Papa Stoor Bridal March slip jig

I learnt this from Jenna Reid when she came to do a weekend fiddle workshop in the Yorkshire Dales last November (2007).

Wonderful tune - listen to it as it should be played on Jenna’s “With Silver and all” CD

The double stops are “very Shetland” - ringing strings and all that!

This tune is undergoing a revival in Scotland at the moment, but Jenna’s version is not like the other version I’ve heard, which has 3 parts. I first heard it by “Fairport Convention” on their “Angel Delight” LP, early 70s. I think it has also turned up on a few Shetland recordings, as you would expect, and also by the “Boys Of The Lough”. Calum Stewart has it on his Scottish flute CD, released only a few months ago. I’ve been teaching it to my flute students in Aberdeen. The whole of the 3-part tune only has 4 bars of music in it. It’s usually known as the “Papa Stour Sword Dance”, which is not at all like a highland word dance, I believe, and have aways meant to do some research on that. I’ll post the “abcs” here for the version I know later this week.

Kenny
Thanks for that - look forward to your ‘extra bits ’n pieces’
D

I should have said - this isn’t really a slip jig but more of a march, alternating between 9/8 and 6/8
D

This is the version I have:

X: 1
T: Da Papa Stour Sword Dance
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
K: D
ddd fga gfe|ddd fga gfe|ddd fga gfe|ddd fga gfe|
ecA ecA f2e|ecA ecA f2e|ecA ecA f2e|ecA ecA f2e|
dBA FED E2A|dBA FED E2A|dBA FED E2A|dBA GFE D2z|]

It may be that the Bridal March is a separate tune, although thee are a lot of similarities.
Funnily enough, there is a dance group that meets a couple of miles down the road from me that does the Papa Stour Sword Dance so I’ve seen it many times but I’ve never really listened to the music.

Key signature: G Major
Submitted on July 9th 2008 by ceolachan.
https://thesession.org/tunes/8694

It looks to me - belatedly - as if “The Papa Stour Bridal March” and the “Papa Stour Sword Dance” are two completely different tunes.

In wanting to listen to the Fairport Convention’s version, I found that someone has uploaded it from the “Angel Delight” LP onto YouTube:
https://youtu.be/mlGzbhCtn5o

play video

It’s kind of cool that their set is so regionally diverse: first an English tune, then an Irish tune and then a Shetland tune.

DonaldK said, “This is the version I have…”

I’ve been listening to The Boys of the Lough’s setting and there seems to be some very subtle variations (note the first note on the 2nd line). Just for interest, X:3 is from the second time through the tune on ‘Da Day Dawn’ (1994).