TUNING
Táim i mo Chodladh has a mode which Bunting does not specify in terms of a key or a
scale: a G mode. Da Mihi Manum and Lochaber no More have a similar scale which
requires an F natural instead of an F#. One might assume that the standard téad
leagaidh tuning (no sharps plus F in the bass below the crónán G) would be required for
the arrangement to work in the key of G. However, the horizontal harmonies of some
modes suggest the need for a bottom E below the crónan G instead of an F and this
would require the téad leagtha. Both the MS20 and MS33 settings of Táim i mo Chodladh
display such an E and its appropriateness in this G mode. The closing bass line figure in
the melody of Mrs Cole also seems to indicate the modal equivalent of this note in an A
mode tune.
Such a feature would correspond with what may be the third of three tunings described by
Bunting in MS29 p157. The retuning of bass F to E below the crónán in C major tuning
would certainly have been an operation related to long established modal harmonic
requirements. It completely conforms to the diatonic scale which allows D, C, A & G
modes.
Táim i mo Chodladh
Tuning