Looking For A Partner jig

I’ve submitted this tune as a companion piece for "The Hogmany"
https://thesession.org/tunes/6917
‘we start the set with "SFTS" then go to "The Hogmany", which we play in the key of ‘G’ for a dance called ‘John of Paris’ we then return to "SFTS" to finish on a resounding last two bars of | A3 c3 | d6 || with great emphasis.

I recently heard "SFTS" on a website (cannot remember what it was) played by a scottish band with another tune. the title given was ‘Brittania Two Step’ but I reckon that was possibly reference to a dance and not the tune.
No doubt ‘c’ will start some research.

8-) Who luvs yuh babe?

Damn, I just ran this by ~ I know this from somewhere. Uh oh, that’s maybe not a good thing? :-/ I have lead a checkered life…and people like you tease me with bits of melody like Chinese torture… ;-)

Should the third c in bar 5 (and it’s repeat) be sharp?

Yes, you are right and also bar 7 in the ‘B’ music. I had forgotten to #pen it within the same bar. Naughty me forgetting my music theory. Hope you try the combination. But then they are good Melodeon tunes. Do you play one?

Have ammended the ABC.

"Brittania Two Step" did click, but I want to check around. It is a two-step / quickstep and may have in it’s earlier from been repeated, or 64 measures…

For the ‘dance’, and dance related forms, 6/8 marches are also favoured…

I don’t know if the title was a bit "tongue in cheek"? (don’t know if that is a choice phrase either - jokes about nuns in baths come to mind?)

Anyway, the tune is actually called "Looking For A Partner" and its by our old friend Angus Fitchett and has a third part below.

Because two-steps need a 32 bar tune and two-steps tunes are often three parters, they are often played ABAC, (although some, like this one, have a 32 bar C part, so that doesn’t hold). Like various other "rules", I wonder if people play them like that because Jimmy Shand did on his early recordings?.

K:C
[|(E3 E3)|F3 ^F3|G2^F G2F|(G3 G3)|
E2F ^F2G|A3 G3|(B,3 B,3|B,2)G, B,2D|
(F3 F3|F2)E D2E|(F3 F3|F2)E F2G|
B3 A3|G3 F3|(^D3 D3)|EG,A, B,CD|
(E3 E3)|F3 ^F3|G2^F G2F|(G3 G3)|
E2F ^F2G|A3 G3|(B3 B3|B3) GAB|
c2c cBA|c2c cBA|G2G GFE|"A"A3 G3|
FEF GFG|AGA BAB|c2G AGE|C3 "D7"D3|]

They were also played as 64 bars, two parts, and with a ‘trio’…

Angus Fitchett eh, that somehow makes sense in my muddled brain…

The Primrose Polka
Key signature: Gmajor
Submitted on November 12th 2004 by ceolachan.
https://thesession.org/tunes/3860

Where did you find it Geoff? Do you have his collection? If so, does it say anything else? I gather it is from the 1950’s and that Angus Fitchett and his band played it in a set with "The Primrose Polka", a favourite pairing… Curious that, 6/8 into 4/4, but it isn’t a new way with mixing tunes and is still a popular direction for dance bands, in England & New England…

It wouldn’t matter the length of a tune for the basic 2-step or quickstep, as it is akin to waltzing, not generally a pattern of specific bars-length, so parts and the number of measures wouldn’t really matter, as long as they fitted some combination of 4 and 8 bar phrases…

I have to admit some confusion regarding that C-Major third part you’ve given, aside from it fitting into my memory, it doesn’t seem to make sense in other ways. Please tell us more…

There is an Angus Fitchett collection…though I don’t know if it is still available. I also know there was a Kerr publications that was his tunes and dances composed for them…

Damn, I meant to say ~ " ~ aside from it NOT fitting into my memory ~" Which I fully admit is quirky anyway… :-/

This wasn’t composed by Angus Fitchet. If memory serves, it was a J Braidwood who gave this to the world.

"If memory serves, it was a J Braidwood who gave this to the world."

Pipe Major James Braidwood Junior of Stenhousemuir, from what I gather. The same person who composed "Doo’cot Park".

Mmm. Maybe I’m wrong then, because "Looking for a Partner" is definitely not a pipe tune!

"Maybe I’m wrong then"
I don’t think so. Just because Braidwood was a piper, doesn’t mean he can’t compose a two-step. He also composed "Dorrator Bridge".

The tune is called Looking for a Partner and was composed by James Braidwood and is 3 parts. It was published a long time ago (1950s?) as a single sheet by the (now) Glasgow Music Centre Group that included Mozart Allan/Kerrs/Patersons Publications. It was a big favourite with the Scottish Melodeon/Button Box players and was in nearly every big names repertoire at that time and recorded a lot.

The first of these is known locally (Sussex, UK) as ‘Waiting for a Partner’ - which is the title under which I learnt it some years ago, but I’m confused about the connection (if any) between the tunes noted above as X:1 and X:2 . They don’t seem to bear any relation to each other - or am I failing to understand something obvious? Is X:2 somewhere regarded as a third part to the first tune? If so, wouldn’t it be in D or a related key? I seek enlightenment.

You’re on the right track, Bazza. X2 is the C part of the tune, which is normally played a 5th down from the A and B parts (= X1). So if you play A and B parts in D, the C part should be in G, or it’s G and C respectively. I play in 2 ceilidh bands where this is commonly used for either the Military Two-Step or the Britannia Two-Step (always one T and 2 Ns!) In one band we use the G/C combination, and the other the D/G set. To make a decent length of dance we play something like AABBAACCA. Hope you’re not now even more confused!

Ah, all has become clear! Thank you.

In the Crieff Community Band we play AABBACABACA, but that’s a marathon. A typical dance setting would be AABBACA, as in X:3 above. It’s one of those daft tunes which is great fun. There’s a great recording of the tune by The New Victory Band on ‘One More Dance and Then’ - they play it ABC repeatedly.

Thanks for writing out the whole thing, Nigel, but I think there’s a bar missing in 2nd line of the C section - just before that Bflat bar - should be another bar with two dotted crotchets on D and C?

Quite right Trish! Thanks, and I have updated it now. (We play a D and an A, by the way.)