Also known as
Cuir Barr Air, Dress Her Out In Fine Clothes, Dress Her Up Fine, Dress Her Up In Fine Clothes, The Maid’s Request, McCarty’s Jig, Rouse It, Top It Off.
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
A2GF2A dcA|B2 c d2 e fdB|A2GF2A dcA|BdB AFA D3|
f2 d d2 f agf|e2 d c2 e gfe|f2 d d2 f agf|efd cdB A3|
f2 d d2 f agf|e2 d c2 e gfe|d2 c B2 c dcB|efd cdB A3||
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
A2 G F2 A d z A|B2 c d z e fdB|A2 G F2 A d z A|Bcd AFD D3:|
f2 d d2 f a2 f|e2 d c z e gfe|f2 d d2 f a2 f|ecA ABc d2 g|
f2 d d2 f agf|e2 c c2 e gfe|fdf efg agf|edc ABc dcB||
I know Top it Off is already posted (https://thesession.org/tunes/2608), but the version Martin Hayes plays is sufficiently different that you have to work at it to see them as the same tune. Note the A part only gets a single airing.
I know it’s not an exact match, but this one resembles "Dress Her Out In Fine Clothes"
X: 1
T: Dress Her Out in Fine Clothes.
C:McFadden.
B:O’Neill’s Music of Ireland
N:O’Neill’s - 1165
Z:Transcribed by Stephen Foy (shf@access.digex.net)
Z:abc 1.6
M:9/8
R:slipjig
F:http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/book/oneills/1850/F/1136-1175_sf.abc 2008-04-30 11:42:46 UT
K:D
A2 G F2 A d z A | B2 c d z e fdB | A2 G F2 A d z A | Bcd AFD D3 :|
f2 d d2 f a2 f | e2 d c z e gfe | f2 d d2 f a2 f | ecA ABc d2 g |
f2 d d2 f agf | e2 c c2 e gfe | fdf efg agf | edc ABc dcB ||
Cahill
Thanks for posting this. I think Cahill’s slow waltzing guitar against the slow jig really gives the tune much more depth and beauty than it otherwise would have. What a combo.
I have a copy, courtesy of the Irish Traditional Music Archives, in Dublin, of P.W. Joyce’s transcription of this tune, which is a very little different from both O’Neill’s, Dress Her Up In Fine Clothes, and this Booley House. He learned it from David Grady, a flute player from Ardpatrick. He neglected to "ascertain" the title. The general body of the tune is so similar to both O’Neill’s, Dress Her Up In Fine Clothes, and this one, Booley House, to make me say, once again, 5,000 tunes, 150,000 names! Joyce refers to it as a hop jig, saying that it is for a particular kind of dance in the south of Ireland.
Another source
Closely similar versions of the first two parts of the tune also appear in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883), under the confusing title "Hop — Jig".
Re: The Booley House
"Top it off" is actually a mistaken spelling for what was originally "Tip it off". All the old Longford and Leitrim manuscripts have "Tip", not "Top". Breandán Breathnach got it wrong, and so the error has been established.
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