The Canongate Twitch reel

I picked this tune up years ago from a Tannahill Weavers recording. It’s already listed here as an alternative name for the Green Gates but this is a well known Scottish tune.

Very much related to that old setting of The Lady of the House.

|GABG c2 BA|GBdg e2 dB|GABG A2 Bd|eA A2 eA A2|

Not sure about that Paddy.

Well they’re very similar tunes. They move in the same direction melodically with just a few different takes on similar phrases. If they have completely separate origins, I put it down to a huge coincidence. I will not state that they are definitely related, but I would not be one bit surprised to find out some link between along the way.

This tune was also published in David Glen’s collection of Irish tunes for GHB round the turn of the century as The Woman of the House in the Centre, presumably a translation from the Gaelic. Battlefield Band picked it up on ?Rain Hail & Shine (or something like that), but I think they had it from another Victorian collection. I play the second part something like

(3aaa af ggge | (3aaa af ecAc | (3aaa af ggge | fB ~B2 fB ~B2
(3aaa af ggge | (3aaa af ecAc | ABcA ~B2 AB | c2 Bd cAA |]

Here’s a link to the set with this tune.
I used Audacity to slow it down to half speed and scope out the notes as close as I could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EarcNOXv5pI

play video

This is the Irish Gaelic title for the tune I was referring to a few years ago. Indeed, as direct translation into English would be "The Woman of the House in the Centre". So, looks like they are related after all 😉