Otter's Holt: A Song History

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The Otter's Holt is a reel in B minor composed by the West Clare fiddler Martin "Junior" Crehan (1908–1998).[1][2] Its Irish name, Poll an Mhadra Uisce, points to an otter's den, and "holt" is an old word for that kind of hideaway.[1][3] Talking about the tune in the 1980s, Crehan remembered playing it with friends by a stream near an otter's den, where the cattle seemed to settle as they listened.[1]

Etching of an otter running along a grassy riverbank beside tall reeds

Karl Bodmer, An Otter, from Eaux-Fortes Animaux & Paysages, etching, ca. 1860. An otter on a riverbank, shown for the title; it has no connection to the tune.

Crehan farmed at Bonavilla, Mullagh, played fiddle and concertina, and was among the musicians who started the Willie Clancy Summer School after the piper's death in 1973.[4] His tunes drew on farm life and the sounds around him; he won an All-Ireland composition medal in 1953, and this reel appears in a collection of his work published by Oidhreacht an Chláir.[3]

The reel was recorded in 1976 by the Bothy Band, on Old Hag You Have Killed Me, and by flute player Matt Molloy, who paired it with Maud Miller on his self-titled LP.[2][5] It also goes by names such as The Otter's Den and The Water Dog's Hole, and it is printed in Breandán Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann 3, among other collections.[1][2] Sources differ on how it relates to the reel The Old Dudeen: one notes a resemblance in the first part, while another lists that name as an alternate title.[1][2] Aaron O'Rourke sets it in DAD tuning in Irish Session Tunes, Volume 2, his second gathering of session jigs, reels and polkas for mountain dulcimer, which comes with demonstration audio and an introduction to Irish ornamentation, published by Fingers Of Steel.[6]

Our book that contains the song "Otter's Holt"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Otter's Holt (The)".
  2. irishtune.info: "Otter's Holt".
  3. Oidhreacht an Chláir: "Martin Junior Crehan 1908-1998".
  4. Clare County Library: "Martin Junior Crehan".
  5. irishtune.info: "Matt Molloy" (album).
  6. Fingers Of Steel: "Aaron O'Rourke, Irish Session Tunes, Volume 2".
  7. Image: Karl Bodmer, An Otter, from Eaux-Fortes Animaux & Paysages, etching, ca. 1860. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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