The Gobby O jig

That’s another of the names.

It sounds like a jig version of a reel I posted the other day https://thesession.org/tunes/5780.

I learnt this tune a few days ago at a local tune workshop. What I have posted is an accurate transcription of what the tutor played.
The tutor was of the opinion that it’s an old tune (possibly 18th century) and is also called The Gobbio.
The Gobbio was also a single figure English country dance described as follows in T Wilson’s “The Treasures of Terpsichore” (2nd Ed. 1816):
“The top Lady turns the second Gentleman, the top Gentleman turns the second Lady, down the middle, up again, and allemande.”
Is there any connection between the dance and the tune?
And does anyone have any information about the origin of the name “Gobby O” or “Gobbio”?

I’m sure this is in one of the Scottish “Kerr’s” collections. I learned it years ago from Tony Cuffe [ RIP ], who played it on whistle. Tony said that the “Gobby - o” was a fish. It’s well-known in Kerry as a slide.

Gobby is perhaps another name for a guppy, then?

I learned this version from New England Tradition’s Farewell to the Hollow CD. It’s got a few odd accidentals that I kind of like.
K:Ador
|:B| c2A A^GA| E2A A2c| B2G GBc| dBG GAB|
c2A A^GA| E2A A2e| edc BAG| E2A A2:|
E| A2B c2d| e2f g2e| faf g2e| dBG GAB|
A2B c2d| e=fe a2g| edc BAB|c2A A2:||

This is a great dance tune and has been used in New England for generations. The words to Thomas Jefferson’s 1800 presidential campaign song were set to the tune, known in those days as The Gobby-O but ever since the election as J&L.

The chorus, sung to the B part of the tune, goes:

Rejoice, Columbia’s sons, rejoice
To tyrants never bend the knee
But join with heart, and soul and voice
For Jefferson and Liberty.

Me again asking a dumb inane question.

I really like the tune The Gobby O but what in HE**
is a Gobby O.

I did search the site but didn’t find it.

Happy Friday
Mary

The tune is here. There are also alternative titles

https://thesession.org/tunes/5806

Thanks, Scotsman

I have the tune and play it often as “Jefferson and Liberty”
but was just wondering about the title.

Mary

Try searching for it at the Fiddler’s Companion site:

http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc/

The listing there states “Suggestions regarding the meaning of the title include a derivation from “Gaberlunzie Boy” to “Gaby Boy” to “Gobby-O”, or that the title was derived from the Gaelic word ‘gob’, meaning mouth or beak.”

There’s some specualtion in the comments section of the tune entry on this site that the name refers to a type of fish. It’s also either the name of a country dance or a type of country dance – check out the comments tab, Mary.

Thanks, very interesting

Here’s the version - and title - from the John Moore manuscript of 1839. He has it in the major key and with a couple of interesting variants including the long notes in the B part. (This is taken from The Shropshire Hornpipe, edited by Gordon Ashman, published by Dragonfly Press, ISBN 1 872277 06 3)

X: 2
T: The Gaby Boy
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: AMaj
|: A/B/ | c2A ABA | E2A A2A | B2G GBd | dBG GAB |
c2A ABc | d2B Bcd | edc BAB | E2A A2 :|
: B | c2d e2f | g3 e3 | a2f g2e | dBG GAB |
c2A ABc | d2B Bcd | edc BAB | E2A A2 :|

PS The Gobies are a large family of small marine tropical fish, usually associated with coral reefs, and popular in recent times withi tropical fish keepers. I’d be very suprised if the tune was shown to be named from that derivation 🙂

The major version doesn’t really do it for me, though I might like the first g in the B-part sharp.

Also recorded as Art O’Keeffe’s:
https://thesession.org/tunes/10600

https://thesession.org/tunes/10600

Almost a straightforward transcription except for the fifth and sixth bar of the first part (originally c2A AGA|E2a a2b). My version makes it a little easier on the pipes, too.

The Gobby O

There’s a You-Tube video of this tune played with Shetland tunes on the
Hardanger fiddle in Shetland byWolfy Green.

Very worth listening to

James Doyle,
Greven, Germany

A more likely candidate for the derivation of the name is a very common little fish in UK freshwater called the gudgeon - its Latin name is gobio gobio…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobio_gobio

Hmmm! I’m not sure I like this one for some reason.

“Gobby” = slang for someone who talks to much!

Yer gob is your mouth! in the UK, we had these huge sugary ball-shaped sweets called gob-stoppers. They could last for hours if you sucked, and didn’t bite, them - and change colour as they got smaller!
Verb to gob, is to spit!
Then there was Tito Gobbi: every time he opened his gob, grand opera came out!

From the playing of Deby Benton Grosjean, William Coulter, Barry Phillips, Shelley Phillips, & Lars Johannesson.

Lovely arrangement of theirs’, switching between instruments for the main melody, and modulating down to Dmin and Gmin.

The tune reminds me quite a bit of Who’ll Be King But Charlie? (https://thesession.org/tunes/1888/ ).

Versions of this nice little jig appear in print in the O’Farrell, Levey, O’Neill’s 1850, and Roche collections. A nice recording of it was made by NY piper Jerry O’Sullivan as part of his tribute to O’Farrell (“O’Sullivan Meets O’Farrell” or maybe the other way around - great CD regardless of my memory lapse). If my chords are a bit thick, just play it as an A minor - G tune (but remember that D chord in part 2 - sort of makes the tune!)

From the playing of Kevin Lees & Sebastian Bloch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjKcnx1CXao

play video