The Monaghan Jig / The Humours of Ennistymon - Frankie Gavin & Alec Finn, 1988

Ceol breá bríomhar ó Frankie Gavin agus Alec Finn.
Traditional music in the ‘Cúrsaí’ studio with Frankie Gavin on fiddle and Alec Finn on bouzouki.
‘Cúrsaí’ was an Irish-language television magazine programme. It was first broadcast on 14 October 1986 with Neasa Ní Chinnéide and Seán Ó Tuairisg as presenters. It was originally billed in the RTÉ Guide as
Iris-chlár le béim faoi leith ar chúrsaí reatha an lae agus ar chúrsaí na tíre i gcoitinne
But it covered a wide range of topics, including politics, current affairs, arts, and entertainment. ‘Cursaí’ was broadcast four nights a week, from Tuesday to Friday, on RTÉ 2. It ended on 30 May 1995.
This episode of ‘Cúrsaí’ was broadcast on 15 March 1988.

[@AlephThree]

These Frankie Gavin and Alec Finn clips are the very apex of traditional music. A treasure for generations to come.

[@tiernanconnolly100]

I love the bouzouki ❤ such an incredibly beautiful instrument

[@johnnielson7676]

My son reminded me the first one is called The Monaghan Jig and the second one is The Humours of Ennistymon. I’ve played them for for 45 years but couldn’t think of the names . Of course it never sounded this good!

[@paolofortuna7369]

God will have the great chance to listen yet and more Alec playing his music on bouzouky....somewhere in paradise...with a couple of pints of course...ciao Alec

[@SharpsWorkshop]

So glad that you've uploaded this - it was in the Alec Finn TG4 documentary but was a bugger to find outside of that. One of the best examples of Alec's playing I reckon; he tended to suffer from bad audio and being very low in the mix on a lot of the video material I've seen, but this is a notable difference.

[@kfh51]

Amazing playing by both! Alec's technique is unreal!

[@colmwiggle]

GOLD! Another amazing video. Fairplay to ya!! The two lads are pure class. Alec was some player

[@danielbaseley4267]

I had a chance to play with him once, in 2010, and it's an experience I'll never forget 'till I'm gone myself. His backing was something else, and even saying that doesn't do it justice! RIP

[@PluieMelodique]

Profoundly speaks to the celtic hearts

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

No posing here, serious hard-working musicians playing for the love of the music and the people, De-Dannan a hard-rocking traditional folk band, long by the roll on down the highway of great music

[@vincentdoherty5551]

The thing itself!

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

CR's Video Vaults The Tuning is the same as a mountain Dulcimer

[@rxa177]

Alec was so original. How does he do it?!

[@bigtom7551]

Anything of Big Tom

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

Not yet, that comes a little later, Big Tom was the man

[@Melvorgazh]

Does the Greek bouzouki have usually 3 pairs of strings? I wonder why Alec choose to play on a 3 instead of 4 pairs bouzouki.

[@SharpsWorkshop]

It depends on the bouzouki - the older trichordo style has three pairs and the newer tetrachordo has four (that later was adapted into the flat-back Irish bouzouki). Alec played a trichordo because a friend brought him one back, and basically he didn't need any more strings! For his style, that fourth course frankly gets in the way.

[@jasonvansteenwyk5984]

Great performance. Needs more rosin.

[@johnnielson7676]

Great take-no-prisoners playing! Does anyone know the names of these two jigs? I can play them, but can’t recall their names.

[@ahlads]

The Drops of Brandy is the first one I think

[@ketilliland]

The first one is the Monaghan jig

[@johnnielson7676]

@@ketilliland and the second is the Humours of Ennistymon

[@Rbenson1979]

very repetitive music..

[@bernienye8613]

life is repetitive

[@Rbenson1979]

@Bernie Nye true indeed. As I get older, I like patterns and repetitive things.

[@christaylor2070]

it's traditional Dance Music - you do a sequence of steps for 32 bars, or sometimes 48, then you repeat them. It's not pop music, hip hop, ballet or Classical - it does what it's supposed to do.😁