Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Martin P]

Possibly impossible question as we are dealing with Folk Music, but can anybody suggest the definitive “original” tune for Morrison’s Jig. It appears in many versions, some only vaguely similar to most. Only common theme is obviously all in 6/8 in Edorian, starting and ending with a Em Chord under a low E note. Most versions vaguely similar in A part, but wide variation in B part and then some versions have a C part. Most recordings I’ve listened to play it so fast (typical Irish trait of faster the better it seems) that difficult to work out what is being played.

[Stiamh]

I recommend the version recorded by the Bothy Band on "Old Hag You Have Killed Me". Last tune in this medley.

https://youtu.be/2v5nGq7e8KA

If you go looking for the "original" tune you'll have to go back to the 1936 recording by the Sligo fiddler James Morrison of a tune he called "Maurice Carmody's Favourite" (also known previously as "The Stick Across the Hob" and which subsequently became known as "Morrison's".

https://youtu.be/t08S20tn884

I don't care for his version personally, because the first part contains a strange sequence of notes that just doesn't sound right for an Irish tune. (FABA d) I actually searched a whole corpus of ABC tunes for this sequence and found nothing like it in jigs, only in reels, and only with the F# in an unaccented position: which satisfied me that it was weird. You can ignore this piece of personal prejudice if you like. And if you stick to the Bothy Band version you'll avoid it anyway...

[smiley]

When Martin wrote "Most versions vaguely similar in A part, but wide variation in B part ..."  he reminded me of the similarity between Morrison's and Whelan's jigs - their A parts can seem almost identical, but their B parts are quite different. In my experience if you started off Whelan's in a noisy session you're bound to end up with the squeezeboxes on the periphery playing Morrison's for the B part 

And its interesting comparing the accompaniment to Morrison's in both the Bothy Band and the James Morrison recordings. To modern ears the 1936 version sounds odd, but they must've wanted to play that way back then. Reminds me how "traditional music" keeps changing over time.