Saint Anne’s Reel (Irish)

Reel, D, Traditional Canadian, American, Irish

This tune, of French-Canadian origin, is in the traditional repertoire of Canada, the USA, and Ireland. The Irish version of the tune — the one here — is distinctly different from the various North American versions.

Recordings

• Audio – Comhaltas: St. Anne’s – session recording, from the album Foinn Seisiún Volume 1
• Audio – Mossie Martin: Reels: The Teetotaller / St. Anne’s – from the album The Humours of Derrynacoosan, 2019, Sligo, Ireland. (St. Anne’s Reel starts at time 2:19 in this recording.)

Sheet Music

As always for traditional tunes, the musical notation and chords do not indicate the “right” way to play the tune, but are a useful reference.

Sets

Examples of sets that include this tune.

• Miss Monaghan Reel Set: Miss Monaghan (D) / Far From Home (G) / Saint Anne’s Reel (D, Irish)
• Miss Monaghan / St. Anne’s Reel / The Wise Maid
• Miss McLeod / St. Anne’s Reel
• St. Anne’s Reel / The Silver Spear
• The Teetotaler / St. Anne’s Reel

References and Resources

For those who want to dig deeper, here are some other resources.

• More Recordings
  • Video – Shane Farrell: St Anne’s Reel – Irish Tenor Banjo – solo tenor banjo
  • Video – Pat Barton: St. Anne’s – Irish traditional reel on button accordion – played solo on b/c/c# diatonic button accordion
• Books
  • Book & Audio – Dave Mallinson: 100 Essential Irish Session Tunes
  • Book – Foinn Seisiún, Volume 1 — Published by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
  • Book & Audio – Stephen Ducke: Irish Music – 400 Traditional Tunes – sheet music with tin whistle recordings
• Lessons
  • Lesson – Ian Walsh (OnlineLessonVideos): St. Anne’s Reel – Irish Vs. Bluegrass Style – Fiddle Lesson
  • Lesson – Chris Haigh (The Fiddle Channel) St Anne’s Reel (fiddle lesson) – tune demonstrated in two versions: Don Messer’s (Canadian) version and an Irish version. Sheet music is shown in video and available by subscription to The Fiddle Channel (Patreon).
  • Lesson – Sean Cunningham (whistletutor): Tin Whistle Lesson: St Anne’s Reel – Tin Whistle Lesson – video lesson with part-by-part breakdown and suggestions for ornamentation.
• Additional Resources
  • Web page – The Session: Saint Anne’s – crowdsourced sheet music, comments and more
  • Web page – irishtune.info: St. Anne’s – archival information about the tune curated by Alan Ng