Foxhunter's Reel: A Song History

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“Foxhunter’s Reel” is the name of an Irish reel that the Traditional Tune Archive describes as one of the “big” reels of present-day sessions.[1] It is a long tune: irishtune.info sets it out in five parts, though printed versions differ on how the parts repeat.[2][1] Printed sources differ on the key: some give G major and others A, which fiddlers generally find easier, though the archive notes that sessions call for G so that other instruments can join in.[1] Other tunes share the name, among them the slip jig known as “The Foxhunter’s Jig” and an unrelated two-part reel, so the title alone can mislead.[3][4]

Woodblock print of white foxes with small flames gathered beneath a large bare tree at night

Utagawa Hiroshige, New Year’s Eve Foxfires at the Changing Tree, Ōji, woodblock print, ca. 1857. Foxes rather than a fox hunt, shown in fun; it has no connection to the tune.

The reel is closely tied to the fiddler Patrick Kelly (1903–1975) of Cree in County Clare, and it also goes by “Patrick Kelly’s Reel” and “The Fiddler Is Drunk.”[1] Kelly drew on music handed down from George Whelan, a travelling fiddle master from Kerry who came to Clare in the 1880s.[1] Breandán Breathnach printed the reel in the second volume of Ceol Rince na hÉireann (1976) and heard in it the influence of two older tunes, “Greig’s Pipes” and “Miss McLeod’s.”[1][2] Recordings include Patrick Kelly’s own fiddle playing, The Chieftains’ album 2 (1969), and Martin Hayes’s Under the Moon.[2]

Mark Gilston includes “Foxhunter’s Reel” in Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 2, a collection of Irish tunes arranged for solo mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning.[5] Gilston has also recorded a track of that name on his album At Your Request.[6]

Our book that contains the song "Foxhunter's Reel"

Sources

  1. Traditional Tune Archive: "Foxhunter's Reel (1) (The)".
  2. irishtune.info: "Foxhunter's Reel".
  3. irishtune.info: "Foxhunter's Jig".
  4. Traditional Tune Archive: "Foxhunter's Reel (2) (The)".
  5. Mark Gilston: "Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 2".
  6. Mark Gilston: "CDs".
  7. Image: Utagawa Hiroshige, New Year’s Eve Foxfires at the Changing Tree, Ōji, woodblock print, ca. 1857. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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