Glen Caladh Castle -- who plays it?

[Bernie Daniel]

Glen Caladh Castle is said to be a very popular Celtic song -- it certainly is a great tune. I think it is sometimes consider a march but it is also played as a strathspey -- if you add enough grace notes I guess.

Yet the only version of it that I have in my collection is on the "Judique on the Floor" CD by Buddy MacMaster. He plays it in a three tune set between Da Slockit Light and and The Lasses of Stewarton reel.

This version turns out to be too complex for me to easily covert into a .midi (I have it in Mp3 format). If I can get a midi I can convert that into a tab with Melody Assistant -- anybody got one?

I would like to find a simple .midi file of the tune to convert into standard notation and tablature. I wouldn't mind having the Lasses of Stewarton either.

If anyone is interested I have created accurate mandolin and mandola tabs for Da Slockit Light which is also a delightful tune to play. I think I could save it as bit map and you could insert it in Word print out the score with the tab.

[whistler]

A couple of other recordings are listed here:
http://www.cbfiddle.com/rx/tune/t788.html

[steve V. johnson]

That melody in whistler's post is tremendously familiar to me, but the name is not. It's played fairly often in sessions in valley of the Ohio River ...

stv

[Bernie Daniel]

whistler: A couple of other recordings are listed here:
http://www.cbfiddle.com/rx/tune/t788.html

Thanks -- yes I had come across the little partial file last night somehow I got there from the Session site. It frustrating as only a few bars are given.

The song itself is easy but a little kind of tricky as it has four parts all linked by a common end refrain on the end of each one - I pretty much have it memorized but I'd really like to have the tab -- because seeing it I'll remember it much better.

[Bernie Daniel]

sliabhstv :That melody in whistler's post is tremendously familiar to me, but the name is not. It's played fairly often in sessions in valley of the Ohio River ...

If you think of it let me know I'll search for that tune!

What Ohio Valley sessions? -- is this something organized by Daniel Curtin?

[steve V. johnson]

Bernie,

I seem to recall playing it in Louisville at the 3rd Sunday session there in Molly Malones in Baxter Ave. (aka Bardstown Rd.). We may have played it also in the Last Sunday session in the Ri Ra pub in Evansville, Indiana. There's another session in New Albany, Indiana, and the ringleaders of that are folks who also play in the Molly's session.

As for Dan, his kids at the Riley School play every bloody tune on the planet, it seems, so it could have been at the Cincinnati Irish Fest (tho we missed it this year). I don't know if Dan actually organizes or leads a session. I see him/them at festivals (Dublin, Cincinnati, Eminence) and I only just a couple months ago realized that Dan was the Comhaltas chairman. duh.

The last I heard there were 3 sessions/week in the Cincinnati metro area, in various locations, but I'm sure you know better than I on that.

Dan Cummins and Bev Buchanan play all the time around Lexington, Kentucky, and I'm pretty sure they at least know -of- this tune down there and I may have heard it with them...

Too bad that none of the other parts are up with that little piano bit...

stv

[Bernie Daniel]

Heck that's a great idea.

I'll email Dan and see what he knows about the tune -- I don't know why that did not occur to me.

Thanks,

Bernie

[steve V. johnson]

Let us know what you find out, please?

Thanks!

stv

[Bernie Daniel]

OK, I am bringing up this old thread again because I have some new information!

Finally after searching off and on again over the last month I found a midi file of Glen Caladh Castle and it is written in D major (its the usual key and the key that I wanted) so I was excited for about 20 minutes.

Here is the link to the midi:

Glen Caladh Castle March

BTW, there are hundreds of Scottish tune midi files on this site unfortunately for me they are all written for a bagpipe! Now if you play bagpipe this is great of course.

So when I tried to convert this .mid to a TablEdit (.tef) file I got something of a mess. This is because I think there are so many grace notes that are played on the pipes. I will attach the .tef to this post -- it is a jumble.

If anyone has time to look at it can you advise me how it might be "scrubbed" to make a clean mandolin tab it would be great.

Actually I have basically figured the tune out by ear and I play it now (or the way I hear it) but it would be nice tighten up my version with the real thing.

It is a fine tune.

[Bernie Daniel]

Here is the tab for Glen Caladh Castle March as a .pdf

Its kind of confusing because the .pdf looks fine and perfectly readable -- but I cannot get the .tef to display in a readable fashion in TablView -- who knows what is going on?

But more to the point if play this you see the the tab is for the right song -- but it is clearly is not tabbed out in D major -- seems like D#?

So I'm not sure what the issue is. All the information in TablEdit import window indicated D-major??

I think I will stick with the version I came up with on my own!

[Roland Sturm]

Converting from Midi rarely works, that one isn't too bad, although it is the wrong key and has double stops that are on the impossible side. I find it much easier to work with pipe sheet music, here is one. Just play the big notes to get the melody and then figure out your own style. See the other thread on interpreting bagpipe music on mando.

There are many great tunes in the bagpipe repertoire that are uncommon among fiddlers/mandolins, although the pipe band 2/4 marches are generally not my favorites, suffer from the same problem as fiddle competition versions.

Some more Scottish tunes with sheet music and mandolin clips are on the websites of the Scottish Fiddlers of Los Angeles, mainly well known tunes that work in sessions, but also a bunch of pipe tunes (e.g. Heights of Dargai Inverness Gathering, Battle of Somme, etc.). http://web.me.com/kathleenbawn/SFLA_...unes_Home.html
the second site is password protected, right now use
sleepy
maggie
to get in:
http://web.me.com/kathleenbawn/SFLA_...rces_Home.html

[Bernie Daniel]

Ronald Strum: I find it much easier to work with pipe sheet music, here is one. Just play the big notes to get the melody and then figure out your own style. See the other thread on interpreting bagpipe music on mando.

Thanks a bunch for the .pdf of the notation -- I had come across a very similar score for the song that was not a clean as the one you have provided -- I had tried to scan it in with pdf2midi but the scanning program only picked up the grace notes -- the resulting midi sounded like the tinkling song of a Horned Lark.

And thanks for the info on the SFLA site as well -- it is good to know that there is such a society in LA or anywhere for that matter.

I need this song to complete a three tune set that Buddy MacMaster has in the Judique on the Floor CD (Das Slockit Light, Glen Caladh Castle and Lasses of Stewarton).

[Bernie Daniel]

Roland, that is some terrific mandolin playing on those audio files. Really a great instructional resource! Thanks again.

[Roland Sturm]

If you tried to get into the member website in the last few days
http://web.me.com/kathleenbawn/SFLA_...rces_Home.html
the password for the next year is:
drummond
castle

A new one that is up is Alasdair's setting of the wedding reels, which has Put me In the Big Chest as the last tune (see the Sergeant McDonald's thread)

[Bernie Daniel]

Thanks much Roland. That is a great site.

I have a pretty complete version of the Glen Caladh Castle now and I will post it on this string one of these days when I clean it up.

It is not a techincally difficult song but it is tricky because the melodies in each of the four sections are different melodies - - albeit similar -- so it gets confusing without the tab handy.

[Roland Sturm]

Re: Glen Caladh Castle -- who plays it?

Now I do. It certainly is easier to play than the Brigadier General from the other thread.
Here is what I found out about this tune: It was composed by John McLellan or MacLellan of Dunoon (1875-1949), who also has other widely played (on pipes) tunes to his credit, especially 3/4 retreat marches, Lochanside, Highland Brigade at Magersfontein (that tune is up on the Scottish fiddlers of Los Angeles website, part of their concert set this spring). He was a contemporary of Willie Ross (1874-1966), the composer of the Brigadier General Ronald Cheape of Tiroran. So both are fairly modern compositions, not traditional at all. Both also reflect the piping aesthetic of "pointed" playing that became fashionable at that time, so all those 32nd notes are intentional and are supposed to come out crisp. Double 32nds, like in the 2nd bar of the B part or 6th bar of the C part trip me up easily.
I probably play Glen Caladh Castle too "round" in the mp3 compared to the composers intentions.

Glen Caladh Castle has a bouncy happy feel to it, you could imagine that as a Canadian barndance. Not as serious or martial as the other tune. No wonder it feels right at home in a Cape Breton set, which is where you found it.

[Bernie Daniel]

Roland Strum: now I do.

Great! Very nice thanks for posting that.

I kind of got side tracked on other things and other tunes -- Angus Campbell and Laird O' Durmblair -- but your post has inspired me to work on Glen Caladh -- I think the version you posted is great and it reconfrims my idea that it would be a nice mandolin tune.

Have you by chance heard Buddy MacMaster's or Carl MacKenzie's versions on fiddle? Also I think that Troy MacGillivary might now also have a version out on CD.

I will alway love Buddy's fiddling but I think the best maritime fiddler these day is Troy -- but he is not on the Island! ) I like Kimberly Fraizer too and when she and Troy and the woman who plays the pipes with them get togather it is incredible music -- both Troy and Kimblerly play piano also so they trade off. Troy is becoming very much in demand as accompanist aslo I hear.

I think that was a great rendition of the song you have come up with? By the way what sheet music did you use the one posted earlier?