Christy Mc Namara grew up in a musical family in Crusheen, County Clare. He plays accordion and concertina and is a specialist in black and white photography.
His debut recording ‘ The House I was Reared In‘ was released in (2007). This year sees the release of a new recording of his original compositions ‘The Year of the Blizzard‘. Christy has been part of the session scene over many years and a regular performer at festivals including Scoil Samhradh Willy Clancy and The Feakle Festival.
He was a soloist with live score and orchestra for the screening of the film ‘Barry Lyndon‘ (Stanley Kubrick) at The Kings Theater Brooklyn, New York City in 2017.
His photography of traditional music is featured in his book ‘The Living Note‘ (O Brien Press 1996) with author Peter Woods, it received wide acclaim.
His work has been exhibited extensively at home and abroad over the last three decades and is held in both public and private collections worldwide. He was photographer in Residence at ITMA for 2022.
He is featured in the film documentary ‘The Job of Songs‘ on traditional music in County Clare.
In 2023 he was invited to do an an exhibition of his photographic work on traditional music and to perform at Masters of Tradition festival in Bantry, Co.Cork
Irish Folk Dance Music: for Violin, Flute, Guitar, Banjo and Accordion / Compiled and Arranged by Jerry O’Brien. Roxbury, Massachusetts: E. O’Byrne DeWitt’s Sons, 1952
Accordion player Jerry O’Brien, a native of Kinsale, Co Cork, came to Boston in 1921, and as accordionist with the recording group O’Leary’s Irish Minstrels was a leading exponent and teacher of Irish music in the city. In 1928 he also made one solo 78 rpm recording for the Columbia company of New York before the Great Depression of 1929 brought most Irish-American recording to a halt. In a period of rising prosperity after the Second World War he began recording solo again, this time for the Irish-American Copley label of Boston, and also in duet with a young local star pupil Joe Derrane. The Copley label had been set up in 1948 by Justus O’Byrne DeWitt, son of an Ellen O’Byrne DeWitt who had been involved in the recording industry in New York since 1916. O’Brien also designed for the company the O’Byrne DeWitt Irish Professional Accordion.
The success of O’Brien and Derrane’s Copley recordings, and their repertory, gave rise to two Boston book publications by E. O’Byrne DeWitt’s Sons, both compiled by Jerry O’Brien and with a repertory heavily influenced by gramophone records. The first was his accordion tutor and tune book of 1949, also available on the ITMA website at the link below, and for which James Morrison’s 1931 tutor for the Globe accordion (see below), an instrument which O’Brien had played, was doubtless an exemplar. This is O’Brien’s second publication, a tune book of 1952.
This tune book, though advertised as being suitable for several instruments, is heavily influenced by the expressive possibilities and repertory of the two-row accordion in D and C sharp, i.e., one of the two ‘press-and-draw’ systems used by accordion players in the Irish tradition. That system (sometimes known among players as the ‘outside-in’ system) is now virtually obsolete, but it is still played by a very loyal minority of players of the Irish accordion. Prominent current players include Joe Derrane of Boston, whose music is featured in the book. The music and music repertory embodied in Jerry O’Brien’s books is, however, still very much alive in the Irish tradition today, thanks largely to its successful revival by the group De Danann in the 1980s.
These tunes were set from a copy of Jerry O’Brien’s tunebook kindly donated to the Irish Traditional Music Archive in 1995 by dancer Ed Reavy Jnr of Philadelphia.
Nicholas Carolan, Treasa Harkin & Jackie Small, 23 May 2013
Jerry O’Brien’s Accordion Instructor for the 10-Key and 19-Key Irish-Style Accordion: Containing a Selection of Irish Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Polkas, Highland Flings and Waltzes / Arranged for Accordion, Violin, Flute, Bagpipes and Banjo by Jerry O’Brien. Roxbury, Massachusetts: E. O’Byrne DeWitt’s Sons, 1949
Accordion player Jerry O’Brien, a native of Kinsale, Co Cork, came to Boston in 1921, and as accordionist with the recording group O’Leary’s Irish Minstrels was a leading exponent and teacher of Irish music in the city. In 1928 he also made one solo 78 rpm recording for the Columbia company of New York before the Great Depression of 1929 brought most Irish-American recording to a halt. In a period of rising prosperity after the Second World War he began recording solo again, this time for the Irish-American Copley label of Boston, and also in duet with a young local star pupil Joe Derrane. The Copley label had been set up in 1948 by Justus O’Byrne DeWitt, son of an Ellen O’Byrne DeWitt who had been involved in the recording industry in New York since 1916. O’Brien also designed for the company the O’Byrne DeWitt Irish Professional Accordion.
The success of O’Brien and Derrane’s Copley recordings gave rise to two Boston book publications by E. O’Byrne DeWitt’s Sons, both compiled by Jerry O’Brien and with a repertory heavily influenced by gramophone records. The first was this collection, his accordion tutor and tune book of 1949, and for which James Morrison’s 1931 tutor for the Globe accordion (see below), an instrument which O’Brien had played, was doubtless an exemplar. O’Brien’s second publication was an Irish tune book of 1952 and is also available below.
This tutor is primarily for the two-row accordion in D and C sharp, i.e., one of the two ‘press-and-draw’ systems used by accordion players in the Irish tradition. The system taught here (sometimes known among players as the ‘outside-in’ system) is now virtually obsolete, but it is still played by a very loyal minority of players of the Irish accordion. Prominent current players include Joe Derrane of Boston, whose music is featured in the book. The music and the musical ethos embodied in the tutor is, however, still very much alive in the Irish tradition today, thanks largely to its successful revival by the group De Danann in the 1980s.
These tunes were set from a copy of Jerry O’Brien’s tutor kindly donated to the Irish Traditional Music Archive in 1989 by accordion player Frank Murphy of Syracuse, New York.
Nicholas Carolan, Treasa Harkin & Jackie Small, 23 May 2013
The 88 interactive scores on this page have been transcribed by ITMA staff from a copy-manuscript made of music written for an accordion pupil by the Kerry music master, musician and composer Pádraig O’Keeffe (1887–1963) in his own unique accordion notation. Although O’Keeffe was famous as a fiddle player and fiddle teacher, he also a teacher of other instruments, including the button accordion.
The manuscript has been donated to ITMA by Paud Collins from Knockacur, Knocknagoshel, Co Kerry, himself an accordion pupil of O’Keeffe’s as was his brother Dan. Three sets of fiddle manuscripts written for Paud’s brother Jer also form part of the donation, and have been made available in facsimile and as interactive music scores on the ITMA website (see Pádraig O’Keeffe Resources at ITMA) The fiddle manuscripts were written by O’Keeffe himself, but the accordion manuscript was copied for her brothers from O’Keeffe’s originals by Paud Collins’s sister Tess Drudy (who did not herself read the tablature).
In this copy-manuscript O’Keeffe displays a relatively little-known facet of his talents – an impressive knowledge of the accordion system available in his day and of the appropriate repertory for it. The manuscript embodies a creative and graded approach to teaching the instrument. Though the approach required is much different from that required for the fiddle, O’Keeffe’s first instrument, he is adept at modifying tunes in order to suit both the accordion and the level of proficiency of his pupils, and in placing tunes correctly in the most appropriate places in the instrument’s range. His fingering patterns are generally accurate and pupil-friendly.
For the transcripts presented here it is assumed that the target instrument for the notations in the manuscript was a single-row 10-key accordion or melodeon. O’Keeffe’s tablature would have been valid for an instrument pitched in any key, and there might well have been variety in the pitch of instruments played by his pupils. For convenience, in the transcripts given here, the key of D is adopted as the home key of the instrument.
In making the transcripts for these interactive scores, pragmatic decisions were made regarding problems in the manuscript. Some content in the scores is conjectural due to missing content and/or legibility problems in the manuscript. Some of these problems might be due to copying errors, since the manuscript is not in O’Keeffe’s hand.
In some scores where the tonic note is G or A, the note C natural is given because it is standard for tunes in the key of the relevant tune (G major, A minor). This note was not available on the instrument for which the manuscript probably was written. In the manuscript it was probably C sharp that was intended in those cases. These instances are indicated by an editorial note in the relevant scores.
In the case of one tune in the manuscript there was not enough information to enable the tune to be deciphered – that tune therefore was omitted.
Jackie Small, Treasa Harkin & Nicholas Carolan, 13 May 2014
The Meisel Simplified Method: How to Play the Globe Accordeon Irish Style. An Easy and Practical Method for Self-Instruction. Also Contains Selections of Irish Reels, Jigs, Hornpipes, Long Dances, Airs, Ballads and Other Popular Music / arranged by James C. Morrison. New York: C. Meisel Inc., 1931
By the 1920s, melodeons and accordions had become well established in Irish traditional music, especially in Irish America where they were popular band instruments. Agents for Globe accordions in particular were successfully targeting Irish players in the United States by the mid-1920s with a variety of amateur and professional instruments, and using the prominent Cork-Boston accordion player Jerry O’Brien in advertising campaigns. At the end of the decade New York resident James C. Morrison of Riverstown, Co Sligo, well known in the city on stage, record and radio, was commissioned to write a tutor for the Globe accordion. ‘Professor’ Morrison (1893–1947) was primarily famous as a fiddle player, but he also sold, played and taught the accordion, among other instruments. He included in the tutor a selection of tunes suitable for beginners, reproduced on the left, from the popular contemporary repertory, most of which had been published on Irish commercial recordings in New York.
The diatonic Globe accordion for which Morrison wrote the tutor would today be described as a ten-key melodeon. Since he left no recordings as an accordion or melodeon player, we have no idea of his proficiency on the instrument, but he is known to have had close associations with noted players of the instrument of his day, including the melodeon player P.J. Conlon and the accordionist Tom Carmody, with both of whom he recorded. While the ten-key melodeon has great expressive possibilities, particularly for dance music, it is quite limited in musical compass in comparison to other instruments in the Irish tradition. Judging from his music scores, Morrison had a well-grounded understanding of the strengths and limitations of the instrument. He modifies tunes where necessary to fit them to the compass of the instrument, and carefully tailors each element of the scores to its characteristics.
A Globe accordion played by James Morrison in New York has recently been donated to the James Morrison Music Festival in his native Riverstown: see here. For a biography of Morrison by Harry Bradshaw and 30 remastered tracks of his music, see the double audio cassette James Morrison: The Professor (Viva Voce 001, Dublin, 1989). Morrison’s tutor and tune book of 1931 was doubtless an exemplar for an accordion tutor and tune book of 1949 by Jerry O’Brien in Boston (see here).
The Irish Traditional Music Archive has a photocopy of Morrison’s accordion tutor, kindly donated to it by Hugh E. O’Rourke of New York, from which these tunes were set. It would always welcome a donation of the original tutor, or a loan of it for digital scanning.
Nicholas Carolan, Treasa Harkin & Jackie Small, 23 May 2013
