Earl's Chair: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

"The Earl's Chair," known in Irish as "Cathaoir an Iarla," is a reel credited to Pakie (also called Patto) Moloney, a flute player from East Galway.[1][2] According to a story told by the historian and concertina player Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin and retold in the Traditional Tune Archive, Moloney came up with the reel while seated on a big boulder in Derrycrag Wood; he first named it "Down between the Two Derryoobers" and only later called it after the boulder.[2] In the same telling, the boulder took its name from an Earl of Clanrickard, holder of the local hunting rights, who would rest on it while out hunting.[2] The Archive also identifies Moloney as an uncle of the flute player Mike Rafferty.[2]

Photograph of a dark wooden flute with gold keys lying beneath its fitted case

Jean-Louis Tulou, Flute, cocus wood, gold, ca. 1852. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.

The tune passed to other players by several routes: Jack Coen picked it up from flute players in his home area who named Moloney as its composer, while Joe Burke credited the fiddler P.J. Hayes and the Tulla Céilí Band, who are said to have learned it from Joe Cooley, with making it popular.[2] Among the earliest recordings listed by the Irish Traditional Music Tune Index are fiddle performances by Paddy Canny and P.J. Hayes and a version by the Laichtín Naofa Céilí Band, all from around 1959.[1] It was in print by 1963, in a collection by Breathnach, and has since appeared in several other tune books.[2]

Later recordings include Kevin Burke's If the Cap Fits (about 1978), the band Patrick Street's self-titled album (1986), Liz Carroll's Lost in the Loop (about 2000) and Matt and Shannon Heaton's Lovers' Well (2008), and new versions were still being recorded in the 2010s.[1] Aaron O'Rourke includes it in Irish Session Tunes, Volume 1, a collection of 36 jigs, reels and polkas for mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning, published by Fingers Of Steel.[3]

Our book that contains the song "Earl's Chair"

Sources

  1. Irish Traditional Music Tune Index (irishtune.info): "Earl's Chair".
  2. Traditional Tune Archive: "Earl's Chair (The)".
  3. Fingers Of Steel: "Aaron O'Rourke, Irish Session Tunes, Volume 1".
  4. Image: Jean-Louis Tulou, Flute, cocus wood, gold, ca. 1852. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

← Back to Browse By Song