The Nine Pint Coggie reel

This tune has received Dow’s seal of approval, having been posted in te comments section for another tune, so here it is for reel. It’s a Scottish tune, and I’ve never heard it in a session, but it’s a mighty tune, and I enjoy playing at home, on the top deck of a night bus, or wherever I can get away with it. It appears in The Athole Collection (a collection of fiddle tunes collected in Perthshire in the late 19th century) and Alasdair Fraser plays it on his album, ‘The Driven Bow’. I don’t think it’s a staple of mdern Scots players but, like many old Scots tunes, it’s still widely played in Nova Scotia.

The two-semiquaver-and-one-quaver groupings (e.g. E/E/E) ar what Scots fiddlers call the ‘Birl’. It translates quite readily to the Irish bowed or tongued triplet, and can, on some notes, be replaced with a roll or cran.

Thanks for posting it David

David, can you have a try at my setting and see what you think? I find that with the Athole setting my ear wants to hear that 2nd part again. I’ve always played it (wrongly) as a double reel for this reason. Also my setting’s completely pentatonic and contains no C#s. I’ve transcribed bowed/tongued triplets as ~ to make it easier to read:

K:Edor
|:D|B,EEF (3EFE DB|AFED FAAd|AB{d}BA defe|dD~D2 FEED|
B,EEF (3EFE DB|AFED FAAd|AB{d}BA defe|dBAF BEE:|
|:D|Eeef ~e2dB|defe dBAd|Beed efab|afed ~e3f|
abaf edef|dBAF ABde|faef ~d2Be|1 dD~D2 FEE:|2 dBAF BEE||

Do you think it works or is it too long-winded like this?

I think it’s just plain greedy, playing it as a double reel. It’s a tasty enough tune that 16 bars are sufficient nutriment.

But being less moralistic, or frivolous, or whatever it was I was being, I think some single reels are inherently single and are best left as such. There are some reels commonly played double which, I think, don’t need to be. To my ears, the A-part of this tune gets a bit too repetitive if played double, the B-part less so. You could always play it ABB, a la Sailors Bonnet.

Anyway, whatever you do, don’t listen to me.

You’re right - bad, greedy me. I think I’ll start playing it ABB :-)

By the way, I’ve just tried "The Sailor’s Bonnet" before this tune and they go nicely together.

My setting is now officially this (it looks better on paper too actually). Cheers David.

K:Edor
|:D|B,EEF (3EFE DB|AFED FAAd|AB{d}BA defe|1 dD~D2 FEE:|2 dBAF BEE||
|:D|Eeef ~e2dB|defe dBAd|Beed efab|afed ~e3f|
abaf edef|dBAF ABde|faef ~d2Be|1 dD~D2 FEE:|2 dBAF BEE||

PS What do you call ABB - "single double reels"?

Dingle reels

In "Kerr’s Merry Melodies" there’s a completely different setting of The Nine Pint Coggie.Here it is. M:4/4 K:G |:Bg (3GGG G2 EF|=~F cF Accd|BG (3GGG G2 EF|G2gd Bd d2:|:gagd Bcde|=fgfc Accd|(3dcB (3cBA G2 EF|G2 gd Bd d2:|

This great tune appears on Altan’s "Runaway Sunday" and is called "Clan Ranald." What a horrible mistake! It seems that the real "Clan Ranald" was recorded by them as "Lamey’s." I think they make at least one mistake in tune identification in every recording, which is as bad as Lunasa.

That’s the title for an Irish version listed in Joyce Collection. I happened to record Maire O’Keeffe and Jackie Daly playing it on the radio.

One of my music friends, who almost exclusively plays Cape Breton fiddle music, always repeats the second part, just as Dow does. So does Mairi Rankin on her solo album.

Here’s a flute-friendly version:

K: Edor
E2EF E2EB|AFED FAAd|BdAB defe|1 d2DD FEED:|2 d2DD FEE2||
Beef e2de|f2ed Bdde|Beef edef|afed e2ef|
abaf defe|dBAF ABde|faef defe|1 d2DD FEE2:|2 d2DD FEED||

It’s a mighty little tune as Quirl (David, Mountain Goat, or Billy) said. The Killarney Boys of Pleasure might be based on this old Scots tune.

Altan play "Nine Pint Coggie" on the recording Runaway Sunday, track 5. It’s the first tune in the set. They call it Clan Ranald, but the real title is 9 pint coggie.

Does anyone know if this has a known composer? Or is it just a Trad. tune?

Read the first comments by "granama."

I wrote this reel might be the ancestor of The Killarney Boys of Pleasure. It was actually Charlie Piggott who pointed out the similarities between the two tunes.

A couple of years ago I had a chance to swap tunes with Charlie Piggott in a pub in Lisdoonvarna. He said he loved Scottish tunes, so I tried playing (or to play) Nine Pint Coggie: http://www.thesession.org/tunes/1683 After a medioce flute playing of myself, he pointed out the Scottish reel is similar to Killarney Boys, and then we played the tune together. In the end, he gave me this reel in return: http://www.thesession.org/tunes/4998