The Cordal jig

Somewhere I have a DeDannan recording with this tune on it, but I can’t recall which album it’s on, and I’m not sure it’s even listed under the name “Cordal.” Lotta help that is…..

So my playing of it (on fiddle) has morphed over the years, partly due to not playing it often enough to have any one setting stick. Henrik Norbeck has the abcs for it online, and my version’s fairly close to his, so I don’t think I’m leading anyone astray with this setting.

I like this tune not too fast, almost down to air speed, although most sessions do it more up tempo.

I play the A part pretty much as written here, usually adding a cut note on that B2 in measures 4 and 8: |B{d}B A Bcd| or sometimes just rolling the B: |~B3 Bcd|.

For the second half, you can play it as a straight single jig throughout:
|d2 e fed|c2 d ecA|d2 e fed|f2 e fga| etc.
or as a double jig:
|dcd fed|cBc ecA|dcd fed|~f3 fga|etc.
or some combination of the two.

At slow speed, the Cordal goes well into Tell Her I Am (in G maj)--almost sister tunes. If you prefer a more spirited tempo, try sliding into Scatter the Mud after the Cordal.

Great tune. A few weeks ago I heard a fiddler, with a mainly English repertoire, playing a four part jig which was clearly a setting of this tune. If I remember rightly, he said it was a Morris tune.

Perhaps it is a form of long term revenge on Cromwell to steal all of England’s best tunes.

…The Black Rogue afterwards.

Compare the Mist in the Meadow: https://thesession.org/tunes/1205

For those of you who have submitted “Chordal” as an alternative title: Cordal is the name of a village.

Morgan Rattler: https://thesession.org/tunes/2831

On the sleeve notes to Midnight on the Water by the Kings River Band, they play this tune and call it a slide. They say it is attributed to Connie O’Connell.

The phrasing doesn’t quite fit a 12/8 bar, but the long-short of it (d2 e) does have it coming off as a single jig, all in the family… I play it a little differently, but have had it mixed it in with slides in the past. 😏

And all those names from down Sliabh Luachra way? It seems related to others, but I’m not sure. I wouldn’t call it a slide, and am not completely sure about it being swung enough to be a single, though I suspect one could? Here’s another take on it ~

X: 1134
T: ~ etc…
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: D Major
|: d |
BAF E3 | FEF DFA | BAF DF/G/A | B2 A Bcd |
BAF E3 | FEF DFA | d2 f edc |[1 B2 ^A Bc :|[2 B2 ^A B2 ||
|: c |
d2 e fed | c2 d ecA | d2 e fed | f2 e ff/g/a |
dcd fed | c2 d ecA | d3 cdc |[1 B2 ^A B2 :|[2 B2 ^A Bc ||

They don’t play it as a slide. It sounds like a normal double jig when they play it. They just called it a slide.

At least they didn’t call it a hornpipe, eh? 😉

True.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoPKvrD-9jw Youtube video (second tune in set) with Ernestine Healy (concertina) andFionnuala Rooney (harp). here called “Port na gCairdeanna” (and it definately sounds like the A and B parts of Morgan Rattler to my english ears).

play video

Is in the Gunn Book of Fermanagh (1865) as Derby Gallagher

Last tune in this set.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is0XNXE2xQg&feature=sub

play video

As Slainte says, it’s an extremely close (though very likeable) relation of the A and B parts of the tune Morgan Rattler, which is on a barrel organ made in London in 1805, but there seem to be Welsh sources older than that.

Third and last tune (see link above) starts at 2’07"

Why cordal when cordial’s so nice? :- )

Nice solo fiddle by Dale Russ:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfjMsl0tdSA

play video

(I know the tune as the Cordal; I don’t know where the YouTube title came from)

I love the Cordal Jig, and the Morgan Rattler. But whenever I hear either I always think of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_WDbjLmlM0

play video

http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_239_2_ernestine_healy_concertina_and_fionnuala_rooney_harp/

This is the version Liam O’Flynn plays on his Piper’s Call CD, it’s in 6/8 not 12/8, a great jig.

Apparently this was originally a two-part jig called Jackson’s Bouner Bougher, composed by Walker ‘Piper’ Jackson in the 18th century. Two further parts were added, possibly to fit a song, later in the same century.
There are a couple more alternative names here:
https://tunearch.org/wiki/Jackson%27s_Bouner_Bougher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLmz2thxR_g

play video