Tell us something.: Sets in D and B by Rogge and flute by Olwell, whistles by Burke and Goldie. I have been a member for a very long time here. Thanks for reading.
Get rid of the Jig of Slurs Scottish passport and give it a nice shiny Irish one instead by transposing down 4 notes so the C is natural and the key is no longer "A".
Sounds groovy on the uilleann pipes...lots of hard bottom D's.
eg DGG GFG EGG DGG EGG DGG etc
Use e, Cnat or others for the odd note that would otherwise dip too low.
Boyd
...oh, and definitely play most of the first section "off the knee"...
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: boyd on 2002-11-12 18:48 ]</font>
We played it last night at our monthly session and I was struck by the fact that it's already quite "naturalised Irish".
The initial D has been lengthened to become a full eighth note, followed by only two Gs, and this rhythmic pattern with a strong first note in each phrase is kept up pretty much throughout (the DGG G pattern is introduced occasionally more as a variation than as the default phrasing). On pipes, whistle or flute the subsequent pairs of Gs are usually graced with an A and/or played tight/tongued/glottal-stopped. So it has apparently lost its eponymous slurs.
I was sitting beside a fiddle player and was struck by the fact that, even though I now know it started out as a GHB tune, the way he plays it it still sounds like a fiddle tune! This may be because the initial note of the phrase is also further emphasised on the fiddle by being played slightly louder. Maybe this added swing is one of the reasons why I don't find it at all tiresome as a tune.
Well Roger, if you keep writing about the JoS like that you may reconcile me with it yet. I also find the correct use of the word "eponymous" so refreshing.
The original GHB version includes that accentuated first note. Technically speaking the first note is a dotted eighth and the second a sixteenth. So the first note (D on whistle, flute, etc) is worth one and a half and the first G is worth half. This is common with traditional Scottish jigs and jigs composed before the '80s.
As for the eponymous slurs, I think it's a change in terminology. The GHB version of JoS is proliferated with taps (on whistle you would tap an F between the G's) or what are called strikes in the GHB lexicon. A slur today usually refers to a bent note or glissando but I think back in the early 1900s a slur meant a strike.
Cheers,
Aaron
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: AaronMalcomb on 2002-11-13 21:37 ]</font>
I got my US teminology wrong, which is not surprising since I barely know even the British/Irish terminology.
As played in the Irish tradition, the D in the opening phrase is a *quarter* note (which I think we call a crotchet). In fact, the more I think about it, the more I suspect that Irish fiddle players, not aware of the meaning of "slur" in GHB parlance, have reinterpreted it and play the D with an Irish-style slur, sliding up into it from a slightly flattened attack. Is that sufficiently obscure?
And BTW, in case there's any misunderstanding, the way JOS plays the quasi-homoacronymic JoS on C&S is perfectly in keeping with the way it's played in the Irish tradition. Far be it from me to cast any slur on his reputation.
(Edited for afterthoughts)
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An Pluiméir<marquee>Ceolmhar</marquee><br>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Roger O'Keeffe on 2002-11-14 04:06 ]</font>
Have you all heard Matt Molloy's take on Jig of Slurs on the "Stoney Steps" album? It's fascinating to see how he deals with the problems this tune presents; what he plays is undeniably virtuosic, but at the same time much easier to play on flute/whistle than the canonical version of the tune. The A part as he plays it ends up something like
K:D
A3 dcd|BdB ADA|~B3 ADA|(3Bcd e{a}edB|etc.
Most of those little repeated notes are gone, yet the essence of the tune is undeniably there. It's a great example of how far you can bend a tune to fit your instrument.
The Jig of Slurs, as has been pointed out, is a tune written to be played on the Highland bagpipe. it uses, and if you can get a piper to show how it is set you will see how it is to be played.
The rhythm is DUM-da-dee DUM-da-dee, etc.
The first note (DUM)is preceed by a grace note (a "cut", in flute lingo) and is followed by higher tone which is broken into two )"da-dee)by a "{tap").
Pity I can't write the music out here, or better yet play the jig. It's a great jig, with plenty of percussive drive to it.
I generally play it in the middle of a three tune set; Atholl Highlanders(all six parts), Jig of Slurs (4 parts) and The Muckin' o' Georldie's Byre. And sometimes I'll tack on The Glasgow Gaelic Club after that (one jig leads to another!) before rotating back to Atholl Highlanders.
I should point out that Atholl Highlanders is a 6/8 march, many of which are quite amenable to being speeded up and played in "jig time". I've also slowed down a jig on occasion and played it as a march if I were acting as a duty piper" at some function and it popped into my head as I played. On occasion I have intended to segue into one tune but found myself playing another!
