Sleepy Maggie reel

There are a couple tunes on this site with the name Sleepy Maggie. They are NOT the tune “Sleepy Maggie,” They are the tune “Drowsy Maggie” -- which is played after Sleepy Maggie, because Drowsy Maggie is “Sleepy Maggie When She Wakes.” After all, isn’t that what Drowsy Maggie is? Now all we need is a “Completely Woken Up Maggie” but that isn’t a very catchy title….

I believe this is a Scottish tune which is the basis for that famous reel Jenny’s Chickens

Okay, you have presented the challenge, and I’ll take it. I’ll get working on it right away.

Josh: You do realize that “Completely Woken Up Maggie” must be a very slow air, seeing as Sleepy Maggie and Drowsy Maggie are both very very fast. Make sense? 🙂

Maybe Maggie was Drowsey & Sleepy from being played too damn much. Howsabout “Leave Maggie Alone”

I believe it’s related to the same reel as well….just a little updated, that’s all.

Here is a link to an easy Irish version: https://thesession.org/tunes/78

There are lots of different settings of this with 2, 3 or 4 parts. I’ve collected some of the important ones together for the benefit of anyone else confused by all of these versions:

The posted version is a basic 2-part setting. Another common one is the early 20th century O’Neill’s version which has 3 parts. The B-part has a run which I suspect was a late addition to substitute for a missing part:

X: 1
T: Sleepy Maggie
R: reel
Z: O’Neill’s (1903)
M: C|
K: Bdor
f2de fBde|f2df eAce|f2de fBde|fgaf eAce:|
|:fBdB fBde|fBdB eAce|1 fBdB fBde|fgaf eAce:|2 dcBc defg|abaf eAce||
|:fBbB fBde|fBbB aAce|fBbB aBgB|fBgB aAce:|

The 4-part Bdor setting appears in a few sources including Ryan’s Mammoth Collection from the late 19th century (I’ve simplified the abc a bit):

X: 1
T: Sleepy Maggie
R: reel
Z: Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883)
M: C|
K: Bdor
f2de fBde|f2df eAce|f2de fBde|fgaf eAce:|
|:fBdB fBde|fBdB eAce|fBdB fBde|fgaf eAce:|
|:f2db Bfde|f2db Aece|f2db Bfde|fbaf eAce:|
|:fBbB fBde|fBbB aAce|fBbB aBgB|fBgB aAce:|

This same setting appears in the much older Lionel Winship manuscript (dated 1833), albeit under the title “Sleepy Meggy” and in the mode of Ador, having been arranged for the Northumbrian pipes, which uses the scale of Gmaj for transcription purposes. I think it sounds nicer in this key - less shrill and a little more mellow:

X: 1
T: Sleepy Meggy
R: reel
Z: Lionel Winship (1833)
M: C|
K: Ador
e2cd eAcd|e2ce dGBd|e2cd eAcd|efge dGBd:|
|:eAcA eAcd|eAcA dGBd|eAcA eAcd|efge dGBd:|
|:e2ca Aecd|e2ca GdBd|e2ca Aecd|eage dGBd:|
|:eAaA eAcd|eAaA gGBd|eAaA gAfA|eAfA gGBd:|

I took the liberty of transcribing a Cape Breton setting of this tune from Rodney MacDonald’s tape entitled Dancer’s Delight (not on this site, but then it’s not especially Irish.)

X: 1
T: Sleepy Maggie, Cape Breton version
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Bdor
|:fB B/B/B fBce | fB B/B/B eAce | fB B/B/B fBce | fgaf eAce:|
|:f2 f/a/b fBce | f2 f/g/a eAce | f2 f/a/b fBce | fgaf eAce:|

Crucially, it has an alternate B-part which seems to be played every other time instead of the B-part above:

|:fB B/B/B bB B/B/B | aB B/B/B eAce | fBbB aBgB | fgaf eAce:|

Pipers and fluters don’t have to struggle with Bm fiddle versions. Here’s a much simpler yet effective one from Scots piper Hamish Moore.

K: Ador
e2Aa edBd|e2 e/f/g edBd|e2Aa edBd|efge dGBd:|
eA~A2 edBd|eA~A2 BGBd|eA~A2 edBd|efge dGBd:|

I suspect very similar versions are still being played by Cape Breton pipers.

Yeah, that reminds me of Mick Hoy’s Jig Away the Donkey: https://thesession.org/tunes/1231; and The Flowers of Redhill: https://thesession.org/tunes/442

I found that a 2-part version of this reel often appears in Northumbrian collections as Small Coals an’ Little Money.

X: 1
T: Small Coals an’ Little Money
T: Small Coals and Ready Money
L: 1/8
M: C
S: Bruce & Stokoe – Northumbrian Minstrelsy (1882)
Z: AK/Fiddler’s Companion
K: ADor
e2 cA eA B/c/d|e2 cA dG B/c/d|e2 cA eA B/c/d|edge dG B/c/d:|
|:eAcA eA B/c/d|eAcA dG B/c/d|eAcA eA B/c/d|edge dG B/c/d:|

Working on our holidays eh? You just can’t keep away… 😉

Key signature: a minor
Submitted on October 21st 2008 by jdgrahamo.
~ /tunes/9025

X: 8
T: Sleepy Maggie
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gdor
|: e2 Aa edB<d | e2 g2 B<GB<d | e2 Aa edB<d | e>fg>e d<GB<d :|
|: eA A2 eAB<d | eA A2 B<GB<d | eA A2 eAB<d | e>fg>e d<GB<d :|

This is the version I learned as a boy. In 1936 the tunes of the 1st and 2nd battalions of the Seaforth Highlanders were standardized and published as their tunebook (more of a manual really) . The grace notes are simple doublings and cuts, which I have omitted for clarity. And laziness.

# Posted on October 21st 2008 by jdgrahamo

Yours is the version from the Scots Guards book 2 which has the first two parts in Am and then transposed to Bm to make it a 4 part tune. Quite effective actually.

# Posted on October 21st 2008 by bogman

X: 8
T: Sleepy Maggie
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Amin

As given, my inclination is to play that take with the Fs sharped, f#, ^f, not natural, making the tune A Dorian rather than A minor ~ see the previous contributions above by Dow, slainte & Loftus.

Gdor = B flat, Bb, _B & F natural, =F…

That take on the tune resolving on A ~ the relative key is not as I mistakenly gave it, a minor, K: Amin. The relative key ~ B flat, F natural & resolving on A ~ would be ~

X: 8
T: Sleepy Maggie
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: A Phrygian

Somehow, I don’t think so…but interesting… 😀 So, another take in Phrygian just for the hell of it… Here’s jdrahamo’s transcription raise a step to B Phrygian, so others might more easily give this tune a try in Phrygian mode ~

X: 9
T: Sleepy Maggie
T: Gypsy Maggie
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: B Phrygian
|: f2 Bb fec<e | f2 a2 c<Ac<e | f2 Bb fec<e | f>ga>f e<Ac<e :|
|: fB B2 fBc<e | fB B2 c<Ac<e | fB B2 fBc<e | f>ga>f e<Ac<e :|

YEE HA!!! 😎

Key signature: F Phrygian
Submitted on October 22nd 2008 by ceolachan.
https://thesession.org/tunes/9029

Go here for an Irish version of this recorded by Noel Hill, De Danann and Paddy Glackin https://thesession.org/tunes/7935

I thought “Drowsy Maggie” and “Sleepy Maggie” were active tunes because a kindly musical friend of Maggie’s was trying to “wake her up,” to energize her, so to speak . . . like when you hear a catchy tune and just have to get up and dance. In which case, if there is any point in getting Maggie sleepy again after she’s awoken, then “Woken Maggie” should be a lullaby . . .

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

play video

This version taken from ‘A Collection of Quicksteps, Strathspeys, Reels and Jigs. Arranged for the Highland Bag-Pipe by Donald Macdonald & Son… Sixth Edition’ from 1892. I’ve taken the liberty of changing the key signature as my pipes can play the G# and I think it sounds better.

Gwendal made a reggae version of this tune called ’Le Reggae Gai De Guéret" (they always loved hybridisation, didn’t they).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b49hsdGgCI

play video

A rare vintage footage of Gwendal “playing” this tune on french TV (you can see they hate playback haha)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTf_iaqWNpw&t=630s

play video

I’m adding this version for a friend of mine at a local session who wants to learn this tune. As I have the dubious privilege of being currently the only person there who plays this I have not had to bother about whether this is a standard version or where it has come from. Nor even what order I play the second and third parts in and how I might mix up the opening part to sound a bit different on the repeat as basically it has never made any difference to anyone backing. I add this as it would be a shame for them to learn one of these other bowlderised versions of this tune when it is obvious this bowlderised version is the best!

Joking aside I picked this up from a pile of old pipe band manuscripts. It seemed very familiar to session players in both Skye and Glasgow, although whether that is because this is a recognisable form of the tune or those fine people, along with being excellent and adaptable musicians, were being nice and humoring me, by playing along on the fly, I don’t know.

Don’t see it in the other comments, so a little history on this one: Niel Gow published this one in his Complete Repository (1799). The first setting is identical to the one in the Robin Williamson book “English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish Fiddle Tunes” (where he credits it to Gow). Gow’s arrangement is the same notes, but he wrote the second beat in several measures as a dotted 8th + 16th. I was trying to figure out the pattern and I think he does it every time it’s a Bm chord and never on the A.

Both Bremner and Oswald published “Sleepy Maggy” in the 1750s.