Week #78 ~ Brian Boru's March

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  1. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    This week's winner is Brian Boru's March. Here is a link to it's run as an "other tune". It's a great tune, so hopefully, now that it's an OFFICIAL tune, we'll get many more submissions!

    Here's the ABC

    X: 1
    T: Brian Boru's March
    M: 6/8
    L: 1/8
    R: jig
    K: Amin
    ed |: c3/2B/A Aed | cBA Adc | B3/2A/G Gdc | BAG Ged |
    c3/2B/A Aed | cBA A3 | Acd e2 d |1 cBA Aed :|2 cBA A2 G |
    |: Acd e2 d | e2 d e3/2c/A | GAB d2 B | d2 B d3/2B/G | Acd e2 d |
    e2 d e3/2c/A | A3/2c/d e2 d |1 c3/2B/A A2 G :|2 c3/2B/A A2 B |
    |: c3/2B/A a2 a | c3/2B/A a2 a|B3/2A/G g2 g | B3/2A/G g2 B |
    c3/2B/A a2 a | c3/2B/A a2 b | c'ba gfe | dcB A2 B :|
    |: cde g2 e | g2 e g3/2e/c | GAB d2 B | d2 B d3/2B/G |
    cde g2 e | g2 e g3/2e/c |Acd e2 d |1 c3/2B/A A2 B :|2 c3/2B/A A2 ||
  2. Marcelyn
    Marcelyn
    This one sounds great paired with the Coleraine Jig.
  3. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    We play Brian Boru's March with Rakes of Kildare... a great pair!
  4. Michael Pastucha
    Michael Pastucha
    Looks like I'm going to plunge in first this time. Learned this tune years ago from an album entitled, "The Chieftains 2". Tried to get some of the embellishments that Paddy Moloney played on his uilleann pipes onto the mandolin. Played on a Gibson F2 with back up from a George Bauer parlor guitar.

  5. Doghearty
    Doghearty
    Oh man, I like that. Way to go!!!
  6. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Stuche, this is one of my favorite tunes, and you played it the best I've ever heard it! BRAVO! Nothing like setting the bar high for the rest of us!
  7. Michael Pastucha
    Michael Pastucha
    Thanks! There's a Chieftain's version of Brian Boru's March on youtube. It's the one I used to learn the tune from the record years ago. This is the best version I've ever heard... and Paddy Moloney is fantastic on it (as are all the rest of the Chieftains.) Give it a listen:

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h2Qmx2zp4E
  8. David Hansen
    David Hansen
    I first heard this tune in 1976 on Horslips "Book of Invasions" album where it is called "March Into Trouble" and precedes the song "Trouble With A Capital T". Here's a link to the original recording:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8YuAbkDT94

    My version is based upon their version, played here on my Sobell mandolin.

  9. Don Grieser
    Don Grieser
    Very nice, David and Stuche. Very nice indeed.

    When is a march a jig? When is a jig a march? Do the Irish jig when they march? I'm so confused.
  10. Michael Pastucha
    Michael Pastucha
    Very lively, David! Couldn't stop my feet from moving along to your excellent playing. The ending reminded me of something...oh well, it'll probably come to me later.
  11. Marcelyn
    Marcelyn
    So, why is the video of David and his awesome Sobel coming up as unavailable now?

    Really incredible performance, Stuche. I like the effect of the muted strings as an intro and ending.
  12. Eddie Sheehy
    A Blast from the Past!

  13. jhuesgen
    jhuesgen
    Great picking Mr Hansen, Eddie,and Stuche! David you are starting to get good with those video effects! I put your last one on my Ipod using audacity (Hewlett). Its a great recording software, just need to find a great video program like you use so I can layer up my mandolin with my guitars. For my post I am thinking of having a duet to change things up since this tune has 3 great posts already, I want to be different.
  14. Jill McAuley
    Jill McAuley
    Great version David, love the "glinting" effect!

    I love Eddie's version with the morphing instruments as well!!
  15. jhuesgen
    jhuesgen
    reply to Don Grieser about jig and march. found this on http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/271
    Brian Boru's March

    "Yes, I know it's not a jig. But there's no "march" in the tune menu, and even if there were, some marches are 6/8 and some are 2/4, and Jeremy has pointed out to me that the site is set up so that the time signature is set by the tune type, not by the abc code we enter."

    Jeff

    # Posted on September 6th 2001 by JeffK627

    "I guess you can march to it. Jigs always being in 6/8 (seems to me) to be something that happened around 150 yrs ago. I'm also under the impression that the Irish word for jig "port" just means "tune" not really defining the meter. I'm not too sure about all of the facts I stated but I'm sure some subscribers could shed some more light on this subject."

    # Posted on September 6th 2001 by Mad Baloney
  16. Marcelyn
    Marcelyn
    I tried your video again today, David, and it let me hear it this time. Outstanding playing. I'm always impressed by your arrangements. Your accompaniment makes them extra fun to practice along with.
  17. David Hansen
    David Hansen
    Marcelyn, thanks for the compliments, people actually pay me for accompaniment but sadly I'm seldom paid for my mando playing except for an occasional mandonator tune at contra dances.

    jhuesgen, I use Quicktime and an outdated version of iMovie HD for video, the audio is recorded on an old MOTU 828.
  18. Tosh Marshall
    Tosh Marshall
    The versions by Stuche, David and Eddie just show how wonderful music is, different styles that all relate to the same piece of music.
    In response to the question by Don and Jhuesgen, this tune is a 6/8 March, which was essentially written for bagpipes, whose music is different to treble clef instruments. The bagpipes does not have a c natural or f natural note, everything is sharp but in bagpipe music they do not write it with sharps as Jack Campin pointed out to me:-
    Thanks for that info Jack, I had no idea. I had to ring a friend for a quick music lesson! So basically bagpipe music is in the Mixolydian mode so tunes that end in A are mixolydian, ends in D are major, ends in E are dorian and ends in B are Aeolian (B minor).
    I copied this from Andrew McNabb's bagpipe pages:- 'The melody is produced entirely by the chanter, which has a powerful double reed. The chanter can play nine notes, ranging from low G to high A. It plays in the mixolydian mode, a fancy term meaning that its scale is the same as a normal major scale with the seventh note flattened by a half step. The tonic (base note of the scale) is A. Be aware that A is just the name of the note. The instrument has grown sharper over the years so that the A on most modern chanters is in the area of a concert B-flat (sometimes even slightly sharper). People with perfect pitch just have to get over it. Even more confusingly, the C-sharp and F-sharp are always called C and F respectively. There's no ambiguity since the bagpipe doesn't play a C-natural or F-natural, so those who are pedantic about terminology will just have to get over that, too.'
    I just abc'd Brian Boru's from the Henderson Bagpipe tutor and this one is in Bm
    X:1
    T:Brian Boru
    T:6/8 March
    B:Henderson's Tutor For The Bagpipe
    M:6/8
    R:March
    K:Bmin
    f | dcB BBf | dcB BBe | cBA AAe | cBA AAf |
    dcB BBf | dcB BBA | B>de fec |1 B2 B BBf :|2 B2 B BBf ||
    |: Bce f2 e | f2 e f2 a | ABc e2 c | e2 c e2 f |
    Bce f2 e | f2 e f2 a | B>de fec |1 B2 B BBf :|2 B2 B BBf ||
    |: dcB BfB | dcB BfB | cBA A<Aa/A/ | cBA A<Aa/A/ |
    dcB BfB | dcB BBA | B>de fec |1 B2 B BBf :|2 B2 B BBf ||
  19. jhuesgen
    jhuesgen
    My video will be later this week. Works been getting in the way of my music
    it will be with my future father in-law on banjo or bouzouki.
  20. Marcelyn
    Marcelyn
    Sounds like you're marrying into a good family there. Looking forward to the video.
  21. jhuesgen
    jhuesgen
    Yep, great family. I am very blessed. He plays tenor banjo, bouzouki, guitar just to name a few. Use to be a rocker but now plays in an Irish band that I was able to play 8 tunes with at our fall festival.
  22. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Stuche has set the bar so high, I decided to juggernaut the bar by playing the slow and heavy version I used to do 20 years ago. Not sure if you can march to that, unless you're 7 ft high and not slightly built with it (Shrek?) - so I took the liberty to rename it.

  23. Michael Pastucha
    Michael Pastucha
    That's a very powerful tune in your hands on that big ol' instrument. There's certainly some proud marching going on there! Thanks
  24. Marcelyn
    Marcelyn
    Bertram, how do you do that cool reverberation affect at the end where the string keeps going and going?

    Here's my attempt at Bryan Boru on a 2002 Old Wave.

  25. jhuesgen
    jhuesgen
    Bertram Henze, that sounds very Baroque or mid-evil. You must play that at every Mid-evil fair
  26. jhuesgen
    jhuesgen
    Just a History tid-bit, Brian Boru was an Irish "High King"
  27. Michael Pastucha
    Michael Pastucha
    The Old Wave has a lovely sound in your hands Marcelyn! You sure make this tune drive with the way you stress the beat -- the ones when your foot taps the ground. What could be better for a march than that?
  28. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Thanks all.

    Marcelyn, the reverberation is artificial, just keeping up the rhythm with the lower strings picked softer and softer and softer (like the sound of marching feet fading in the distance or like some people on a microphone creating their own echo echo echo echo...).

    J, I think in baroque times people played much softer than I do, even more in mid-evil (Hahaha) times. I also think that Shrek would well qualify for an Irish king, at least he's got the right color.
  29. Eddie Sheehy
    Brian Boru (Boramha) was king of Munster and High-King of Ireland. He routed the Vikings at the battle of Clontarf in 1014. He was praying in his tent after the battle when Vikings sneaked in and killed him. His palace was at Cashel in Tipperary and still stands.
  30. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Here's a new video of me playing Brian Boru's March on my Petersen octave mandolin. I multi-tracked in Garage Band, melody, chords & a tremolo track. I borrowed from most of the previous postings to come up with this arrangement!

  31. Michael Pastucha
    Michael Pastucha
    Very nice arrangement (and a lovely smile there at the end!) I've been wondering for some time how octave mandolin players are able to handle that extremely long scale length (as compared to a mandolin). Barbara it seems that you are using fingerings almost like playing a mandolin. I'll bet that when you go back to actually playing a mandolin it must seem so tiny in your hands.
  32. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Thanks! I use my pinky on the 5th frets when I play the OM; I believe the Eddie uses the same fingerings on OM & mando (in other words, he doesn't use his pinky... frets the 5th frets with his ring finger...
  33. Eddie Sheehy
    Indeed he does... that's why he's getting a 21" scale OM...
  34. Marcelyn
    Marcelyn
    Wow, Barbara, your arrangements are really amazing. The triplets and tremelo are impressive, and I liked the way you closed the tune.
  35. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Marcelyn, thanks! The ending was 'borrowed' from Michael Pastucha's video... and he did it MUCH better!
  36. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    There's Brian Boru dancing lightly across the fields Barb! - and probably routing some vikings while he's at it. Wonderful. I guess Stuche inspired us all.
  37. jhuesgen
    jhuesgen

    Thought it would be fun to combine everyones audio tracks into one mix with some pictures. Was able to get most to work with it too, see if you can hear your self in this . Really starts to come together in the middle of it. Got really bored around 12am last night (too late to practice, but not late enough for sleep).
  38. jhuesgen
    jhuesgen
    I should get my own recording up sometime Friday evening. Just in time to start learning the next tune.
  39. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    That was cool.... kind of sounds what I imagine an acid trip would be like!!
  40. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    My, J - that mix explains why there are no High Kings today.
  41. Michael Pastucha
    Michael Pastucha
    A marvelous mysterious medieval mind-bending medley of many mixed-up mandolins. . . mercy!
  42. Eddie Sheehy
    Some things are better left alone... specially round midnight... I've often been in rare form after a few pints...
  43. Doghearty
    Doghearty
    Far out, man.
  44. tnt2002
    tnt2002
    First time post for this group. On my Eastman 815, using Band in a Box for backing tracks.

  45. Doghearty
    Doghearty
    Very good-- and you're actually playing it as written at thesession.org
  46. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    tnt2002 (do you have a name?) Very nice first post! Welcome to the social group!
  47. rob stolzy
    rob stolzy
    Enjoyed viewing the various versions of this tune, one of the first I ever learnt on whistle. Thought people might enjoy this foto of the "Brian Boru" harp which was on display nearby the famous and beautiful Book of Kells in the Trinity College bookshop in Dublin about 15 years ago or so. Gorgeous harp, but old as it is, Brian Boru is still 400-500 years older -- so not sure why it is referred to as his harp.
  48. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    I guess everybody knows Brian Boru's harp by design:

  49. Tosh Marshall
    Tosh Marshall
    Bertram!!!!! That's torture for a Coeliac like me!!!!!!!!! I may have to succumb!!!!!!!! Nah better not.........I'd better get working on the tune! Great vids by everyone and a great tune.....
  50. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Oh sorry Tosh, I forgot. Let me see... there's a solution, but that comes with a price: you have to side with the High King's enemy:



    (I might have mixed up the time by a few centuries )
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