rare that one swings a tune quite as much as would be suggested by that notation.

Martin

Put less technically, it means you accent some notes by playing them slightly longer than their note value would dictate, which means the following note gets a little less time. A way to hear this is to play a common fiddle tune in TablEdit, where the software just mechanically plays the notes as written, and then listen to a recording of really good fiddler play the same tune and compare the two. Not only will there be a lot of ornaments added in the latter: hammers, pulls, slides, double stops, etc, but you will also hear that many of the note values get varied or "swung."

It is one of the subtle things that really adds to the overall sound of a great fiddler, or mandolin player for that matter.

[Dave Hanson]

According to O'Neill it's a set dance, not a hornpipe, as such it should be played moderately slowly.

Dave H

[Ronny]

Dave is right. Another clue (a clue, not a proof) to make a difference between hornpipes and set dances : the first part of a set dance has 8 repeated measures, the second one has 16 repeated measures...