Bulmer and Sharpley

[Daniel J. Curtin]

Is the book "Music from Ireland" by Bulmer and Sharpley available? I
have tried searching the web without any luck.

Thanks

Dan Curtin

(Remove x's to email me.)

[Lawrence E Mallette]

Daniel J. Curtin (cur...@nku.edu) wrote:
: Is the book "Music from Ireland" by Bulmer and Sharpley available? I

: have tried searching the web without any luck.

The House of Musical Traditions has (or recently had) volumes
1, 3 and 4 in stock. I have been unable to get volume 2 and
(the possibly mythical) volume 5 so far. They are "back
ordered" by HMT.

B&S:
Great compilation of session tunes from the late 60s, published
in the early 70s. Contains the first written version of
The Butterfly as a three part slip jig. (Tommy Potts, who
synthisized the tune, only recorded it on his Liffy Banks
album in 1971.)

The other tune settings in B&S will stand you in good stead
as a guide to how the tunes are currently played at sessions.

Larry
Have a nice tune!

[soun...@soundout.clara.net]

On Wed, 02 Dec 1998 15:35:17 -0500, "Daniel J. Curtin"
<cur...@nku.edu> wrote:

>Is the book "Music from Ireland" by Bulmer and Sharpley available? I
>have tried searching the web without any luck.
>

>Thanks
>
>Dan Curtin
>
>(Remove x's to email me.)

Hi Dan and all readers
There is a more current series of British-produced Irish tune books
which contain most of the stuff played today. I refer to the Dave
Mallinson Books "100 Essential Irish Tunes" etc. You can find them on
the DMP website,

http://www.mally.com

Apart from the Mallinson books being more relevant to what is being
played today, there is violent opposition on ethical grounds to the
Bulmer/Sharpley empire (do a complete archive deja news search on
Bulmer to read all about it). So readers may want to take that into
account in their choice of which books to buy.

All the best
Alistair

[Philip Whittaker]

In article <3669b7a1...@news.clara.net>,
<soun...@soundout.clara.net> wrote:

> Apart from the Mallinson books being more relevant to what is being
> played today, there is violent opposition on ethical grounds to the
> Bulmer/Sharpley empire (do a complete archive deja news search on
> Bulmer to read all about it). So readers may want to take that into
> account in their choice of which books to buy.

The only time I met DAve Bulmer he was playing accordian in a Sunday
session in South Shelds pub whose name I forget 23 years ago. (His friend
played banjo - was this Neil Sharpley?).

When I left the area I bought the Bulmer and Sharpley books 1-3 and found
them a great source of tunes. I also was confused by the number of version
of a tune I heard - Cliffs of Moher - so I wrote off to him and Dave was
kind enough to notate his version fo me.

So what went wrong? How did these two guys who were happy session goers,
producers of what were probably the best set of session tune books at that
time, turn into the cynical manipulators of traditional musicians and
hoarders of a valuable archive that some folks are desperate to hear.

I thnk their tunebooks are execellent. I cannot compare them with the
newer Mallinson books which I do not own and which seem for many folk to
have taken their place.

Bye

Philip

--
p...@argonet.co.uk

[mat.c...@gmail.com]

I used to know Neil and his brother? from a long time ago in Nottingham and besides being famous for robotic and very fast playing the whole crowd of them - with a band called, once or twice, Sow's Ear, were to be heard quite often at the Red Lion on Ilkeston Road (Canning Circus really) but I suppose them all to be dead now. The collection of tunes from this group should have produced as much money as a new edition of O'Neills, but it didn't. Only part of that was because of the difficulties of production. A lot was musicology (as in prizing tunes from the hands of their 'owners') and more was codology (as in who are they trying to kid about being Irish Musicians?) but there was no reason for bad feeling except the usual capitalist competitive ethos, which they all had in spades. Never found out what any of them did when they weren't drinking and trying to play, or nopt drinking because they were playing etc. Have tried over the years to find volume 2 and 4/5 with no success. Mally's stuff is quite commercial, a little bit repetitive, but excellent value especially by comparison with Breton music for folk dancing which costs about forty times as much per tune.