Mary Cotter jig

This fine tune was composed by Paul Cranford.
Submitted here with Mr. Cranford’s kind permission. Copyright applies.

Paul Cranford has a fantastic site of music at

http://www.cranfordpub.com/

-check it out.

I learned Mary Cotter from my fiddle teacher in a slightly altered form. We had no name or history for it, it seemed to be one of those tunes that got passed from person to person and the name dropped off along the way. Which drives me crazy (it’s a short drive). I emailed the abc’s to Will Harmon and ceolachan hoping they could identify it. Ceolachan sent it along to his web of contacts, and Dow was able to identify it and directed me to Paul Cranford. Thanks, everybody!

Mr. Cranford’s full abc’s are as follows (note the interesting history!):

X:1
T: Mary Cotter
C: Paul Cranford, SOCAN
D:i.Jerry Holland, Session With; ii. Maire O’Keeffe, An Coisir
B:i. The Lighthouse Collection, ii. Jerry Holland’s Collection of Fiddle Tunes
S:http://www.cranfordpub.com
O:Cape Breton Island
H:Composed for Mary (Cotter) McInerney, a concertina player in County Clare. A set of tunes (The Wedding Party, Mary Cotter and McInerney’s Fancy was composed for Mary’s wedding and performed there by sisters Maire and Siobhan O’Keeffe. (see: The Lighthouse Collection)
M:6/8
K: A Major
e |: aec A2 F | GAB d2 B | cec Ace | dBB Bce |
aec A2 F | GAB d2 B | cec BdB | cAA A2 :|
e |: f2 a fec | BdB c2 B | ABc eae | fee e2a |
[1 faf fec | BdB c2 B | ABc BeB | cAA A2 a :|
[2 (f/g/a)g fec | aec d2 f | eac BeB | cAA A2 ||


Here’s the chord progression from Jerry Holland’s Collection of Fiddle Tunes:

|: A-- --- | E-- D--| A-- --- | E-- --- |
|A-- --- | E-- D-- | A-- E-- | A-- --- :|

|: D-- --- | E—A-- | --- --- |E-- --- |
1. |D-- --- | E-- A--- | --- E--- | A-- --- :|
2. |D-- --- | A-- D-- | A-- E-- | A-- --- |


We play this after Shores of Lough Gowna in Bm.
And finally, here’s the version I learned:

|: aec ABA | GAB d2 B | cBc Ace | dcd Bce |
aec ABA | GAB d2 B | cBc BAB | cAA Ace :|
{g}f2 f {g}gec | BcB c2 B | ABc ece | {g}fec e2 e |
{g}f2 f {g}gec | BcB c2 B | A2 c BAB | cAA Ace ||
{g}f2 f {g}gec | BcB c2 B | ABc ece | {g}fec e2 e |
f/2g/2af {g}fec | aec def |edc BAB | cAA A3 |

I learned this off the recording by Gan Bua “Live At Martyr’s”. I have a kind of childish love of cheerful A major jigs. I always think they area great way to finish a set of jigs after a few A,G or D dorian or mixolydian.

This tune is already here https://thesession.org/tunes/4796.
Please read the comments there which can explain the present title !

This tune can be found here too https://thesession.org/tunes/8402
The “mistake” comes from the name of the set which is actually called “September Wedding” on Maire’s album https://www.cranfordpub.com/recordings/Maire_AnCoisir.htm