O’Sullivan’s March jig

I learned this off a Chieftains recording ages ago—I hope it’s the same tune as requested recently, in reference to the naval war movie (which I haven’t seen yet).

Play it with all the pomp and swagger you can muster.

yup- same tune; found it on my vinyl chieftains 7 album

Oh good. Nice that they’re using real trad music in the movie. I’ve always liked this tune.

Dont know how trad it is Will, as I said before my cousins wife is on the so wouldnt be very tradish I’m guessing!

I mean on the ‘album’ obviously!

This is one my favorite marches, beside the King of Laois.

-Max

Ah, but Bridie, the tune is in the 1907 edition of O’Neill’s. That’s trad enough for me.

yah - but its how its played isnt it? ie whats that other tune somebody posted from that other movie - it ended up getting deleted?

You’ve lost me, unless we’re talking about Celine Dion again :-|

I have no idea how it sounds in the movie (though the trailers look like fun), but I’ve always played O’Sullivan’s as a straight trad march, pretty much as notated here. I’m assuming that’s what felinoba was looking for.

This tune is in the depths of my repertoire somewhere, but I play it slightly differently I think. Looks like it didn’t pass the bb tradness test 🙂

no no, sorry - just talking about how its ok to use tunes in a movie and all but Ive never heard them actually do it well (ie Titanic). Just going on my own little tangent - ignore me🙂

I saw the movie yesterday and noted that this tune was played but I know it as O’Sullivan’s March and as a two-part tune which, if I remember correctly, is how it was done in the movie. The setting shown below is as played by Declan Folan at a Fleadh Concert (1990) in Ireland, transcribed by Adrian Scahill.

T:O’Sullivan’s March
R:Jig
S:Declan Folan [Man3.abc]
H:
N:
D:Fleadh Concert 1990
Z:Adrian Scahill
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:G
DBA B2d|edB AGF|GBA B3|AGE EGE|
DBA B2d|edB AGF|GBA B3|AGF G3:|
e2g edg|edg ed^c|d3 dge|dge dBG|
cEc dFd|gdB AGF|GBA B3|AGF G3:|

Sorry, for some reason I thought this was listed as Sullivan’s March, hence the first line of my comment.

I learned this tune about 2 years ago from harper Michael Rooney at a workshop at my teacher’s house. I kind of wanted to see the movie before, but now I really want to see it. Any other Irish tunes in it?

Bridie, some movies do all right with the music. There’s a bad movie with Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford about gun running to Ireland that has some great tunes in it, including a set of jigs (Lark in the Morning, etc.) played by real trad musos, on screen, as a house ceili.

Yeah - I saw that movie Will, wasnt it joannie maddens dad in it or something? One of the few - but I do know what you are saying.

Yep, they play it in the movie..

But.. I’m not entirely sure it is correct. The movie takes place in teh late 17, early 1800s, somewhere around Napoleon.. I can’t remember.

When I researched this tune, the first time I saw it as O’Sullivan’s march was on Rob Roy… Originally it was Old Hag Tosse Up In A Blanket, and in the movie Roby Roy was paired, by the Chieftains, with ‘Burnt Old Man’ to make a March set for the British…

If it’s in O’Neill’s, I don’t think it goes earlier than 1907 then. To say the least it isn’t at all correct for the 1680’s in Rob Roy.

I am almost sure that when I was taught this tune, I was told that when a march is in 6/8 that it means it’s really old. I don’t know what "really old means", but I would assume older than 1907 for sure. I could be wrong, or maybe Michael Rooney was mistaken.

The other trad tune in the movie (Master and Commander) comes while the credits are rolling, and it’s the Humours of Trim, which is already posted in the archives here under the title, The Rolling Waves.

Seasaidh, either I misunderstand you, or I’m pointing out the obvious—a tune bein in O’Neill’s means only that it is *at least* that old. Many of the tunes in O’Neill’s are of course much older. O’Sullivan’s March could easily be from the time of Napoleon I and the naval war with the British (which formally began in 1805).

As for Rob Roy, they also famously used uillean pipes for that movie, which must curdle Scottish blood….

Hello people — this is my first post here, but I’ve followed the threads a while so here ‘goes. This one dovetails nicely with Garryowen — a tune some folks loathe to play because it has no real definable ending and is rather commonplace. But it has a nice lilt to it if played as a march, and I think it fits very well if snugly tucked in after O’Sullivan’s.
-C.

At least the late 1600s, published by Playfprd as Lilliburlero

On third thoughts, this appears not to be Lilliburlero, the tune Playford published in 1690, but a version of the tune known in Scotland as A Rock and a Wee Pickle Tow.
And Playford only has one p of course.

Will, the way the Chieftains play it, and the way you have notated it here actually includes a second march. Iv’e been trying to find out its name for a long time. According to a thread on C & F, the second march is "An Sean Duine."

🙂 -Dirk

Im a year late on this one but this tune is one of the oldest among any on "the session"… it definitely goes back to 1669 under the name Montrose’s March. The great ethnomusicologist Samuel P Bayard collected three versions from three different old time fiddlers in Pennsylvania in the 1930’s. Also very common among fifers in that region it went by many names but never OSullivan’s March or Wee Pickle Tow, so it’s currnecy in North America probably predated those titles. Also the setting is different than the one posted here. Obviously the same tune though. SOme of it was familiar to me bfore I found Bayard’s, but I relied on his collected versions to fill in my blanks. I was very surprised to hear it on a Chieftans CD that my wife bought me for Christmas… I had no idea it was Irish… I always considered it an old-time American tune.

Was the name by the way for my previous note

This tune is used in the movie ‘Master and Commander’, sort of stuck on the front of a set. I like it alot, but I am not sure if it would be a good tool for learning this song. Does any one have on oppinion of that recording?

Has anyone come across this tune under the title Cowboy Jig or Charley The Prayermaster ?

The Cowboy Jig has a different first part. Have a look: https://thesession.org/tunes/794

This strange title comes from Liam O’Flynn’s "Fine art of Piping." His second part is fairly different but I haven’t got around to learning it yet. Does anyone know anything about this title?

The second tune of this submission is known as An Seanduine; https://thesession.org/tunes/5647

Here’s the Martin Hayes setting of this tune from the video : From Clare to here part 2 .. from what I saw in the video, he played only 2 parts of the tune….

X: 1
T:O’Sullivan’s March
M:6/8
L:1/8
C:Traditional
S:From a Martin Hayes video
R:March
K:D

|: "D" E>FE EFA| BAF E2 A,|"G/D" D>FE FFE | "D"F2 D D2 A,|!
"D" D>FE EFA| BAF E2 A,|"G/D"D>FE FFE | "D"F2 D D2 A, :|
|: "G/D" B2 G B2 d | B>dB B>AF |"D" A3 A3 | A>dA AFD |!
"G/D" G2 A B2 G |"D" (B/c/)dD {F}E2 A, |"G/D" D>FE FFE|[1 "DM7" F>DD
"Em/D" D2 d |[2"DM7" F>D"Em/D"D D2 A, || !

Played here by Clare McLaughlin, Martin Hunter, Malcolm Stitt and Mairead McManus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF6ueP2BurM

play video

X: 1
T: O’Sullivan’s March
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
D |: GBA ABd | edB A2 D | GBA ~B2 G |AGG GE D |
GBA ABd | edB A2 D | GBA ~B2 G :|1 AGG G2 D |2 AGG GB d ||
|| e2 g e2 g | ege edB | ded dBd | dgB BAG |
cBc dcd | (3efg B A2 D | GBA ~B2 G | AGG G2 g ||
| ~e3 ~e2d | ege edB | ded dBd | dgB BAG |
cBc dcd | (3efg B A2 D | GBA ~B2 G | AGG G2 D ||

when I listen to the chieftains recording of o’sullivans it sounds like the key changes when the whistle comes in for that middle part, am I right about that?

~ one I’d curiously submitted in a semi-conscious state, the following edited to protect the foolish and semi-conscious 😏 - - -

Playing through and with someone’s recent submitted compositions, "Jakob’s Frolics", a first submission by sineadhayes -

https://thesession.org/tunes/11904/comments

I was reminded of this one, and during initial searches didn’t seem to find it here - I was wrong - thanks to the help and greater consciousness of Mix, the Prof & Doc Dow. It WAS already here…

However, it’s one of those cans of worms I love to drop and watch them all squirm away. Why? Well, there are a LOT of versions of this by title and melody, similar and very different. It’s another of those catchy ditties that went round the globe, played in all kinds of places, and I have versions from some of those places, and, silly me, I also know it as "O’Sullivan’s March", duh!

There are also many varied melodies by this title used for Morris dancing, where the many different takes on it vary melody wise, parts and repeats…

Like other such travelling melodies, it has also picked up various lyrics too, but, again, I’ll leave that for someone else…

# Posted on April 24th 2012 by ceolachan

Submitted on April 24th 2012 by ceolachan.
~ /tunes/11906

X: 5
T: Old Woman Tossed Up In A Blanket, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
|: D |\
GBA ABd | edB A2 D | G/A/BA B2 A | AFD G2 D |
GBA AB/c/d | edB AF/E/D | GBA B2 G |[1 AGG G2 :|[2 AGG GB/c/d ||
|: e2 g edg | edg e2 B | dBe dBg | dBG A2 d |
gg/f/e fd/d/d | edB A2 D | G/A/BA B2 A |[1 AG/G/G GB/c/d :|[2 AFD G2 |]

X: 6
T: Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket, The
T: Sweeping the Cobwebs Out of the Sky
B: "O’Neill’s Music Of Ireland, Chicago", 1903 - page 144, tune #771
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: AMaj
|: E |\
AcB Bce | fec {c}B2 A | AcB c2 B | cAF ~F2 E |
AcB Bce | fec {c}B2 A | AcB c2 B | cAA A2 :|
|: e |\
{g}fea {g}fea | {g}fea fec | ecf ecf | ecA B2 e |
(af).f (ge).e | (fe).c B2 A | AcB c2 B | cAA A2 :|

Ceol - you’ve got me totally puzzled here!

The tune that you have posted sounds like "O’Sullivan’s March" - or at least it does, to my ear …

Certainly, there is a tune called "Old Woman Tossed Up in A Blanket" which occurs in lots of Cotswold Morris traditions:

- Bledington
- Brackley
- Bucknell
- Chipping Camden
- Field Town
- Headington
- Ilmington
- Kirtlington
- Longborough
- Sherborne

… but I don’t think any of them are similar to your tune.

# Posted on April 24th 2012 by Mix O’Lydian

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The words are also sung to Lillibulero.

# Posted on April 24th 2012 by Weejie

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Sweeping cobwebs

Sullivan’s march is a version of the same tune (or vice versa).

Sweeping cobwebs was sung by Seámus Ennis, Liam Og recorded it on his ‘Fine art of piping’

A quick scribble from memory:

X: 7
T: Sweeping cobwebs out of the sky
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: G
|: D |\
GBA ABd | edB A2 G | GBA B2 A | BGG GED |
GBA ABd | edB A2 G | GBA B2 A | BGG G2 :|
|: d |\
edg edg | edg edB | dBe dBe | dBG ABd |
gee fdd | edB A2 G | GBA B2 A | BGG G2 :|

# Posted on April 24th 2012 by Prof. Prlwytzkofski

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Duplication ~ Yes ‘c’ you should be kicking yourself for this one.

You’ll be resubmitting the Kesh next

# Posted on April 24th 2012 by Dr. Dow

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zzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZ…

# Posted on April 24th 2012 by ceolachan

Mea culpa!

There, evidence of this dimmed wit… 😛 Can one know too many marches? 😀

There were several roots, too many, to this duplication, including the linked to composition, but also a curious tune collection I’d been scouring, and chasing up everything I could find on hand or on the Internet associated with the two titles… I’ve others, including the very different, but putting them here in the ‘comments’, whatever the relationship, is unsure. I’ll have to continue to play through them and listen before committing… 😎

And trying to catch some shut eye beforehand too…

I did have a niggling suspicion, it’s such an old boot of a tune, a familiar, in more versions than one, and reason for mentioning I wasn’t finished looking. I’d also copied it all, backed it up, in Notepad, added proof of insecurity, and that I kept checking back with it… I should have gone with that gut feeling and waited a bit longer, till I’d done more searching to finish making connections… I mean, ‘The Chieftains’ did one of their arrangements of this! Sheesh! Where’s my brain when I need it? 😀 Thanks you lot, appreciated… But who’s going to add lyrics?

‘But who’s going to add lyrics?’

I’ll look up the Ennis recording. 😉

New York, 1963 and with a bluegrass guitar backing him..

"…this tune is one of the oldest among any on "the session"… it definitely goes back to 1669 under the name Montrose’s March."

This is borne out in the fact that there it has so many variants and descendants in Ireland and Scotland (and possibly England). One of its progeny, I think, is Out On The Ocean https://thesession.org/tunes/108 .

Here’s a bit of interesting info from The Fiddler’s Companion (thanks to ceolachan):
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/ROC.htm#ROCK_AND_THE/A_WEE_PICKLE_TOW

Yes!!! 😀

As you’d previously connected to… 😉 I love it… But, I’m confused that this information wasn’t already given. It may be just that I’d had that intention and never carried it through. 😏 It surprises me, as this family, all sorts of relative variations, has been a part of our music for a very long time. Maybe I’d just taken it for granted, though that isn’t like me. Well, not it is here. I just hope Andrew’s work, "The Fiddler’s Companion", lasts a good long time and continues to make corrections and connections and add information, all those that have contributed directly or indirectly towards that end… 😉

From that link:

"Regarding the title, a rock is a distaff, a device that holds the flax strick or the fiber for spinning. It is called a rock because the weight, or whorl, was frequently a shaped and pierced rock."

It would seem that this is not the case. The word is cognate with Middle Dutch "Rocke", Old High German "Rocco" Spanish "rueca ", Old Norse " rokkr" and a plethora of equivalent words in other European languages, meaning ‘distaff’ - from Proto-Germanic "rukka" and Proto-Indo -European "rug" to spin. In Old Norse, "rokkr" could also mean a spinning wheel. The word is so old, that it would probably predate the usage of "rock" for a stone, the word being used for formations rather than small pieces. There may be some etymological link between the two uses of "rock", but the suggestion that this is made through its use in spinning is dubious.

An old spelling is "roke":

http://www.linlithgowmarches.org/songs.html

Burns collected the song, and it appears in the Scots Musical Museum.

The notes in that book (by Stenhouse?) read:

[THE ROCK AND A WEE PICKLE TOW.
There is a very old set of verses to this tune, but they
are rather coarse for insertion. A copy of the tune, under
the title of " A Scottish March," appears in John Playford’s
Musick’s Hand-Maid, published in 1678 ; but the second
strain contains a redundant bar, which spoils the measure.
It is reprinted, with all its imperfections, in Smith’s Musica
Antiqua, vol. ii. p. 175. The tune is annexed.

X:1
T:A Scottish March. 1678.
S:A Scots Musical Museum p.391
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:Gmix
G2 B2 B2|B4 e2|A4 G2|GA B2 B2|
B4 A2|B2 G2 G2|G4 :||e2 e2 g2|
e2 g2 g2|e2 g2 g2|e3 d B2|d2 d2 e2|
d2 d2 e2|d4 e2|d3 B G2|GA B2 B2|
B2 ^c3 B/c/|d3 B =cd|e5|d2 edcB|
A4 G2|GA B2 B2|B4 A2|B2 G2 G2|G5||


Ramsay wrote new words to the same air, beginning " I
hae a green purse wi’ a wee pickle gowd," printed in his
Tea-Table Miscellany in 1724. Mr Alexander Ross, formerly
schoolmaster at Lochlee in the county of Forfar, likewise
wrote a song on the old model, beginning " There was
an auld wife had a wee pickle tow," in which he has incorporated
several lines of the original verses with those of his own
composition, and has spun out the song to nineteen stanzas of
eight lines each. The reader who may wish to peruse the
whole of Mr Ross’s song, which possesses considerable merit,
although it is by far too long to be inserted in this work, will
find it annexed to his beautiful poem of " The Fortunate
Shepherdess," first printed at Aberdeen in 1768. The verses
in the Museum are an abridgment of Ross’s song, it is believed
by himself, and are taken from Herd’s Collection in
1776.]

Makes sense, despite the author’s extension to the stone… Interested and interesting, including "In Old Norse, "rokkr" could also mean a spinning wheel." Thanks again.

From one of the smaller Oxford dictionaries:

distaff - a stick or spindle on to which wool or flax is wound for spinning.

I think those notes are from Vol 5 of the Musical Museum.

From between the bellows of Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich / Brendan Begley

"Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich & Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh: A Moment of Madness"
Track 7

& transposed down to G…

From Séamus Ennis, "Masters of Irish Music" LP:

There was an old woman wrapped up in a blanket,
Fifty times as high as the moon;
Where she was going I couldn’t but ask her,
For in her hand she carried a broom.
Old woman, old woman, old woman said I,
Where are you going in your blanket so high?
Where are you going in your blanket so soon?
I’m sweeping the cobwebs off of the moon.

http://youtu.be/VnH0YVpafVM

play video

If you don’t like bodhrans, maybe best avoid this 🙂

The title is not a time signature. It refers to O’Sullivan Beare’s attempt to escape harassing groups from across the waters in fleeing—a march—from Beara in southern Ireland to Leitrim during the winter of 1602-1603. Over two weeks and 250 miles, all but 35 of his gathered 100o followers died or were killed. The tune is a jig or waltz if you like.

I learned this tune years ago from a 10” Jimmy Shand vinyl I found in a junkshop. a Scots friend
told me the title meant a Glasgow fish supper, ie a piece of rock salmon and a pickled onion. any truth in that, or just winding up the Sassenach ?

I heard this played as the second tune in a Christmas set —the first tune was I Saw Three Ships in G Maj. This was surprisingly played by the West Point Military Academy Band in heir televised Christmas concert

As I learned it from Brian McNamara. Only minor differences from X:11 by JACKB; one that I like is the change from C natural to C sharp in the 5th measure of the B part.

Was looking for "The Roke and the Wee Pickle Tow" as played at Linlithgow Marches (and thanks to Weegie for all the info above - from 3 years ago!) There are slight differences from O’Sullivan’s March (and I have never heard it played as a slow waltz as in another thread on here! - always as a dotted 6/8 march.)
Found a nice version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36xSXi4Qp0I

play video

Here’s the informal version of it in 2001 in Linlithgow - the "toon anthem" - The Roke and the Wee Pickle Tow"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4hZ_yro9eQ

play video

The version played on the ‘Drunken Gaugers’ album by Kevin Crawford, Dylan Foley and Patrick Doocey.

From the album The Driven Bow. Who wrote it?

It’s a duplication of this tune… https://thesession.org/tunes/2204
As you can see from the other titles, it has many variants, originating in Scotland (most likely) but spreading far and wide. It’s very old and unlikely you’ll ever find out who wrote it.

It’s a Morris Dance tune which appears on Ashley Hutchins album Morris On.
There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket
Ninety nine times beyond the moon
And under one arm she carried a blanket and under the other she carried a spoon.
Old woman, old woman, old woman cried I
Oh either , oh wither, oh wither so high?
"I’m going to sweep cobwebs from beyond the sky,
But I’ll be back with you, by and by..

I assume you don’t mean originally a Morris tune Andy Hornsby? All evidence seems to point to it being very old Scottish.

And it’s "whither" meaning "where to" - not wither, as in shrivel up!

And the number of times relative to the moon seems to vary between the above versions.
I learned it as a nursery rhyme many decades ago, "seventy times as high as the moon": 50, 70, 99, take your pick!

Not the same tune as O’Sullivan’s or the Roke.

Correction: the tune I know for the nursery rhyme version of "Old Woman Tossed up in a Blanket" is more like the tune for "Lilibulero".

I picked up the Wee Pickled Tow from Francie Mooney in Donegal, 1999. To me, it’s very different to O’Sullivan’s. The two tunes appears to be in the same mode making them sound very similar.

Vincent Campbell (1938-2018), the esteemed Donegal fiddler, played a setting of this in 1984 which he called "The Cutty Lon" - a corruption of "cotillion". A transcription was given in the periodical Ceol Tire in January 1985, and it has all the hallmarks of "The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow", "O’Sullivan’s March" and "Out on the Ocean" (to my ears at least).