Wednesday 16 January 2019
Tune of the Day: Donnybrook
Traditional American reel
The only known appearance of this reel in print is in Harding's All-Round Collection of Jigs, Reels and Country Dances, published in New York in 1905. The book calls it a “stop reel”, presumably because the B part has several halting syncopations in it. The tune may have served as the vehicle for a novelty or stage dance from around the turn of the 20th century.
We transposed the melody from G major to B-flat major to better fit the range of the flute.