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An Buachailín Buidhe

(Ragwort, The Yellow Boy, or perhaps The Old Ship in Full Sail)

Hello and welcome back!

This week, I've taken on a tune that may be more than my equal currently, but certainly an excellent sparring partner.

It is two-to-four-part jig in D major, and seems to be the progenitor of The Ship in Full Sail. There is one other tangentially related setting of this tune available online in another key - it is in the ITMA's Francis Roche Collection 1. The only tune sharing the name on tunearch is already a distant departure. The name, as best as I can tell, means "The Yellow Boy," which is a name for ragwort, due to its yellow flowers. The spelling given online for the plant is Buachalán buí, the book also gives "Boucheleen Buie", and TheSession cites the alternate names of The Ship in Full Sail as including "An Buachallín Buide" and "The Bouchaleen Buidhe," so I'm going to chalk it up to normal variation.

The Pigot Collection has so far yielded two settings of this tune, at numbers 81 and 214. Perhaps later I will stumble on another, and have to again update this page to include another setting, but for now, I'm providing four: a version that combines my favorite parts of the two, a simplified version that might be more appropriate for a session, and the original two settings.

I must apologize for the amount of scrolling that will be necessary to get through this installment.

The first page of the notes, in Axel's combined setting. The second page of the notes, in Axel's combined setting.
The notes of the tune, in Axel's simplified setting. The notes of the tune, in the setting from the 81st page of the ITMA's Pigot Collection.
The first page of the notes, in the setting from the 214th page of the ITMA's Pigot Collection. The second page of the notes, in the setting from the 214th page of the ITMA's Pigot Collection.

(Axel's Combined Setting PDF download), (Axel's Simplified Setting PDF download), (81st Page Setting PDF Download), (214th Page Setting PDF Download).

Despite my best efforts, I've needed to sew together a few takes to get anything close to a decent twice through on this tune. The keen ear will hear changes in sound color as I sidestep the most egregious errors. This tune directly targets some of my weak areas in the key of D Major, and at this point it's too late in the day for me to justify playing this tune any longer, for the sake of a harmonious relationship with my neighbors. Hopefully, in short time, I will be a stronger player and able to perform this tune cleanly, and it is with immediacy at that juncture that I will make a new recording available.

@also-axel

When I encountered these two settings, I enjoyed the first, but the second significantly improved my opinion of the tune. It is a longer setting with more and different parts, and to my hands, is better suited to the concertina. For my own playing, I've had to change a few notes in the C part, but they go by very quickly.

Even so, I figured I should go back and identify the elements of the setting on page 81 that I considered too good to pass up. I wasn't able to fit all of them in, but at least I could add the second line movement that I found most enjoyable.

It is admittedly a very challenging tune for me, but I still like this tune a lot. Enviously, I imagine it is easier on other instruments. It has a classic feel, and a lot of helpful repetition to offset the high amount of information. The parts flow together nicely without getting lost. The B and D parts are clearly related, and create an overarching back and forth motion in the tune. The variations inside each part are generally very enjoyable, other than the changes to the first two measures of the third through sixth lines of the page 214 setting. Those I find to be low-impact, but potentially clashing with a larger group, so I removed them from my combined setting.

I hope you enjoy the tune!

Axel