Concertina Reel: A Song History
The "Concertina Reel" is an Irish reel in two parts, normally played in D in Ireland; the Traditional Tune Archive adds that some Scottish settings sit in A.[1] irishtune.info indexes the D-major tune as the "Old Concertina Reel," also listing "The Concertina Reel," the Irish title "Ríl an tSeanchonsairtín" and "Miko Russell's."[2] The Tune Archive points out that "Old Concertina Reel" can also mean a different reel, in E Dorian, known as "John Kelly's" or "The Kerry Reel," and says the D tune is therefore sometimes called the "New Concertina Reel."[1][3] irishtune.info in turn gives "New Concertina Reel" and "Ríl Liam" to a separate G-major melody.[4]
Charles Wheatstone, Concertina, London, 1831–37. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for the instrument; it has no connection to the tune.
The Tune Archive links the reel with the west Clare piper Willie Clancy, who said it came to him from his mother, an Ennistymon woman who sang and played the concertina; citing Breathnach, it also reports Clancy's remark that concertina players of earlier times were especially attached to the tune.[1] Sources differ on whether Clancy's version is this melody at all: the Tune Archive calls the setting in Pat Mitchell's The Dance Music of Willie Clancy (1993) a G-major version of the reel with its parts swapped, while irishtune.info files that G-major reel as a different tune.[1][4]
Breathnach included the D-major tune in Ceol Rince na hÉireann II (1976).[1][2] The oldest recording indexed by irishtune.info is a 1969 whistle performance by Micho Russell, issued on his collection Rareties & Old Favourites 1949–1993; later versions came from Patrick Street's self-titled album (1986) and the Chieftains, who used it in a Kilfenora set on Water from the Well (2000).[1][2][5] It is among the reels in Dave Mallinson's 100 Essential Irish Session Tunes (1995), and it has crossed the Atlantic as well: Rodney Miller recorded it for Choose Your Partners! (1999), a Smithsonian Folkways album of New Hampshire contra and square dance music.[1][2]
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