The Coleraine jig

I’ve included some ideas for chordal accompaniment. The sharp notes in this tune, especially the high G# in the second part, give this tune an unusual, almost eastern sound. All the other G sharps can also be played as G naturals. Try using a mixture of the two.

I love this tune, but on whistle/pipes its easier to play when transposed from Amin to Bmin or whatever this mode is.

I really like this tune and I have finished learning it. But it will not be totally finished until I get the composers name for this tune. It would be great for me if I could get the name of the composer. Can anyone help me out on this one please.

You’re unlikely to be able to find that out since it’s an old traditional tune. What’s wrong with the name Coleraine Jig? (PS greetings from Sydney)

I played this in a set followed by Rose in the Heather and then Myra’s jig, and people loved it.

Dow, I heard it said one time that this tune was thought to have been composed in America?

But I’m afraid I don’t remember any details - sorry!

So, who knows?

From http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/CO_COLL.htm:

"Irish, Double Jig. A Minor (Brody, Kerr, Miller & Perron, Reiner, Spandaro, Sweet, Tolman): B Minor (Sullivan). Standard. AABB. Coleraine is a town in northern Ireland. The tune has long been a staple of New England contra dances. The earliest printing appears to be in Kerr’s Merry Meodies (c. 1886), where it is included in a section of Irish jigs. Source for notated version: Fennigs All Stars (New York) [Brody]. Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook), 1983; pg. 70‑71. Jarman (Old Time Fiddlin’ Tunes), No. or pg. 19. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 4; No. 234, pg. 26. Miller & Perron (New England Fiddler’s Repertoire), 1983; No. 15. Reiner, 1977; pg. 48. Sannella, Balance and Swing (CDSS). Spandaro (10 Cents a Dance), 1980; pg. 45. Sullivan (Session Tunes), Vol. 2; No. 25, pg. 10. Sweet (Fifer’s Delight), 1964/1981; pg. 29. Tolman (Nelson Music Collection), 1969; pg. 5. F&W Records 3, "Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra." Front Hall 01, Fennigs All Stars‑ "The Hammered Dulcimer." Revonah RS‑924, "The West Orrtanna String Band" (1976. Learned from Fennig’s All Stars’ recording). Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40126, Rodney Miller  – “Choose Your Partners!: Contra Dance & Square Dance Music of New Hampshire” (1999)."

Jackie Daly told me that he learned it from Bill Spence and Fennig’s All Stars from Albany, NY.

The tune is strikingly similar to the theme of a movement from one of the Mozart Horn Concertos, but right now I couldn’t tell you which one. The Mozart version is in a major key, though.

I know this doesn’t answer your question, but at least it’s something.

Submitted on May 18th 2007 by gaitazampogna_32.
Key signature: b minor
~ /tunes/7230/details

X: 1
T: The Coleraine Jig
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: b minor
|: E |
FBB Bcd | cff f2 e | dBB Bcd | cAF F2 E |
FBB Bcd | cff f2 e | dcB ^ABc | B3- B2 : |
|: c |
dcd dcB | Aaa a2 ^a | bfe dcB | ^ABc F2 F |
B^AB cBc | def gfe | dcB ^ABc | B3- B2 : |

"wonderful irish tune. it’s such an old tune, it comes from O’Carolan’s period. Try it with the D whistle or violin (very well). I often play it on a C whistle."

# Posted on May 18th 2007 by gaitazampogna_32

Very similar to Aaron’s Key.https://thesession.org/tunes/2266/comments

Is this a Northern tune as the name implies, and would it be played in the style of someone like John Dougherty?

Sadly, some folks consider it so Northern that they refuse to play it, or to join in when someone else does. In a recent chat with a friend they mentioned how they liked this tune and when visiting another session and asked to contribute, they did, when they came to play this jig everyone else was silent. After they brought it to a close, on their lonesome, someone informed them "We don’t play that tune here." Though I suspect it was not so kindly put… IF that is the case, it’s not the sort of place I’d want to frequent. Why damn a melody because you feel the need to associate it with an opposing side, whether Catholic or Protestant, South or North. I’ve heard B.S. about Ulster that was blind as to whether things were Catholic or Protestant or anything else, the fact it was Ulster was bad enough. How daft can people get? ~ very… 🙁

This has been a popular jig in North America, both sides of the divide, Canada & the U.S.A…. It kept company in sets with other tunes to accompany New England contra dance…

Never heard of anyone refusing to play it because it’s "Northern" - very strange. Would they refuse to play the "Belfast" or "Derry" hornpipes, by the same logic ?
If it’s good enough for "De Danann"….. and if John Kimmel recorded it, it’s been part of the Irish tradition for the best part of 100 years.

I would want to know whether those people in the session said they didn’t play the tune specifically because it was northern, or whether they simply stated that they didn’t play it without giving a reason. In that case it could be that it’s simply not in their repertoire, or maybe it wasn’t popular for another reason, for example the fact that it’s based round the melodic minor scale which sounds unusual to some ears, given that it’s very rarely used in Irish music (to some it might sound too classical).

They specified ~ making it clear that they were disgusted by its suggested origins ~ that it was against their religion and politics…

A group of us, from both sides of this issue, used to get together in Clare for the craic, and part of that was swapping songs and tunes from both sides. Then, I think it was 1981, we’d gathered again, we sang some songs, we chatted, played some tunes, including marches, and somewhere in it all were the usual, including "The Old Orange Flute", rebel songs and tunes both sides of that issue. Then in through the pub door, like an old U.S. Western, some wide-boys arrived. They stood in the back frowning. Eventually they gave voice to their disapproval in very nasty ways. We broke up and moved on.

From our experience, and from accounts I’ve heard, this was more common in North America than in Ireland, tyrannical decisions about what is and isn’t Irish or Green or Orange, Catholic or Protestant…

Hopefully Australia and Scotland is free of such bigotry and ignorance, but I don’t personally know your situations with this regard, though I have heard the occassional account…

I’ve gone back over correspondences and found the reference to the seed story given above, yes, it was at a session, I suspect somewhere in England, the person relating it was playing a set which changed into "The Coleraine Jig", at which point everyone else stopped participating, so they finished it on their own. Afterwards, expressing surprise that no one knew it, the response they got back was something along the lines of "We do know it, but it’s from Northern Ireland!"

Repeating my source, with respect ~ "A good tune is a good tune, wherever it comes from."

That ‘gathering in Clare’ referred to above, well, we didn’t confine such sharing to gatherings in just the one county, Clare. I was along for the comradery and the experience, but there were also very well known musicians and singers in attendance and participation, from both sides, including singers like Paddy Tunney, Seamus MacMathuna, Len Graham ~ and many others, well known musicians amongst the rest of us as well ~ including the occassional visitors from elsewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Tunney

‘we’ ~ because it was always inclusive, everyone was made to feel welcome and appreciated ~ until the day those wide-boy creeps came in to spread fear and loathing, to make a stink about it…

It’s great tune, and can be played with a lift that makes you want to dance to it…

Like swisspiper mentioned, this tune is perhaps easier in Bminor than Aminor on the whistle. I wouldn’t dare try this on the pipes ‘cause of the accidentals that are essential to this tune.
I love to play in both keys, opening in B and moving up to A on the second pass. This demands à fair bit of half-holes, but its not so difficult with this particular tune.

Great tune indeed!!

Does anybody know words to this tune? It sounds to me to be a song tune.

Lynched has applied the words from the song in HP Lovecraft’s "The Tomb" to this tune.

got this one from de dannan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRXbk9v52i4

play video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEJFuWgkGkY#t=12m25s

play video

A few other alternatives note included here:
- the 4th bar of the B Part could be "^GAB E2E"
- the A & B rolls in the 5th bar of the B Part could be simply long, held notes (do this if playing with a C-whistle)
- and the "cde fed" in the 6th bar of the B Part could be "cd e3 d", or "cd ~e3 d"

Have paired this setting with Jump at the Sun (in Dmin) and others which require high-C whistles.

An interesting Irish Jig, actually in A Harmonic minor, with most of the G’s being sharp

In the US, standard contra dance tune first popularized by Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra in the 80’s. Bob MacQuillen’s piano is exciting.
Sylvia Miskoe, Concord NH USA

From the playing of Rodney Miller.

From the playing of Niamh Ni Charra.

From the playing of Derek Byrne and Paddygrass.

Have edited X6 as well. In hindsight, one of the variations from my previous comment may not sound so good (bar 6 as cd ~e3 d, roll crosses over a beat), would have to check. The rest are fine.

I’ve always seen the title as ‘Coleraine’. No ‘the’
Sylvia Miskoe

Usually that’s the case, yes, though, there are a few recordings with "The" in its’ title.

I’m new to the site, so please excuse my lack of proper vocabulary. I thought I knew Kitty of Coleraine, but the melody that I’m familiar with is wildly different from all of these versions. I looked it up to make sure it is the same song (there’s always a possibility that the book I learned it from put the wrong name) and the version I know matches the O’Neill 1903 version on this page exactly https://tunearch.org/wiki/Kitty_of_Coleraine

So my question is: are there two distinct tunes to Coleraine, is Kitty of Coleraine different than Coleraine, or is this an example of a tune becoming Americanized and the actual song is how it’s written out on here? I would assume it’s just because my book is off, but the fact that one is major and one is minor make me think it might be a different song entirely.

I don’t think you should assume that a tune with the name Coleraine would be the same as another tune with the name Kitty of Coleraine, even if they share the same word. There are many tunes with "Humours of" in the title, after all, and they’re not all the same! That said, it looks like someone added Kitty of Coleraine here as an extra name, but I don’t think that’s accurate (the Tune Archive page doesn’t list *any* alternate titles, for instance).

Anyway, it’s quite common for distinctly different tunes to have the same name (check out The Mountain Lark for example).

That makes a lot of sense, the Kitty title must be an error. The beginning of the tune was similar enough that I thought I’d been playing it wrong all this time haha. Thanks for the help, Nico!

One of the unfortunate weaknesses of this site is that anyone can apply a title to any tune without any justification whatsoever. Nobody has provided any reason above for any of the 7 "alternative" titles to this tune other than "The Coleraine".

But one of the joys of Irish tunes is that, at a session, when someone doesn’t know the (or "a") name of a tune, a new one gets applied and sometimes it spreads from there. And there’s always the "[enter a player’s name here]’s Favourite" or the like, no matter what a former name may have been.

I’ve never understood how "Bliven’s Favourite" from Ryan’s Mammoth Collection could become "Finerty’s Frolic" in theSession.org. More’s the pity….