The Black Rogue jig

I didn’t think too much about this tune when I first heard it, but I’ve been giving it a go on the fute & like it quite a bit now. I don’t know a lot about it, maybe someone else here can flesh out some details on it.

I think this jig is in one of Bulmer & Sharpley’s books as "Paddy McNicholas", but I’m sure "the Black Rogue" is the older name for it.
The Dubliners used to play this on stage as "The Octopus Jig",
with Barney picking the banjo and "fingering "the fiddle, John Sheehan bowing the fiddle, and "fingering" the banjo, and blowing the whistle, Ciaran(?) fingering the whistle, and Ronnie feeding Barney a bottle of Guiness !!
As long as they all started together it worked - I saw them do it on TV.
A great jig - real lift!

It ios sometimes playrd with C# throughout, in place of C-natural. Also, I think, with C-natural in the A-part and C# in the B-part.

now that you’ve pointed it out - I like doing a C# in the 2nd part. That stuff the Dubliners did sounds like a real stunt, those guys really knew how to have fun.

What ever the name, the structure and style of this jig shows it to be a very old pipe tune. It certainly predates most of the reelsand hornpipes posted on this site.I suspect it also predates many of the jigs. On stylisticgroundsalone,I wouldsuggest that it originates sometime in the 18th century.It would be interestingto seeifanyonecan find any evidence to support this assertion.

Sung in Connemara as an Rogaire Dubh along with Paidin O Rafferty . Very old I think.

see http://irelandsown.net/piper.html

In this nice story there is a piper. He plays very nice but is able only to play the black rogue.
One night half drunk he is hijacked by a pooka which tells him to play the ‘Shan Van Vocht’.
After a gig for some fairies he is able to play all the tunes and he is the king of the piper for the rest of his live

In the process of oral tradition some musically wise guys must have been involved.
The Black Rogue might be a very old warpipe tune and has a lot of march charactristics (see O’Neills version).
On the wind instruments at least it’s an easy to play tune.
The ‘Shan vanVocht’ is a hornpipe and so a releatively modern tune, it’s much more difficult tp lay and can be a master piece for a great piper.

My question is: When I’m half drunk, at which bridge can I expect a pooka to give me a lift to the fairies so I know after one night all the tunes and I’m called the bsest piper??

This tune is always played with C#s throughout, not C naturals—at least by today’s players. That makes it basically the key of D, but an A chord in the first and third bars.

Yes, in our Ceili band we play this tune with C# throughout

The black rogue was driving me crazy since I knew I have it somewhere in my CD collection. It is part of a set that Todd Denman plays on his Celtic Peace album, Sailing around the rocks, last piece in the set. Its all jazzed up with a bunch of tight triplets but basically its the same tune

Now we all have the chance to see the Dubliners’ stunt!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcA3MmV6Ymk

play video

This is the version on the Ted Furey album ‘Toss the Feathers’ (Outlet 1973). He introduces the set as "The Black Rogue and Donnybrook Jig"; however, the tunes are the other way around.

X: 1
T: Donnybrook
T: The Black Rogue
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmix
d/B/ | c2A BAG | cAA AdB | c2A BAG | AFD DdB |
c2A BAG | cAA BAG | FGA BAG | AFD D2 :|
e | fef gfg | afd cBA | fef gfg | afd efg |
agf gfe | efd {ef}e2d | cAA BAG | AFD D2 :|

An Bhfuil na lyrics ag éinne?

This is the version I know. I originally learnt it off "Humdinger" by Paul Brock and Enda Scahill, where it is played in A. I transposed it to G to make it easier to play. I don’t know whether to post it as a separate tune or not.

X:1
T:Black Rogue, The
L:1/8
M:6/8
K:G
|: dBB BAB | dBB Bge | dBB B2A | GEE Ege |
dBB BAB | dBd g2e | dBB B2A | GEE E3 :|
|: g2g aga | bge dBd | g2g aga | bge ega |
bag age | ged g2e | dBG AGE | GED D3 :|

This is from an online collection assembled by John Walsh (walsh@math.ubca.ca) from various issues of the Irish Pipers’ Club newsletter, Iris na bPiobairi, the Pipers’ Review. Apparently this is a lesson piece played out in Seattle. Not sure as to the difference in title, but it’s definitely a variant of the same tune. Here it is stripped down:

X: 1
T: Black Robe, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
|: d | cA=c BGB | cAA A2d | cA=c BGB | AFD D2d |
cA=c BGB | cAA A2d | G3 BGB | AFD D2 :|
|: e | f3 g3 | afd cBA | f3 g3 | afd dfg |
agf gfe | fed e2d | cA=c BGB | AFD D2 :|

Here it is with all the gracings:

X:1
T:The Black Robe
C:Trad.
M:6/8
R:jig
L:1/8
K:Dmaj
|: d | .cA=c {Bc}BGB | .cAA {BAG}A2d | .cA=c {Bc}BGB | {AB}AFD {A}D2d |
.cA=c {Bc}BGB | .cAA {BAG}A2F | ~G3 {c}BGB | {AB}AFD {A}D2 :|
|: e | ~f3 ~g3 | {b}afd {AB}cBA | ~f3 ~g3 | a.fd dfg |
{b}afg {a}gfe | fed {ged}e2d | cA=c {Bc}BGB | {AB}AFD {A}D2 :|

I liked the alternation between c# and c natural and thought it might make for an interesting first tune in a set.

Well done.

Thanks, I needed the chuckles…

Key signature: D Major
Submitted on September 17th 2008 by mrkelahan.
~ /tunes/8925

Key signature: D Major
Submitted on November 18th 2008 by JACKB
~ /tunes/9097

X: 6
T: Black Robe, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
|: d |\
cA=c BGB | =cAA A2 d |cA=c BGB |AFD D2 d |
cA=c BGB | =cAA AFD | G3 BGB |[1 AFD D2 :|[2 AFD D3 ||
|: f3 g3 | afd cBA | f3 g3 | afd de/f/g |
agf g2 e |fed e2 d | cA=c BGB |[1 AFD D3 :|[2 AFD D2 |]

The Black Robe ~ A good piping jig.

# Posted on November 18th 2008 by JACKB

Jack’s original transcription, very close to the previous "Black Robe" transcript by mrkelahan, did not have the first and second ending but had both parts ending ~ | AFD D3 :|. Also, B-part, 4th bar was notated as ~ | afd d(3efg | ~ …

I notice it has gone the way of duplications ~ "POOF!" ~ but valuing Jack’s contributions and not seeing it rescued I’ve added it here, hopefully doing it reasonable justice. The effort, contribution and difference is valued …

I first heard this tune on an a Reader’s Digest 5 LP boxed set with songs stories and tunes on different albums. I think it may have preceded the Dubliners playing. The band was the Gallowglass Ceili Band and the album would have been recorded in late 50s or very early 60s. There were some very good tunes on the disc. The played it with the set Tobins Fav/Fasten the Leggin’/The Black Rogue. Thirty five years later and we still play it always when we have a session.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcA3MmV6Ymk

play video

DuncanCameron posted this link a couple of years ago.

Mind you,it’s still funny to me!

This tune is in the Gunn Book of Fermanagh (1865) under the name ‘Billy O’Rourke’. There’s a different tune of that name in Breathnach II as a single jig.
The Gunn Book version has C sharps. I personally play it with C naturals. It would seem to be a old pipe tune (although John Gunn who wrote the Gunn Book was a fiddler).
The version in O’Neill’s is the same tune, but in the key of E minor and more like the related (same?) Scottish tune, ‘Come under my Plaidie’

I’ve been lestening to John Millington Synge’s book on the Aran Islands and note that he played fiddle and says this about this jig: "It is only when I play some jig like the Black Rogue—which is known on the island—that they seem to respond to the full meaning of the notes." The book was published in 1907; Synge’s stays on the islands were in the years just before and after the turn of the century.

I just found a version of this tune in "Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody" by Capt. Francis O’Neill from 1922. O’Neill calls the tune Paddy the Weaver, and says it’s from Wilson’s "Companion to the Ballroom" from 1816.

The B part is different though.

X:1
T: Paddy the Weaver
T: Black Rogue, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
d | c2 A ABA | c2 A A2 d | c2 A AGA | F2 D D2 d |
c2 A ABA | c2 A A2 e | f2 d gec | d3 D3:|
e | fgf gab | agf efg | f2 d ded | d2 A A2 e |
fgf gab | agf efg | f2 d gec | d3 d3:|

Rough Transcription from his album "An Toilean Aerach"

K:Amix
| GEE FED | GEE E2A | GEE FED | ECA, A,FA|
GEE FED | GEE ECE| DCD FDF |1 ECA, A,FA :|2 ECA, A,3 ||
|: ABc dcd | ecA GEE| cEE dcd | ecA AEA |
cec d2B | cBA BcA| GFE FED | ECA, A,3 :|

McKenna’s (McKenna’s take in G):
https://thesession.org/tunes/9786

Listening to "Sail Round The Rocks" by Todd Denman, I can hear the similarities but it’s clearly a different tune (not just another name for this one). Probably shouldn’t be in the alias list.

This setting adds chords (my own, not something "official"), and is based on the first setting on this site, with a few minor edits. I first heard this in a session at Hogan’s in Cape Canaveral, FL, from a visiting fiddler, who played it after "I Buried my Wife and Danced on her Grave."

Here’s Matt and Shannon Heaton playing this tune together with The Sporting Pitchfork:

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

play video

I keep wondering about the name of this tune. "The Black Rouge" is a name akin to "Rakish Paddy"; it’s supposed to be intimidating, and about some kind of outlaw or pirate. However, this is a pretty cheerful tune, considering the intimidating name. What kind of pirate is this tune about? A Disney pirate? Or is this a modern tune about somebody picking up a new Nissan Rouge that was painted black? (serious question, please answer)
Despite the misleading name, this tune has been a favorite of mine since I started playing. Playing this on tenor banjo or mandolin has always been a good source of tips :) . This is an easier tune, and it goes well with "Calliope House" and "The Rambling Pitchfork".

"The Black Rogue" is #302 in my copy of "O’Neill’s 1001", published 1907, which probably means it was "traditional" even then. It’s not necessarily about any pirate. In most cases, tune names are just labels, nothing more. Just enjoy playing it. [ Goes well after "The Battering Ram" ]

There’s a version of the black rogue in O’Farrell’s (100 years before O’Neill’s).

At any rate, a rogue is probably any person who’s a bit rakish, and a black one would be one with dark hair (and/or possibly slightly darker skin).