A Night At The Fair jig

Source: Beginish by Beginish
Transcription: gian marco pietrasanta

My misyake. The last note should be “G”. Sorry for that.

I got this version from Paudi O’Connor.

X: 1
T: A Night At The Fair
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
A|:B2A GED|EGG G2A|BGG DGG|BAA ABc|
B2A GED|EGG G2A|BeB dBA|1BGF G2A:|2BGF G||
|:Bd|egg eaa|egg ged|BGG dGG|BAA ABd|
egg eaa|egg ged|BeB dBA|BGF G:|

As “Brian O’Lynn” on a Clare Conscience, track 14.

X: 3
T: Night at the Fair, A
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
|: A |\
B2 A GED | EGF G2 A | BGG dGG | ABA AGA |
B/c/BA GED | EGF G2 A | BeB dBA | BGG G2 :|
|: d |\
efg eaa | egg ged | BGG dBG | A2 G AB/c/d |
e2 g eaa | e2 g ged | B/d/eB dBA | BGF G2 :|

https://thesession.org/recordings/515

Here’s a transcription of “A Night at the Fair” from track 14 of this recording:

X: 4
T: Night at the Fair, A
S: CD “Hammy Hamilton, Séamus Creagh & Con Ó Drsceoil: It’s no Secret”
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: G
|: A |\
B2 A GED | EGG G2 d | BGG dBG | BAA AGA |
B2 A GED | EGG G2 A | B2 e dBA | BGG G2 :|
|: d |\
egg eaa | e2 g ged | BGG dBG | [1 BAA ABd |
egg eaa | e2 g ged | B2 G dBA | B/c/BF G2 :|
[2 BAA AGA | B2 A GED | EGG G2 A | B2 e dBA | BGG G2 |]

I quite like the second ending, which is where I’d been wanting to go with it, especially if you pair this up with “The Haunted House”, which also has the same return on it, that second ending returning to the concluding 4 measures of the A-part. However, despite my own inclinations, the earliest records of this old jig do not show a second ending, as is true for any other transcriptions or recordings I’d chased up for it. But since when is this music set in fast drying concrete? 😎

Con Ó Drisceoil ~ apologies to Con, the ‘i’ kept going missing… 😏

This version appears in O’Neill’s Dance Music of Ireland - 1001 Gems (1907), p. 27, no. 63, as A Night at the Fair, Oidce Ag An Aonac.
According to the Fiddler’s Companion, accordion player Johnny O’Leary (Sliabh Luachra, Kerry) “thought the tune to be “about two hundred years old” and identified it as one of the five or six jigs unique to “Bill the Weaver” (Bill Murphy, father of Denis Murphy, called “the Weaver” because his parents were both weavers).”