Paddy Whack jig

Here it is - that much maligned tune. I think it has been treated unfairly in the Discussions. Being bashed out insensitively by ignorant beginners (I do not mean to suggest that all beginners share these qualities) has no doubt earned it a bad reputation. But, treated with the respect that an old tune deserves, it could be a little gem.

Okay, so I guess I see why it could easily be misused – I usually dislike tunes that have so little difference between the A & B parts. But good for a beginner, I’d think, because once you have the A part learned, two measures more and you have a real sense of accomplishment in learning an entire tune!

I’m trying to picture this tune played by an entire pipe band and failing. 🙂

Zina

By the way, do you think the title of this tune is one of those tunes that slams the Irish, much like the Highlands dance “Irish” jig makes fun of them? Just curious!

zls

That’s an interesting one. I’ve come across a version of this tune in an old Northumbrian pipe collection, so it has certainly been popular in England at some time. I wonder if it was originally an Englishman’s imitation of an Irish jig, or an Irish tune, given a sarcastic name by the English.

Whatever the case, Paddy Whack is the title given in O’Neill’s - not to be confused with Paddy Mack, a hornpipe.

People think I hate this tune, I don’t care about this tune one way ar another - what I said was that there was a kid who used to want me to play this tune so he could back it up on guitar. He’d pester everyone even if we already played it for him and I was accused of hating it.
It does have a vanilla melody & sounds more English trying to write Irish music akin to Tipperary Mary or MacNamera’s Band. All I’m saying is that it’s more suited on the highland pipes while drinking a green beer.

A closely related version in A is as follows

Ace aga|fed cdB|Ace fga|gee efg|
aba aec|dfa ecA|ABc dBe|cAG A3:|
|:ece fdf|ecA B2c|Ace fga|gee efg|
aba aec|dfa ecA|ABc dBe|cAA A3:||

-m

Zina
At my age I’m more than happy to find tunes such as this that are repetitive! It saves wear and tear on the old brain cells.

-m

X: 1
T: Paddy Wack
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
|:GBd gfg|edc BAG|GBd gfg|fdd d2 e/f/|
geg fdf|ece dBd|cBc ABc|BGG G3:|
|:BcB ccc|dcB A2 G|Bcd efg|fdd d2 e/f/|
geg fdf|ece dBd|cBc ABc|BGG G3:|

You name the street and I’ll name the bar and I’ll walk right through hell just to buy you a jar.

The melody reminds me of a Pogues song. It being one of two Pogues songs that I like. But I only like it the way a friend of mine sings it. He puts a lot of life in to it. He also doesn’t fake a brogue or try to sing like McGowen. He just sings it well.

I knew this as
Patty’s Trip to Dublin

first tune, track 9, “Out in the Night”, Fisherstreet.

Regards
David

B: “Dances of Donegal”, collected by Grace Orpen, D.M. Wilkie, London, 1931
The first few pages of this book, and its first tune & dance:
“The Fairy Dance” - https://thesession.org/tunes/424

ITMA: Irish Traditional Music Archive/Taisce Cheol DÚchais Éireann
http://www.itma.ie/
Grace Orpen’s Local Donegal Dances, 1931
http://www.itma.ie/digitallibrary/print-collection/donegal-dances-1931
“Dances of Donegal” collected and edited by Grace Orpen, 1931
Click on ‘32 Pages’ to view them, with Grace Orpen’s ‘Figures’/illustrations…
http://www.itma.ie/digitallibrary/book/dances-of-donegal

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(page 24 - music notation & dance description)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dance: Six Handed Reel
Tune: Paddy Whack (6/8)

Any number of couples in a ring.

Steps - - - - - - - - - Description - - - - - - - - - Bars

- - - Introduction, holding hands in a ring. - - - 8
1 - - - Ring to the right and left. - - - 8
- - - This step is only repeated to finish the dance. (as an ‘opening’ & a ‘closing’)
2 - - - Men turn woman on their left with right arms, then turn their own partner with left arms, ending holding inside hands with partner facing ready to lead round the set (LOD/ACW), the woman on the outside. - - - 4
Lead round to the right. (LOD/ACW) - - - 4
Lead back to left, the men taking the women who stand on their left at the beginning of the dance, i.e. 1st man takse 2nd woman, etc. - - - 4
Men turn woman on their left with both hands. - - - 2
Partners swing. (new partners?) - - - 10

The 2nd step is repeated as many times as desired.

<[ NOTES: This fits other dances I’ve come across, but this one has a timing problem, as the basic structure of these older dances tended to follow the music, meaning that they would be either 16 bars in total, or 32 bars, as suggested by the 6/8 melody used here. The ‘official’ dance related to this description is ‘An Rince Mór’, one of the 30 in An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha’s collection/book. “Ár Rinccidhe Foirne: Thirty Popular Figure Dances”. Some descriptions of these ‘big circle’ dances have them not progressing, but in modern practice they are progressive, meaning that you change partners each time through the dance, the women progressing to the next man ACW, the man taking the ‘woman behind’ as his next partner, ‘corners’…

Here follows an interpretation of the above for 32 bars and with a progresion, incorporating the “ring (circle) to the right and left”. You know your partners, the man on her left, the woman on his right, your ‘corner’ is on your other side in the circle, on the man’s left, the woman’s right. This is how I teach and we dance ‘An Rince Mór’, though we also use a 7-step and two 3s for the rings to the right and left, dance it to reels, and we use the basic reel step, 3s.

- - - - - - - - -

Part of 32 bar music (AABB) - - - description - - - bars

- - - Introduction - - - 8
A - - - Taking hands in a circle, circle to the right, - - - 4
- - - Circle back to the left - - - 4 ]>
AA - - - ‘double quarter chain’ = turn corner right hands, turn partner left hands; repeat that.
B - - - taking corners right hand, left hand to their upper right arm (an old-style swing), swing corner (progression) - - - 8
BB - - - drop hands into cross-hold, rights over lefts, couples (new partners) lead around/promenade ACW

Finish by circling up, man on the left, woman on the right, new partners, to start the dance again with new corners…

- - - - - - - - -

There are problems with some of the titling within this collection, this for example, “The Highland” as another. There were ‘6-hand reels’ danced in Ireland, as elsewhere, not just Scotland, as well as 4-hand, 8-hand (square sets), 12 and 16-hand dances, etc., not forgetting 3-hand dances. The term ‘reel’, as elsewhere in these islands, referred to the dance and not the tune/music used. This, obviously, is a ‘circle dance’ and not a “Six Handed/Hand Reel”…

Not the first time, it wouldn’t surprise me if the confusion happened in the printing rather than being the author’s. ]>

I tend to prefer the D Major setting in Cole’s, Ryan’s, or whatever you want to call that collection! Beethoven wrote some variations on that tune.

Larry Ayers, why not add a D Major transcription, as you play it?

S: “New England Fiddler’s Repertoire”, compiled by Randy Miller & Jack Perron, Fiddlecase Books, 1983, tune #25
http://www.fiddlecasebooks.com/Index/Welcome.html
http://www.fiddlecasebooks.com/Index/fiddlecasebooks.html
http://www.fiddlecasebooks.com/Index/NEFRbook.html

# Added by Trevor Jennings - October 21st, 2002 ~ along with quite a few other transcriptions from this book, which at the time was thought to be out of circulation/print.

B: “The Dance Music of Ireland, Second Collection”, R.M. Levey, 1873; page 16, tune #16
N: Quick

B: “O’Neill’s Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies”, 1903, page 141, tune #759

B: O’Neill’s “1001 Gems: The Dance Music of Ireland”, 1907, page 24, tune #43

B: Thompson’s Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3 (London, 1773)
Thompson’s Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances Vol 3 1765-72
http://www.village-music-project.org.uk/
http://www.village-music-project.org.uk/pcroom.htm
http://www.village-music-project.org.uk/pcroom/thompsonsvol3.pdf
https://archive.org/details/ThompsonsCompleatCollectionOf200FavouriteCountryDancesVol31765-72
Z: Transcribed and edited by Flynn Titford-Mock, 2007

B: “O’Farrell’s Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes”, Volume 1, 1805, pages 26 & 27
http://imslp.org/wiki/O’Farrell’s_Pocket_Companion_for_the_Irish_or_Union_Pipes_(Various)
Ross’s Music Page - 1804-10: O’Farrell’s Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, Volumes 1 - 4
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/music/
O’Farrell’s Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, Volume 1
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/ofarrellspc1.pdf

B: “Ryan’s Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes”, 1883, page 117
B: Cole’s “One Thousand Fiddle Tunes”, 1940, page 59

ceolachan, I play it pretty much as it appears in Cole’s, but then I will vary things a bit, and often I’ll go into the more common G setting. If I spend time transcribing, it’s usually from the playing of better fiddlers than myself!

You are not alone…

I hope your Bisbee, Arizona session is going well…
https://thesession.org/sessions/3592

B: “A Favorite Collection of Tunes with Variations adapted for the Northumberland Small Pipes, Violin or Flute”, John Peacock & Thomas Wright, Newcastle, 1805, page 7, tune #22

B: “Kerr’s First Collection of Merry Melodies”, Glasgow, 1870s, page 40, tune No. 45

nuchal ligament (common name; Paddywhack or Paddywack), is a strong elastic ligament in the midline of the neck of sheep or cattle which relieves the animal of the weight of its head.

There is a great version of this tune on the album Alistair Anderson and Northlands. Especially the last time they play it.

Beethoven arranged “Paddy Whack.” One fun fact you probably didn’t know about Beethoven. Twenty-five Irish Songs, WoO 152, no. 12 (1810), under the name “English Bulls, or The Irishman In London.” Lyrics author anonymous.

Och! I have you not heard, Pat, of many a joke
That’s made by the wits ‘gainst your own country folk;
They may talk of our bulls, but it must be confest,
That, of all the bullmakers, John Bull is the best.
I’m just come from London, their capital town,
A fine place it is, faith, I’m sorry to own;
For there you can’t shew your sweet face in the street,
But a Bull is the very first man that you meet.

Now, I went to Saint Paul’s, ‘twas just after my landing.
A great house they’ve built, that has scarce room to stand in;
And there, gramachree! Won’t you think it a joke,
The lower I whisper’d, the louder I spoke!
Then I went to the Tower to see the wild beasts,
Thinking out of my wits to be frighten’d at least;
But these wild beasts I found standing tame on a shelf,
Not one of the kit half so wild as myself.

Next I made for the Bank, Sir, for there, I was told,
Were oceans of silver and mountains of gold;
But I soon found this talk was mere bluster and vapour
For the gold and the silver were all made of paper.
A friend took me into the Parliament house,
And there sat the Speaker as mum as a mouse,
For in spite of his name, won’t you think this a joke tho’,
The speaker he whom they all of them spoke to.

Of all the strange places I ever was in,
Wasn’t that now the place for a hubbub and din.
While some made a bother to keep others quiet,
And the rest call’d for “Order” meaning just, make a riot.
Then should you hereafter be told of some joke,
By the Englishmen made ’gainst your own country folk,
Tell this tale, my dear honey, and stoutly protest,
That of all the bullmakers, John Bull is the best.

Wow, that’s a really interesting fact!