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Thread: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

  1. #1

    Default Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    As a new mandolinist I've been enjoying learning this song and recently recorded a version in an abandoned racquetball facility. Researching the song's origins though there are a lot of question marks. Some say it is Irish, some say Scottish. Some attribute to Niel Gow, who was Scottish (I love his music, eager to learn as much as I can). I usually see it spelled Whiskey, but occasionally Whisky. Is there any solid consensus on the origins that I can confidently cite when playing this song?

    I did find this site that gives a pretty good origin tale and the one I'm most apt to go with for the time being at least: http://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:...to_Whiskey_(1)

    Here is my recording if you're curious, unfortunately I discovered the lights in the facility create an annoying background hum that my noise removal software can't defeat without hampering the mandolin sound:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwwDptxMYHk

  2. #2
    nigelgatherer
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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    Hi Seter. Irish and American whiskey is spelled with an "e", while Scottish whisky without. The tune "Farewell to Whisky" was indeed composed by Niel Gow. After a few years of shortages, the harvests of 1799 were late and often of poor quality, owing to remarkable rainfall. This led to a temporary enforced halt to the production of the golden nectar, and the start of the production of Gow's heart-felt lament.

    At some point the tune was taken up by Irish musicians, speeded up and used for dancing in, for example, the medley for The Seige of Ennis. In my opinion it works well as a beautiful slow air as well as a faster dance tune.

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    Registered User John Kelly's Avatar
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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    Interestingly, he wrote a sequel, as a Strathspey and in Bb, when the ban on distilling was rescinded, and called it Welcome Whisky Back Again! An altogether much happier state of affairs.

    I totally agree with Nigel on the quality of the tune as a slow air.
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    '`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`' Jacob's Avatar
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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    Is the tune Whiskey For (Before, 'Fore) Breakfast also related to the agricultural catastrophe and distilling prohibition?

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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    We play those 3 as a set Whiskey Before Breakfast, Farewell to Whisky and then Welcome Whisky back again.
    - Jeremy

    Wot no catchphrase?

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    Registered User Mike Anderson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    Quote Originally Posted by Jacob View Post
    Is the tune Whiskey For (Before, 'Fore) Breakfast also related to the agricultural catastrophe and distilling prohibition?
    I'd always heard it was by Andy de Jarlis, the great Metis fiddler from Manitoba, but did a little searching and found one source that says he was the "reason for its popularity," which is not quite the same thing!
    "But wasn't it all stupid nonsense, rot, gibberish, and criminally fraudulent nincompoopery?"
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    Registered User Randi Gormley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    So cool. An explanation in a book of tunes gave it a different twist -- the "farewell to whisky" was as it was drunk down and the "welcome whisky back again" was a refill of the glass. They're both wonderful tunes wherever they came from. Nice to have the real story!
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  11. #8

    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    I didn't know there was a sequel of sorts, I'll have to add that to my list of tunes to learn. Awhile back I searched for Niel Gow on Amazon and was surprised to find only one compilation his music, a nice assemblage recorded by the late Scottish fiddler Ron Gonnella. I think some sort of mandolin ensemble recording of his works would make a great album.

  12. #9

    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    Dagger Gordon does a great rendition of this tune, it's in his book ' The Scottish Mandolin Tutor ' and on the accompanying CD.

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    Registered User Bren's Avatar
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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    The second part reminds me of "The Smith's a Gallant Fireman".
    Bren

  15. #11

    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    I'll have to order that Dagger Gordon book, I don't see it in any US online sources but looks like I can have it shipped from the UK. I recorded another rendition today at the park, substituting the hum of fluorescent lights for the hum of crickets:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm1yF9oXCK4

  16. #12

    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    My copy of Dagger Gordon's book arrived in the mail from Scotland today, worth the modest price for the listening value of the demonstration CD of the tunes alone. I have a bluegrass mandolin book and while bluegrass is alright, it doesn't hold the same appeal as this style for me.

  17. #13
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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    Quote Originally Posted by Seter View Post
    Researching the song's origins though there are a lot of question marks. Some say it is Irish, some say Scottish. Some attribute to Niel Gow, who was Scottish (I love his music, eager to learn as much as I can).
    I've found Andrew Kuntz's Fiddler's Companion the most reliable (although not the most easy to use) source for questions of this nature. Here's what he has indexed under this title:

    FAREWELL TO WHISKEY [1] (Slan Le N-Uisge Beata). AKA ‑ "Neil/Niel Gow's Farewell to Whiskey." AKA and see “Go rabh slan leis an ól,” "Goodbye Whiskey" (Pa.), "The Ladies Triumph [1]," “Murphy’s Favor,” "My Love is But a Lassie [2]," “The Rose in the Garden [2],” "Young America Hornpipe." See also related tune "Twin Sisters [5]" (New England). Scottish (originally), Canadian, English, Irish, American; Strathspey (originally), Slow Air, Country Dance, Polka, Reel, or March (2/4 time). Canada; Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, Ontario. USA, New England. B Flat Major (Alburger, Carlin, Dunlay & Greenberg, Dunlay & Reich, Gow, Hunter, MacDonald, Neil): A Major (Begin); slow air, country dance, polka, reel or march version often played in G Major (Athole, Brody, Cranitch, Harker/Rafferty, Johnson, Mallinson, Martin, Miller & Perron, Moylan, O'Neill, Raven, Roche & Williamson, Sweet, Tubridy): C Major (Martin/1990). Standard tuning. AAB (Dunlay & Greenberg, Gow, Neil): AABB (most versions). The original was composed by renowned Scottish fiddler-composer Niel Gow (1727-1807) who identified it as a lament on the occasion of the British government’s prohibition of using barley to make whiskey in 1799, due to the failure of the crop in Scotland in that year (see the companion tune "Welcome Whiskey Back Again," “a merry dancing tune”). It appears in his First Collection, 2nd edition (1801), and reappears in his Fifth Collection (1809), with the note “It is representative of a Highlander’s sorrow on being deprived of his Favorite Beverage.” Gow was known to frequently and heartily imbibe, and his reputation for drinking seemed almost as well known as his skill on the fiddle. Verses were written to Gow's tune (appearing in 1804) illustrating his distress at the event (in fact Niel himself noted in the original composition that it gave voice to "the Highlander's sorrow at being deprived of his favourite beverage"), that begin:
    ***

    You've surely heard o' the famous Niel,
    The man that played the fiddle weel;
    I wat he was a canty chiel,
    And dearly loved the whisky, O.
    And aye sin' he wore tartan hose,
    He dearly lo'ed the Athole brose;
    And wae was he, you may suppose,
    To bid 'farewell' to whisky, O.

    and end:

    Come, a’ ye powers of music, come!
    I find my heart grows unco glum;
    My fiddle-strings will no play bum
    To say farewell to whiskey, O.
    Yet I’ll tak my fiddle in my hand,
    And screw the pegs up while they’ll stand,
    To mak a lamentation grand,
    On gude auld highland whiskey, O.


    Niel Gow (1727-1807), by Henry Raeburn
    ***
    Neil (1991) relates a well‑known anecdote about Gow and his quick wit, and which also possibly refers to his consumption of whiskey:
    ***
    It concerns his answer to a friend's query regarding the distance
    between Perth and Dunkeld,
    which Niel had just completed after
    an evening of fiddling, namely, that it was not the length
    of the
    road which had bothered him but its breadth.
    ***
    Another anecdote is told by Drummond (Perthsire of Bygone Days) of Niel Gow and this particular composition to the effect that when Niel first heard 'James' (probably Daniel) Dow play "Farewell to Whiskey," "he pulled his bonnet over his eyes, and rushed to the door," overcome with emotion at the rendering. While colourful, the story is false (similar tales have been told of Pagannini and others), for Dow would have had to have performed it eighteen years after he had been in the grave! Gow's slow air quickly became popular, and soon was transformed into dance versions at faster tempos. Cape Breton variations are thought to be by Donald John "the Tailor" Beaton, according to Doug MacPhee (Dunlay & Greenberg); the tune is played as a slow air on Cape Breton, as it was originally written. Paul Cranford reports that some Cape Breton musicians play the tune and variations transposed down a half-step to the key of ‘A’ Major and tune the fiddle to AEAE. Co. Kerry accordion player Johnny O’Leary played the tune as a polka, pairing it with “The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue.” New England fiddlers often play the tune in G Major as a reel for contra dancing; the tune has been a standard there for many years.
    Earliest publication date is 1801, by Gow, which seems pretty definitive.
    And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')

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    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    Not posted in exactly the right place (no absolute need to fill the thread with nice comments )
    -but it does bring the origin of the tune back to life, good times, and hard times, enjoy.

    I don’t know if there are many mandolinists who eat barley oat porridge for breakfast but they say it’s good for a hangover.


    https://youtu.be/9vjLj4j9YNU
    Last edited by Simon DS; Jan-19-2022 at 11:54am.

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    Full Grown and Cussin' brunello97's Avatar
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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    Quote Originally Posted by Simon DS View Post
    I don’t know if there are many mandolinists who eat barley oat porridge for breakfast but they say it’s good for a hangover.
    Now that sounds good, Simon, with or without a hangover.

    You've got me looking for rolled barley now. Can you use the stuff from the brew supply shop? So cheap relative to the fancy grocers.

    Mick
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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    Quote Originally Posted by Simon DS View Post
    I don’t know if there are many mandolinists who eat barley oat porridge for breakfast but they say it’s good for a hangover.]
    I think I maybe did try it years ago. I personally always have porridge with medium ground oatmeal (not rolled oats) every day, with honey. Hangover or not, it gets my day off to a grand start. Actually I've just finished eating it. Still having my tea as I write!
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    Registered User John Kelly's Avatar
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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    Porridge made from ground oats for me too, Simon, with fresh fruit added such as raspberries or blueberries and a good dollop of runny honey. As Dagger says, a great start to the day.
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  27. #18
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    Default Re: Farewell To Whiskey origin questions

    Quote Originally Posted by s1m0n View Post
    ...Verses were written to Gow's tune (appearing in 1804)...

    You've surely heard o' the famous Niel,
    The man that played the fiddle weel;
    I wat he was a canty chiel,
    And dearly loved the whisky, O.
    And aye sin' he wore tartan hose,
    He dearly lo'ed the Athole brose;
    And wae was he, you may suppose,
    To bid 'farewell' to whisky, O.
    If any don't know, 'Atholl brose" mentioned above is a sweet concoction including (Wikepedia) .'.oatmeal brose, honey, whisky, and sometimes cream'. Supposedly invented ' the drink is named after the 1st Earl of Atholl (of the 8th creation), who suppressed a Highland rebellion in 1475 by spiking the rebel leader's well with Atholl Brose'. Aye, right - as they say in Scotland, but none the worse for an unlikely story.

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