Haste To The Wedding jig

I’m not sure, but I think this tune might be English or Scottish, rather than Irish in origin. I seem to recall it cropping up in a Thomas Hardy novel.

I like it. It has a nice "lift" to it.

Good tune Jer, I know this tune is very popular with the Contra bunch, it’s also a staple for the old New England fiddle rep. It may be one of those truely "Celtic" tunes that gets played in all the Celtic countries.

Again good tune!

Haste to the Wedding (Rural Felicity)

Come haste to the wedding ye friends and ye neighbors,
The lovers their bliss can no longer delay.
Forget all your sorrows your cares and your labors,
And let every heart beat with rapture today.
Come, come one and all, attend to my call,
And revel in pleasures that never can cloy.
Come see rural felicity,
Which love and innocence ever enjoy.

Let Envy, Let Pride, Let Hate & Ambition,
Still Crowd to, & beat at the breast of the Great,
To Such Wretched Passions we Give no admission,
But Leave them alone to the wise ones of State,
We Boast of No wealth, but Contentment & Health,
In mirth & in friends, our moments employ
Come See &c.
With Reason we taste of Each Heart Stirring pleasure,
With Reason we Drink of the full flowing Bowl,
Are Jocund & Gay, But ‘tis all within measure,
For fatal excess will enslave the free Soul,
Then Come at our bidding to this Happy wedding,
No Care Shall obtrude here, our Bliss to annoy,
Come See &c.

Collected from Eunice Carew’s songbook, 1790

You may remember that this was also the theme tune for the eighties TV programme "The Irish R.M".
The music for the series was recorded by De Danann and others and released on the album "The Irish RM" in 1982.

Ok, my friend’s band has asked that I teach them one Irish set (they play traditional music, a little bluegrass, old-time, gospel) and then sit in with them at a show they have coming up. I want to include Haste to the Wedding, so I’m trying to build a crowd pleasing set around it. One idea so far is:

Smash the Windows/Coleraine/Haste to the Wedding

I really like this, because, well I like all 3 tunes a lot, and the Dmajor to Aminor (or is it Dorian?) back to Dmajor is nice, I feel. However, the problem I am having is that I like a moderatly brisk tempo for Haste, and STW can also be pretty upbeat. However, Colleraine is a march, and it sounds odd played at the same tempo. I suppose I could just accentuate it like a jig, and it might work? I have always slurred the first 2 notes of the triplet, and played the 3rd stacatto, to stress the march feel.

Any suggestions? Can we simply slow down for the middle song of the set and speed up for the other 2? The only history I have performing Irish music was accompanying dancers, so I would never dream of not playing a set at the same speed. However, without the dancers, is there anything wrong with doing this?

Thanks for your help and feedback,

Jonathan

PS- This is my first time posting, although I’ve enjoyed the database of tunes and message board for many years now!

Try Lilting Banshee / Haste To The Wedding / My Darling Asleep

Do you want the set to be all 6/8’s or would you consider mixing up tempos and type of tune? If keeping them all at 6/8 and wanting to include a 6/8 march at slower pace then I would be inclined to start with the March and then go up tempo, finishing with a good blast. Choosing tunes with good links is vital. Start gentle but have a good tune for third which tells you itself that it is a good finisher. have HTTW as your base but rethink on the others.

Coleraine to HTTW would work if you have an ‘A’ as a transition to ‘D’ in HTTW. Final tune in ‘G’!?

Is this also the same tune played by the Corrs?

Below is how Cape Breton fiddler Howie MacDonald plays this tune (in A). Jerry Holland also played an almost identical setting back in 1976 so this setting has probably been around a bit. You can hear it on Live at West Mabou Hall (2006) or Jerry Holland (1976).
X: 1
T: Haste To The Wedding
N: Cape Breton setting
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
Q: 3/8=126
R: jig
K: A
GF|EFE E z c|BAc BAF|EFE E z C|B,CB, B,CD|
EFE E z c|BAc BAF|EFA BAB|cAA A:|
cd|ece ece|fdf fdf|ece edc|BcB Bcd|
eag fec|BAc BAF|EFA BAB|cAA A:|

Greetings folks!

Can anyone give me a link or an ABC version of Haste to the wedding played by the Corrs…

The one that I’ve got from the session is similar in the beginning but the middle part is different.

if someone got one please share.

Thankx
XD

ha ha ha, ho ho tee hee. Ahhh ha ha ha ha ha.

"Mr President - The Mongons!" 🙂

Sorry - that last quote’ll mean nothing to you, if you haven’t watched this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5GtxeJe58k

play video

P.S. Sorry redindygo, the Corrs don’t actually play on that video! Ha, the day I post a link to a Corrs video ………………………………..

I want to learn Mick Flavin’s version of ‘Haste to the Wedding’!

X: 1
T: Haste To The Wedding
S: The Corrs
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
BAD DAG|BAD DAG|BAD DAG|BAD DAG|
BAD DAG|BAD DAG|BAD DAG|BAD DAG:|
|:bad dag|bad dag|bad dag|bad dag|
bad dag|bad dag|bad dag|bad dag:|

OK I’ve had my fun - you can listen to it here redindygo:
http://www.thecorrswebsite.com/lyrics/home012.htm

I would be in haste to marry any of the corrs (apart from the bloke that is )

“Haste to the wedding, and haste to the wedding”
I sang as I sat at the window alone.
But Brohn, Oh dear, the thought I was dreadin’
– I’d not get a man and a place of me own.

I’d polish the fuser; I’d tidy the kitchen,
Me dress would look white as a stack in the snow,
And here by the window my skirt I was stitchin’,
For I’m very neat with the needle to sew.
What is the use of me mendin’ me finers
Until it is fit for a queen on her thrown.
Oh dear, there isn’t a sign of me gettin’ a man and a place of me own.

“Haste to the wedding, and haste to the wedding”
I sang as I sat at the window alone.
But Brohn, Oh dear, the thought I was dreadin’
– I’d not get a man and a place of me own.

T’was nearly made up once between me and Larry,
That lived on the mountain a port by the bounds,
With 45 acres of land and a quarnie,
He’d take me and welcome with 95 pounds.
When he couldn’t get it, He said we’d regret it,
Then he got wed to a widow in town.
Oh dear, I lost my repetitise sensible man with a house of his own.

“Haste to the wedding, and haste to the wedding”
I sang as I sat at the window alone.
But Brohn, Oh dear, the thought I was dreadin’
– I’d not get a man and a place of me own.

I found in my first cup of tea the next Monday
A lucky red tea leaf some stranger could call.
I tried seven times, he travelled on Sundays;
I wondered for what it was commin’ at all:
Who was it but Lancey last Sunday for Nancy,
Buried his mother last May in Kilcone.
Now dear, I’ll marry me fancy,
The boy of me heart with a place of his own.

“Haste to the wedding, and haste to the wedding”
Not long I’ll be sittin’ and singin’ alone.
Soon dear, with young Auntie Ridden,
I’ll run like a queen in a house of me own.

Virtual Gramaphone (http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/4/4/index-e.html) has a 1939 recording by Quatuor du terroir ; Albert Allard, directeur, called "Gigue des petits moutons" that is Haste to the Wedding.

Finally getting around to learning this tune, and the B-part (on fiddle) is driving me up the wall; this is an EASY jig, the stuff baby fiddlers cut their teeth on for crying out loud, and I can’t for the life of me play that af#a af#a bgb bgb bit in tune. I should be able to. I have long fingers; I can span a solid tenth on piano. Far stubbier-fingered folks than I can play full sized fiddles, so I must be doing something wrong. Advice, anyone?

The first part of this tune is difficult to play on the piano with all of those octave jumps but the second half is easy for me. When I play this tune, I have to be careful not to speed up while I am playing the second half of it.

Laurence

See Aidan’s and other contributors’ explanations in the comments section of these tunes if you want to know what The Three Tunes are or were…

Leslie’s Hornpipe https://thesession.org/tunes/2468
The German Beau https://thesession.org/tunes/1545
Haste to the Wedding (here)

Haste to the Wedding was notated in 1778 in the personal notebook of a Boston fiddler who had been an officer in the Continental Army. The tunes from his notebook were retrieved and published by music scholar Kate van Winkle Keller*. His version of Haste is almost note for note what we play today.

The fiddler’s name was…..! George Bush.

*Fiddle Tunes From the American Revolution: A Collection of Minuets, Country Dances, Marches, Airs, and Song Tunes From the Personal Notebook of an Officer in George Washington’s Army with Historical Background on Each Tune by Kate Van Winkle Keller (1992).

Amazon says the volume is currently unavailable:

"His version of Haste is almost note for note what we play today." As is the one from England of about the same age given here:http://www.village-music-project.org.uk/abc/clarke.abc ? (William Clarke MS,Lincoln,1770.) How do they compare ?

We usually do Haste to the Wedding/I Buried My Wife and Danced on Her Grave. A nice fit from the conceptual point of view and the contrast between the two pieces is nice.

The tune came from an operetta - The Elopement (1767)

"Haste to the Wedding/Rural Felicity"

Come haste to the wedding ye friends and ye neighbours,
The lovers their bliss can no longer delay.
Forget all your sorrows your cares and your labours,
And let every heart beat with rapture today.
Come, come one and all, attend to my call,
And revel in pleasures that never can cloy.
Come see rural felicity,
Which love and innocence ever enjoy.
Let Envy, Let Pride, Let Hate & Ambition,
Still Crowd to, & beat at the breast of the Great,
To Such Wretched Passions we Give no admission,
But Leave them alone to the wise ones of State,
We Boast of No wealth, but Contentment & Health,
In mirth & in Friendship, our moments employ
Come see rural felicity,
Which love and innocence ever enjoy.
With Reason we taste of Each Heart Stirring pleasure,
With Reason we Drink of the full flowing Bowl,
Are Jocund & Gay, But ‘tis all within measure,
For fatal excess will enslave the free Soul,
Then Come at our bidding to this Happy wedding,
No Care Shall obtrude here, our Bliss to annoy,
Come see rural felicity,
Which love and innocence ever enjoy.

The source for the 6th version is : Thompson’s Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. III, 1765-1772, nr 197.

Some variations.

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

play video

https://youtu.be/Ca2HDosy5ow

play video

This arrangement is as I played it for dancing in Virginia, so fairly traditional.

An earlier transcription comes from James Oswald’s "Caledonian Pocket Companion", 1759.

From the playing of The Celtic Fiddlers.

From the playing of Fiddlers 3.

I came across a reference to this tune while reading about the French Captain François Thurot. Thurot commanded a small squadron of ships during the seven years war between Britain and France (1756 - 1763) and took Carrickfergus in 1760. He was being followed by a British squadron, led by Captain John Elliot, and was finally caught off the northwest coast of the Isle of Man. Thurot was killed in the battle that followed.

I am interested in this story because Thurot had connections with the Isle of Man (where I am from) and was known in the Irish Sea area (his grandfather, named O’Farrell, had served in the Irish Brigade of the French army). And also because several tunes were collected in the Isle of Man in the 19th century with the name ‘Thurot’, or ‘Thurot and Elliot’. As there were several tunes, collected from different people in the Island, the ballad (or ballads) that these tunes were used for seem to have been popular and significant.

One of the tunes is ‘Haste to the Wedding’ (version x:5 above, with the distinctive ‘b’ tune) and the ballad sung to it was probably ‘The Siege of Carrickfergus’. This ballad is mentioned as having "been sung to the popular melody of ‘Haste to the Wedding’" in ‘Popular Songs Illustrative of the French Invasions of Ireland’, published by The Percy Society, 1847 (but containing contemporary accounts of Thurot’s life and death).

So, the tune must have been well known in 1760, or soon afterwards, when ‘The Siege of Carrickfergus’ was circulated with ‘Haste to the Wedding’ as its tune. Whether it was called by that name before 1767, when the operetta ‘The Elopement’ was first performed (see Mix O’Lydian’s post above), or whether the operetta used an already well known tune, possibly with words; or even whether the tune was used for the ballad after it became known from the operetta, is difficult to say for certain.

Just before these events, the tune was known as ‘The Small Pin Cushion’ (in ‘The Caledonian Pocket Companion’, 1759, mentioned by Bogman above). I’ve added that title here.

In the Manx collections one of the names given is ‘Haste to the West’, which could relate to another ballad, perhaps parodying the ‘Wedding’ ballad. Or it could just be a mis-remembered title (however the folk song collectors seem to have been pretty keen on identifying possible errors in information given by their informants).

Lastly from me, one of the tunes collected in the Isle of Man and called ‘Thurot’ is a jig in G, which I’ll add to this site.