December 9: "Christmas Eve" ("Tommy Coen's Reel")

Yesterday I tackled some pretty heavy stuff, and though I'm not one for sugar coating history (or music) I wanted to switch gears for today's entry and offer something genuinely light and all around cheerful. And what's more cheerful and light than a Christmas-themed Irish reel? Today's post should be comparatively brief, since this is my first purely instrumental song that I've examined. "Christmas Eve" is a 20th century fiddle tune written by the Galway fiddler Tommy Coen in the early 1950's, hence its other name, simply "Tommy Coen's." The version above, by American old-time fiddler Bruce Molsky--one of my favorites-- is a very Americanized version of the reel, featuring Bob Carlin on clawhammer banjo, and is far enough removed musically from the original reel that you could almost argue it's a different tune altogether. For anachronistic reasons, here's a more "traditional" Irish version:

Generally speaking, there are three families of Irish fiddle tunes: jigs, hornpipes, and reels. A jig is in 6/8 time and has a "bouncing feel to it, like if you were to say "diddle-dee, diddle-dee." There are also slip jigs, which are in 9/8 time, but they're too confusing for me to explain. A hornpipe is played in 4/4 time and accents the one and three beats, so it swings: "ONE, and-a-two, and-a-THREE, and-a-four..." Reels are also in 4/4 time but don't feature any hard accents. If you say "double-decker, double-decker" you get the basic feel of a reel. All are actually names for dances that were adopted by the tunes played for those dances. Now go wow everyone at your local "Irish pub" when they put on the atmosphere music.

Make sure to order a traditional Irish drink.

So what makes "Christmas Eve/Tommy Coen's" a Christmas tune? There are two prevailing theories as to the name. One is simply that the tune was played on a local Galway radio station on Christmas Eve 1955, and since Tommy didn't officially give it a name (beyond his own) people who heard it simply referred to it as "Christmas Eve." The other is that another Galway band leader who didn't like Coen had his reel in a set list near Christmas. When he told people the tune names before each song he decided not to mention Coen to irritate him, simply pulling the name "Christmas Eve" out of his ass. 

Beyond the name, there's really nothing especially Christmas-y about the tune. Honesty if it never got that moniker it would probably have remained a normal reel with no association with the holidays. But as it is, we have that name, and so Irish bands and jams like to play this one around Christmas, and it's become known as one of the few Christmas fiddle tunes. But I like it, and apparently not many people know about it, so here it is on the list.