Top It Off slip jig

This slip jig is a version of the reel “The Sunny Banks.” The Chieftains play the slip jig and the reel on track 1 of Bonaparte’s Retreat. The album notes refer to the reel as a version of the slip jig “Top It Off.”

Submitted on April 19th 2006 by ceolachan.
https://thesession.org/tunes/5685

Check out the variations here and also the 3/4 relative with ‘snaps’…

single reel & highland fling
Submitted on February 20th 2003 by milesnagopaleen.
https://thesession.org/tunes/1453

Sounds like a hop jig.

R: Hop Jig
|: d |
c2 A A2 c f2 c | def gfe fed | c2 A A2 c f2 c | ded c2 A F2 :|
|: f |
a2 f f2 e f2 a | g2 _e e2 ^d e2 g | f2 d d2 ^c d2 f |1 edc gfe f2 :|
2 edc gfe fe ||

A similar version in this key can be found in –
“Dance Music of Ireland, 2nd Collection” ~ Levy, 1873
&
“Traditional Dance Music of England and Ireland:
Slip Jigs & Waltzes” ~ Kennedy, 1999

Both of these transcriptions are 16 bars/measures in length… This is as I know and have known it, and is what ‘feels right’, rather than the 32 bars/measures given here… I have other notations of this tune and all are 16 measures. The AAB versions are with an A-part of 4 bars that repeats and a B-part of 8 bars that do not repeat. One modern notation has a similar set of notes but they had the 8 bar B-part repeat, making a tune of 24 bars/measures…

Sorry, I forgot…

|: G |
E2 G G2 ^F G2 G | A2 d d2 c BAG | E2 G G2 ^F G2 G | ABc d2 B c2 :|
|: =f |
e2 c c2 B c2 e | d2 _B B2 A B2 d | c2 A A2 ^G A2 c |1 B2 G G2 B d2 :|
2 ABc d2 B c2 ||

I have been having great fun with this one, playng just the one melody in its different forms and in variations, here’s one direction I’ve taken it:

9/8 Slip Jig ~ 9/8 Hop Jig ~ 3/4 Highland ~ 4/4 Highland ~ 4/4 Reel

Here are some of the 9/8 slip jiggish ways I’ve taken it:

K: D Major

|: B |
AGF AGF d2 A | Bcd edc d2 B | AGF AGF d2 A | Bcd AGF D2 :|
|: g |
f2 d dcd dcd | e2 =c cBc cBc |1 d2 B B^AB BAB | c2 A A^GA AG :|
2 d=cB dcB d^cB | AGF edc d2 ||

Same tune, very different version though, so I’m almost tempted to post it separately. Also #69 in CREI.

X: 1
T: Top It Off; The Booley House
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
R: slip jig
K: Dmaj
A2GF2A dcA |B2 c d2 e fdB|A2GF2A dcA|BdB AFA D3|
f2 d d2 f agf|e2 d c2 e gfe|f2 d d2 f agf|efd cdB A3|
f2 d d2 f agf|e2 d c2 e gfe|d2 c B2 c dcB|efd cdB A3||

Key signature: D Major
Submitted on April 30th 2008 by Ger the Rigger.
https://thesession.org/tunes/8492

The above Martin Hayes version given a place of its own…

https://thesession.org/discussions/19616

X: 6
T: Top It Off
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Cmix
|: GF |\
EGGF E2 GE | Addc BAGF |
E2 GF ECGB | ABcd c2 :|
|: df |\
eccB c/d/c Gf | dBBA B2 Bf |
cAA^G A2 Ac |[1 BGGF G2 :|[2 A/B/c dB c2 |]

X: 6
T: Top It Off
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmix
|: AG |\
FAAG F2 AF | Beed cBAG |
F2 AG FDAc | Bcde d2 :|
|: eg |\
fddc d/e/d Ag | eccB c2 cg |
dBB^A B2 Bd |[1 cAAG A2 :|[2 B/c/d ec d2 |]

I see my version still isn’t up here then …

Well, let’s see it then… 😉

I thought you were going to post it?

X:7 from the piping of Tommy Reck or Willie Clancy, or the fiddling of Paddy Glackin. The 1st part puts me in mind of the Sunny Banks but not the 2nd. The extra bar in the 4th and 8th bars I’ve included here was as played by all of the above mentioned artists, the Chieftains dispensed with it. Listening to them play it is frankly unsettling! I’ve got that extra beat burnt into my fingers. The one time I essayed this in public it was quite a train wreck. Train Reck…In Ceol Rince na Eireann Vol 1 Tommy Reck’s teacher John Potts’s setting doesn’t have this extra beat either. Wonder where that wandered in from. Or Breandan edited it out? Somewhere or another I read that this tune was associated with Sligo, too.

Lovely piping jig

Here’s a fairly standard setting of Top It Off but with the second part played twice as long, which is how we’ve been playing it around here.

It’s occurred to me fairly recently that this tune is related to (or really more accurately, a version of) Dress Her Out in Fine Clothes, as printed by Francis O’Neill.
https://thesession.org/tunes/8492

This is my slightly adapted transcription of the setting Brendan Breathnach recorded from Seán Potts in CRÉ 1 (p29, No,69). Breathnach has Potts playing two 8 bar sections twice - the present (as I’ve transcribed it) 4 bar A music x4 and the 8-bar B music (which already has an internal repeat & 2nd time ending!) twice (with a 1st time transition back, which I haven’t included). I think it’s a bit tedious like that and don’t play it that way, so have reduced it to a normal two-part slip jig format of 16 bars. Otherwise it’s almost exactly as in CRÉ 1.

I note an important melody shape difference from many of the preceding settings here. At the end of the B music Potts’ version has the triplet run up to the cadence occurring in the last bar itself, not in the penultimate bar as most of the versions above, which strike me as rhythmically rather peculiar and unbalancing of the tune’s shape - maybe it’s just I learnt Potts’ way and anything else seems odd, but I think there’s more to it than that.

X:12
T:Top It Off
C:Traditional
O:Ireland
S:Seán Potts
B:B Breathnach CRÉ 1 (1963) p29 No.69
N:Breathnach records Potts as playing the A music x4 and the B music x2
Z:Jem Hammond 13:1:2022
R:slip jig
M:9/8
L:1/8
K:D
d2B[|:A2F ~F3 d2A|Bcd e2c d2B|A2F ~F3 d2A|Bcd A2F ~D3:|]
f2d d2c d2f|e2d =c2B c2A|d2B B2A B2d|=c2A A2G A2g|
f2d d2c d2f|e2d =c2B c2A|d2B B2A d2A|Bcd e2c d3|]