Humours of Bandon - Long Dance

About this film

Irish bagpipes solo, Cardinal 2029, John Muller - piano. Ennis also recorded this tune (and the same set of reels on the flipside of this disc) in 1923 as a duet with fiddler James Morrison. Ennis's recordings always say "Long Dance" for this kind of tune; another term, "Set Dance," is more commonly used now. These are tunes in jig time (such as this one) or hornpipe time (the Blackbird for instance), which have a few extra bars, usually in the second part. There are exceptions such as the White Blanket, which has six bars in each part, or Is the Big Man Within?, which switches from 9/8 in its first part to 6/8 in the second. All Set Dances have special steps for the dancer to use. Ennis's jaunty playing would've been a treat for anyone to step to; a poem his father wrote about musicians in New York City had a stanza about him, singling him out as the dancers' favorite piper, which I don't believe was mere nepotism.

Directors & creators

Tom Ennis

Subjects

Irish; Celtic; Bagpipe; Uilleann; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm

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