The Girl Of The House jig

Source: D

Yet another great tune from te mulcahey Family being track 5 of their self named album.

Here’s how the Kane Sisters play it on their cd, The Well Tempered Bow:

X: 1
T:Girl from the Big House, The
T:Cail

Another slightly diferent version of this tune as played on Callan Bridge by Cillian Vallely and his brother. What a great tune this is.

T:Girl of The House
M:6/8
S:Cillian Vallely
R:Jig
K:G
AG||:F2 D DAG|F2F GEA| DED AGE| F2D DAG|!
F2F GFG| AGA cde |dcA GEA|1DED DAG:||2 DED DAB||!
c2 A AGF|G2G GFG|AdB cAG|Ad^c deg|!
fed cAG|EFA GEA|dcA GEA|1DED DAB:||2DED D3||

Source: Ronan Browne - “the wind you know”
Transcription: gmp

This tune was already posted as a jig by… Gian Marco. https://thesession.org/tunes/1214

Two years ago? What a great contributor you are!

Ah, yes. It’s just the original Irish title of “The Girl of the Big House.”

Mmmmh…This is different enough…Isn’t it?

This is the tune Peter Heelan taught at the Saturday afternoon session of the San Francisco Piper’s Club tionol, 2005. Great tune on the pipes. You can do a D crann on the DED triplet. No one knew the name of this tune till Justine’s housemate came up with it a few days later.

I’m no Gaelic scholar, but if the translation is to be understood as “the girl of the big house”, the Gaeilge bit should read: “An Cailín den Teach Mhór”. The only time the definite article ‘an’ (the) is used to imply ‘of the’ is when its plural alternate ‘na’ precedes the plural form of a noun: An Cailin na Tithe Mhor, the girls of the big houses.

*girl*

I can think of plenty of examples in Irish of “an” being used to imply genitive “of the” in the singular. Some are “Fear a(n) Ti” = the man OF the house, also the name of a nice reel. Other examples and tune names are “barr an chnoic” = the top of the hill, “bean an tinceara” (The Tinker’s Wife), “bairead an mhairnealaigh” (The Sailor’s Bonnet). The song “bean an fhir rua” (the Red Haired Man’s Wife). Sorry can’t get the fadas. You may be getting confused with the use of preposition “de” with partitive genitive.

In other words the Irish title as given is correct and the attempted correction is wrong.

https://thesession.org/tunes/3886

It’s funny how bits get thrown about, or ‘borrowed’, in this case BIG bits:

“Garrett Barry’s”
https://thesession.org/tunes/544

K: Gmaj
|: A |
DEF ~G3 | AGE c2 A | dcA d2 e | fed cAG |
~F3 GFG | AGE B/c/de | dcA GEA | DED D2 :|
|: A |
dcA d2 e | fed e/f/ge | dcA c2 d | efd ecA |
dAA d2 e | fed e/f/ge | dcA GEA | DED D2 A :|

& “Denis Murphy’s”
https://thesession.org/tunes/1778

K: Dmaj
|: E |
F2 D DAF | GED D2 A, | DFA DGE | FDD D2 E |
~F3 ~G3 | ~A3 B/c/de | dcA GEA | DED D2 :|

Jerry O’Sullivan’s version absolutely rocks.

I like the Donnach Gough (of Danu) version a lot myself it is on “Up in the Air”. I like to play along with it on my favorite Whsitle my Sindt C becuase Donnach is playing it on a C set. Nothing like Whsitle and Pipes together. The Vallely brothers play a nice version also but it will never be the same as the Gough solo version.

Another version by Dale Russ and Finn MacGinty on their Album “North Amerikay”….gotta love this tune.

A grand jig; it is another version of “The Girl from the Big House”, also known as “Robbie Hannan’s” and posted under these names already.

According to the sleeve notes of Angelina Carberry’s “An Traidisiun Beo,” this jig appears on George Petrie’s “Ancient Music of Ireland Volume 1,” which was published in 1855. It seems old enough to be called “traditional.”

Just a fantastic piping jig.

I heard Liz and Yvonne Kane’s version and find it the best so wrote it out, and put it here.
I learned the first setting on this page first so I’ve crossed theirs with that a bit, but its
closer to theirs than the first setting - not that first setting’s not good - I just like theirs better.
http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/Well+Tempered+Bow/4855546

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

play video

Enjoy!

Notation as heard on the Callan Bridge album by the Vallely Brothers. Played in a set with The High Jig and Sunnyside. Listed on the album as Sunnyside. I like it because it cooks…so to speak. Will post the other two tunes above as well.

Note, the ABC notation didn’t preserve all my editing…on the last time through, jump from right after the 3rd measure of the B part to the “Sign” to signal the end of this tune and the next tune starting.

From the playing of North Cregg.

Some combination of previous settings.

This is the version of The Housekeeper I was taught by Frances Marriott, from the playing of Dennis Murphy.

I do wonder if this setting belongs with the jig here: https://thesession.org/tunes/1214.

As played by Julia and John Clifford it is definitely a jig not a slide.

As played by Emma O’Leary on her album Mo Cheantar Féin.

Sleeve notes:
The woman of the big house - Breandán Breathnach recorded Denis Murphy playing this tune at his home in Lisheen, Gneeveguilla. The transcription of this tune from Denis’ playing can be found in Breathnach’s Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2.

How I remember hearing and playing it in Co. Clare … 🤞

As played by Patrick Cannady and friends on Sep 20, 2022 at the Wolfhound, Chicago, IL. Followed by Helvic Head https://thesession.org/tunes/3110