Behind The Bush In The Garden jig

Source: Andy McGann & Paddy Reynolds
Transcription: g.m.p.

this tune is generally marked and played as a jig, but seems to me a slide.

There are a whole host of related tunes from Northern England all called “Behind the bush in the garden”. They date back a coupleof centuries or so. However,they don’t seem to relate to the version posted here. Watch out for confusion.
Noel Jackson
Angels of the North

This is a single jig. This site, however, doesn’t differentiate between single and double jigs.
Chris

Wha’ll be king but Charlie. or something like that…

Recorded by Horslips as “Oisin’s Tune”

Go raibh ma’agat to Jim Troy for helping my ailing memory to track this one. The song appears on two Clannad recordings, “Clannad 2” and “Ring of Gold”, but is an old standard you learn as a wee one in Eire - or a novice musician… Also played without repeats, ‘single’, as it is sung:

Curfá (Chorus)

Téir abhaile riú
Téir abhaile riú
Téir abhaile riú Mhary
Téir abhaile riú ’s fan sa bhaile
Mar tá do mhargadh déanta.

VERSE

Is cuma cé dhein é nó nár dhein
Is cuma cé dhein é Mhary
Is cuma cé dhein é nó nár dhein mar
Tá do mhargadh déanta.

Curfá

Pós an piobaire
Pós an piobaire
Pós an piobaire Mhary
Pós an piobaire dtús na hoíche
Is beidh sé agat ar maidin.

Curfá

Níl do mmhargadh
Tá do mharghad
Níl mo mhardadh déanta
Tá do mhargadh
Níl do mhargadh
Tá do mhargadh déanta

X: 2
T: I Won’t Do The Work
T: Behind the Bush in the Garden
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: a minor
|: B |\
c2 B AGE | c2 B AGE | c2 E EDE | G2 G- G2 A |
c2 d e2 a | age ded | c2 A BA^G | A3 A2 :|
|: B |\
c2 A c2 d | eag efd | e2 A c2 d | e2 G G2 A |
c2 d e2 a | g2 e ded | c2 A BA/G/E | A3 A2 :|

you might try ‘K: A minor’ or ‘K: A dorian’ (instead of ‘K :a minor’) in that ABC, as lower case key signatures produce unintended consequences when converted to sheetmusic (i.e. the ‘a’ isn’t recognised so it comes out written in C minor by default with 3 flats instead of none).

Weird, it’s a visual thing with me, as I only write ABCs longhand, because I have yet to find any software package I like. I use full blown notation ware, half a dozen on this computer, none of which are ABC. The half dozen ABC software programs I did give a try were a pain, and the conversion to dots was attroacious even when you honoured their specific peculiarities in ABCs… Now, which one were you using. I just realize I have recently used and ABC converter, with the likes of this, without any problem. I’m going to have to lift my own ABCs here and give them a try. I’ll be back… 😉

I just tried it in several flavours. amin & aminor worked just fine, but the minute I added a space ~ a minor ~ it converted it to dots with 3 flats. Weird! I don’t know if they all do that, but it is a simple thing to correct depending on the software used. There have been problems before, for example, if you don’t have X: and a number value, for some programs. Others seem OK with fragments and not a full set of headers. Curious, thanks for drawing my attention to that weirdness…

Crazy, I tried a few different keys just to see what would happen, and the small letters did cause confusion. It varied, depending as well whether or not a space occured between the letter and the category. Small letters and a space consistently ended up with different flat signatures. You’d think they’d iron that one out with a simple bit of code, as with email addresses, so that it didn’t matter, or that it recognized small letters as ‘minor’… That is one of the things I find irritating about ABC software, mostly it is inelegant and full or bugs…rather than intuitive…

I’d really like this song and cant find it anywere if anyone could send me a link or the song to ib0@hotmail.co.uk - Thanks!

If this is the tune, log in, click on this link then download a midi file, the sheetmusic or copy the abc file.
https://thesession.org/tunes/1888

Here’s the popular, nice n trim song version (I wrote it out in 12/8 to signal Munster origins + it’s neither aeolian nor dorian since there is no f at all in this version)
X: 1
T: Téir Abhaile ’Riú
M: 12/8
L: 1/8
R: slide
K: A minor
| c2A AGE c2A AGE | G2G G2E G3 E2E |
A2B c2d e2e e2d |1 c2A BAG A3 A2B:|2 c2A BAG A3 A2E ||
A2B c2d e2e e2E | A2B c2d e3 A2E |
A2B c2d e2e e2d |1 c2A BAG A3 A2E:|2 c2A BAG A3 A2B||

‘Go home, Mary, and stay there,
for your match is made!
It doesn’t matter who did or didn’t do it
for your match is made!
Marry the piper early at night
and you’ll have him till morning’ 🙂

I am looking for the tune called “Mullberry Garden” written by 17th century Irish song writer John Playford, who wrote the “English Dancing Master”. Does anyone have the sheet music to this jig?
lydalu

Is Behind the Bush in the Garden the same tune as Mullberry Garden?
Lydalu

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-music-mandolin-tab/mulberry_garden.htm

Is this what you’re after?

yes, thank you! I heard the tune on public radio and fell in love with the melody.

This is to be on the new Celtic Woman DVD, I was at the taping of it in Atlanta on 7th Sept. The Chorus as Gaeilge and the tune are the same as the Clannad version, but one verse in English is different, something about going up to Galway.

plays “The Tidy Girleen” on the whistle on that CCE album “The Home I Left Behind”.
https://thesession.org/recordings/2431
http://ceolalainn.blogspot.de/2009/10/home-i-left-behind-1974.html

I transcribed this from the playing of Kelly Russell and Rufus Guinchard.

X: 1
T: Parson’s Pond
R: jig
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: Ador
A2 B | “Am”c2 c E2 E | c2 c E2 G | “Em”{EG}E2 D EFG | “Am”A2 G A2 B |
“C”c2 d e2 a | “G”gag “Em”e2 d | “Am”cee “G”dBG | “Am”A3 :|
|: A2 B | [M: 3/8] “C”c3 | [M: 6/8] cBc egg | “Am”ecc {d}cBc | “G”dBG GAB |
“C”c2 d e2 a | “G”gag “Em”e2 d | “Am”cee “G”dBG | “Am”A3 :|

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA1h40KEJUI

play video

I find it to be so different from the above setting that it’s practically it’s own tune, but it is similar enough that I don’t want to post it as a new tune for fear of being scolded for a duplication. Do you guys think it is so far removed that it is its own tune?

Is this written by Andy McGann and Paddy Reynolds? Or is it traditional?

Not a modern composition. Published in 1903 in O’Neil’s Music of Ireland (1850 tunes) and in 1907 as tune #398 in O’Neil’s 1001 Gems. It was probably regarded as an old tune then.

As recorded by Packie Dolan under the title “Royal Charley.” It differs from other settings in the predominant B in bars 3 and 4, and in going up to f# instead of high a, making it very doriany. It’s been suggested that it is closely related to the song “Bonnie Prince Charlie.”

I know this as ‘I Won’t Do the Work’. This version is definitely a jig, not a slide. I like the drive that the simplcity of the tune gives it.

From Randal Bay’s album “The Quiet Pint”.

From the playing of Ben The Hoose.

The “cd/c/A” notes could be simplified as “c2A”. Though, they do play ornaments on these c’s.

From the playing of Colin Grant.

Noël Hill, Live in New-York album.

Already here https://thesession.org/tunes/1888 as Behind the Bush in the Garden with alternative name Téir Abhaile Riú.

The setting I learned from Frances Marriot who plays it very much as a slide.