The Swaggering Jig slip jig

This is probably best known from the playing of The Bothy Band. They recorded it under the title "Give us a drink of water".

There are actually words to go with this tune. Dervish recorded it as an unaccompanied song.

It’s worth learning the words to at least a verse and a chorus (corresponding to the A and B parts of the tune). When I’m trying to memorize the melody of a tune, I find it easier if I have some words to go with the notes, even if they’re nonsense words. I guess that’s also the secret behind Sesame Street’s teaching methods.

(I believe this used to be quite a common method of teaching tunes. I recall hearing about somebody teaching "The Geese In The Bog" with words like "Over me, under me, under me, over me…")

Unfortunately, I don’t have any words to hand for "The Swaggering Jig". If somebody would like to contibute them, it would be much appreciated.

I posted this same tune a little while back as "Na Ceannabhain Bhana", O’Neill’s lists it as the "Swaggering Jig". I thought the Bothy Band’s "Give us a Drink Of Water" started this way

K:G
M:9/8
BAG ~E2D EGD | EGA BAG ~E2D |1 EAA ABc :|2 EGF G3 ||

My brain is starting to hurt

Here are words which I think I saw at Henrik Norbeck’s site. But maybe to a slightly different tune.

I went to the fair of Bellaghy, I bought a wee swag of a pig
I gathered it up in my arms and danced the swaggering jig
And it’s high to the top of the heather and high to the but of the sprig,
And high to the bonnie wee lassie who danced the swaggering jig.

As I went to the fair of Bellaghy, I bought a wee slip of a pig
And being down by the poor house, I whistled the swaggering jig.
And it’s high to the cups and the saucers, and high to the butter and bread,
And high to the bonnie wee lassie who danced the swaggering jig.

I being down by the poor house, I whistled so loud and so shrill,
I made all the fairies to tremble that lived around Corcoran’s Hill.
And it’s high to the top of the heather and high to the but of the sprig,
And high to the bonnie wee lassie who danced the swaggering jig.

Mad, the tune you posted is, although very similar, a different tune, or at least, a distinct variant. I won’t go into the details - you can compare them. I’ve heard both tunes in sessions. I know this one as ‘Give Us a Drink of Water’, although I am arare that there are other tunes or variants of the same tune which go buy that name.

Yeah your right David, this is the one the ‘Bothy Band’ plays after the "Kesh Jig". They are quite similar but are two distinct tunes.

I am not a bagpiper. However, I was reading a book on the subject that said that bagpipers used to remember and teach the tunes by attaching a syllable to each note (like solfeggio). The ornaments were attached to consonants on the end of the syllables. Does anybody know more about this?

i know both versions of the tune, as on the cd and in o’neills. they are the same tune except for one triplet near the end ( | fdb …. | here as opposed to | dbd … | in o’neills), and | BAG GFG … | instead of | BAG DEG … | in the first half, and the fact that whereever the bothy version has the DEG the o’neills has DGG. i suppose in the o’neills they have | Bdc dge …. | instead of | Bdd dge … | in the 1st and 5th measures, but the 3rd and 6th have | Bdd dge … | as in this version. but i play the way my grandma plays it which is exactly the same as the o’neills except for always playing | Bdd dge … |

they are not different enough in my opinion to be different tunes.

i do however like both versions and play both. so if playing both variations makes it a different tune then i guess it is. i was always under the impression that playing a variation meant variation.

Here is the minor version of the tune that LongNote mentions. It’s from Dervish’s Harmony Hill. This tune that goes with the song I’ve never heard in a session, and it’s just a version of the one Jeremy posted, so doesn’t really warrant a separate entry.

X: 1
T: Bellaghy Fair
T: The Fair Of Bellaghy
T: The Swaggering Jig
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
R: slip jig
K: Emin
c|BAG EGG EGG|BAG EFG A2c|BAG EGG EGG|BAG EFE D2:|
|:c|Bdd ded dBG|cee efe e2f|gfe dcB AGA|AGA BEE E2:|

"The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music, Volume II", 1912
"Hop Jigs" ~ pages 24 - 28

X: 3
T: Swaggering Jig, The
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
R: slip jig
K: Gmaj
|: d/c/ |\
BAG AGE EDD | BAG AGE c2 d | BAG AGE ED>D | cBA BGE D2 :|
z |\
GBd efe dcB | GBd efe d2 B | GBd efe dcB | AGE GAB c2 A |
GBd efe dcB | GBd efe d2 f | gfe edB BAG | AGE GAB c2 |]

X: 1
T: Swaggering, The
C: Trad.
S: The Fiddler’s Tune-Book; Slip Jigs & Waltzes; p.19, No.81.
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
Q: 300
K: Dmix
|: A || BAG AGE EDE | BAG AGE c2d | BAG AGF EDE | ABA GFE D2 :|
|: A || GBd ded dBG | GBd efg d2c | GBd ded dcB | ABA GFE c2 :|

Here’s my take on the swaggering jig/Na Ceannabhain Bhana

Although they share a few bars, they have different structures. Harmonically, the swaggering jig emphasises the c-nat while Na Ceannabhain Bhana totally avoids it and uses the e instead for the anacrusis.

These versions seem a little closer to what the Bothy band did and the way I hear Clair players do Na Ceannabhain Bhana.

Hope it helps.

X: 1
T: Swaggering Jig (Bothy version)
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
R: slip jig
K: Gmaj
c|:BGG AGE DEG|BAG GFG A2c|
BGG AGE DEG|cBA BGE D2c:||
|:Bdd dge dBG|
[1 Bdd dBG A2c|Bdd dge dBG|cBA BGE D2c:|
[2 Bdd dBG A2f|gfe dBG cBA|cBA BGE D3||

———————————

X: 1
T: Na Ceannabhain Bhana
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
R: slip jig
K: Gmaj
d|:BGG AGE GED |D/E/GE DEG A2d|BGG AGE GED| E/F/GE DEF G2 G :||
Bdd edB BAG |Bdd edB A2A|Bdd edB BAG |GED DEF G2G |
Bdd edB BAG |Bdd gdB A2A|Bdd edB BAG |GED DEF G3|

My version

The version played by Debbie Quigley on the NPU beginner tutor video for pipes.

"bagpipers used to remember and teach the tunes by attaching a syllable to each note (like solfeggio). The ornaments were attached to consonants on the end of the syllables. Does anybody know more about this?"

You’re probably talking about canntaireachd:

"Like a herald of old, or a bard, or a piper, I can stand here on a
green knoll, in a yellow fog, out of the field of the fray, and incite
people to battle with The Mustering Of The Clans, in the old
language of MacCrimmon, piper to MacLeod of Dunvegan, of MacArthur,
piper to the Lord Of The Isles, of John Campbell, the Lorn piper,
who taught me fifty years ago how to rouse men with
the strange words of the Isles:

Hiodroho hodroho haninen hiechin
Hodraha hodroho hodroho hachin
Hiodroho hodroho haninen hiechin
Hodraha hodraha hodraha hodraha
Hodraha hodraha hodraha hachin…"

(The beginning of Cogadh no Sith)

Here is canntaireachd

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

play video