The Old Gray Goose jig

This is a very pretty tune that I do not get to play very often. I would like to share with everyone. This setting is very close to traditional Sligo setting as well as to the "Old" O’Neill’s (1907).

I heard this tune played on the piano accordian by my friend Paul Wilkins - (parson’s hat)..I didn’t get the chance to learn it at the time, and never got round to getting a tape of him playing it!

I usually play section 3 different, I like this version a LOT more, try it yourself: (I have not tested this ABC, I may have a note length wrong or something sorry)

|: B | efe fdB | def g2 a | fdd add | fag fed | gfg efe | dfe ggg | edB BAF | GDD D2 :|

In addition, this song is in e minor and should end on an E not on a G, though the G does sound interesting.

Often, when there is a situation where there is a triplet that starts on one not eand falls to another and stays there for the third, I play the second two as their own mini-triplet. I forget the term. On low-whistle. Sounds nice.

Also very pretty when played quite slow.

Key signature: Adorian
Submitted on June 6th 2005 by MattB.
https://thesession.org/tunes/4566

Sorry, they had the key wrong, not A Dorian but the same old e minor…along with everything else…

Great fiddle tune. I think it was composed by Michael Coleman.

Doesn’t look like it. This jig was published in O’Neill’s in 1907. Coleman was born in 1891, and didn’t go to America until 1914. [ From the “Colman Heritage Centre ” website]. According to “The Fiddler’s Companion”, the version Coleman recorded came from “O’Neill’s”

By no means a complete transcription, but still very interesting, including some (hopefully not illegal !) syncopation:
X: 1
T: Old Grey Goose, The
D: Mícheál Ó’Súilleabháin: The Dolphin’s Way
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Emin
EF|GBG FAF|GEE EFE|vD/vE/FA dAG|{FG}FEF DEF|
~G3 ~A3|~B3 gfg|{ef}edB {Bc}BAF |GEE E2:|
|:D|~G3 dGe|dGe dBG|GAA (^c/B/)Ae|Af A^g Aa|
~G3 dBA|GdB Ggf|{ef}edB {Bc}BAF |GEE E2:|
|:A|Bee {ef}edB|def gfe|{fg}fdd add|f/g/ag fed|
~e3 edB|def Ggf|{ef}edB {Bc}BAF |GEE E2:|
|:c|BGB AFA|GBE E2c|BGB ~A2G|FA EA Dc|
BGB AGF|GFE gfg|{ef}edB {Bc}BAF |GEE E2:|
|:f|gfg aga|bd’e’ e2f|gbd’ {ab}a2g|{fg}fef def|
Ggg eff|def Bgf|{ef}edB {Bc}BAF |GEE E2:|
|:f|geB {Bc}BAB|GB FB Ef|gdB ~A2G|FEF D2f|
|geB {Bc}BAB|GFE gfg|{ef}edB {Bc}BAF |GEE E2:|

here’s an even more harmonious version: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greylaggoose/index.aspx

Apparently, the greylag goose (Anser anser) is the old and only relative of our modern white (or grey) goosey gander (Anser anser ssp. domesticus).
More ansers and éanswers to the questions you never asked at:
http://www.informatika.bf.uni-lj.si/magus-celtic&basque.html

I note in passing that the auld [MIDI music file] program seemed to have been made for MÓS’s interpretation! (or was it the other way around?) ;- )

My favorite version of this is the one played by Tony MacMahon. Perhaps the recording I had was wonky but the playing was in F minor. I transcribed and transposed it to E minor. The transcription is not perfect - MacMahon frequently modifies the tune just a bit as he repeats sections - and I have made no attempt to capture any of the ornamentation but still enjoy playing this version:

X: 2
T: Old Gray Goose, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Emin
F|GBG FAF|GEE EFE|DFA dAG|FDD DEF|
GFG AGA|BAB gfg|edB BAF GEE E2:|
|:D|GFG dBG|GFG dBG|A2A e^cA|AEA e^cA|
GFG dBG|GBd gfg|edB BAF|GEE E2:|
|:d|efe edB|def gfe|fdd add|fag fed|
efe edB|def gfg|edB BAF|GEE E2:|
|:c|BGG AFF|GEE E2c|BGG AdA|FDD D2c|
BGG AFF|GEE gfg|edB BAF|GEE E2:|
|:f|gbg faf|gee e2f|gbg fag|fdd def|
gbg fef|def gfe|edB BAF|GEE E2:|
|:f|gdB BAB|GEE Eef|gdB dAG|FDD DEF|
GFG AGA|BAB gfg|edB BAF|GEE E2:|
N: Approximately as played by Tony MacMahon

"Perhaps the recording I had was wonky but the playing was in F minor." ~ schritz

Or the instrument he was playing was sharp… That’s not uncommon.

Piping version

https://youtu.be/zcSdU7L64J0

play video

Great version, working on the transcription.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1O11S12Hmo

play video

Rónán Mac Grianna’s version. Great version, took me a while to get it all sorted out and written down but worthwhile - easy to forget it with all those parts! The transcripition is more or less based on the first time each section’s played first time through. There are quite a lot of variations but I left them out as it’d be too much of a muddle to write it all down. Some of the parts differ substantially when repeated and also each time the tune’s played. Ornamentation omitted for the same reasons. Great tune, might be becoming on of my favourites.

This tune – “a variant of The Old Grey Goose” says the Fiddler’s Companion – appears in P.W. Joyce’s Old Irish Music and Songs (1909), vol. 1, p. 113-114, No. 232, as The Rakes of Kinsale.
Joyce wrote that he copied it from two very old well-written manuscripts lent to him in 1873 by Mr J. O’Sullivan, of Bruff, Co. Limerick.