Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Paddy McGinty's

barndance

Key signature: Gmajor

Submitted on August 3rd 2004 by ceolachan.

This tune has been added to 11 tunebooks.

Also known as Paddy McGinty's Goat.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

A Tune For Bill by Banchory Strathspey And Reel Society
Farewell To Ireland CD 3 (Of A Box Set Of 4) by Various Artists
Take The Bull By The Horns by Tom Doherty

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

- - - a 1931 notation of the same tune:

# Posted on August 3rd 2004 by ceolachan

Part B - measure 7 - as corrected in the ABC

Late night, up and down -

|F>gf>e (3ded (3cBA|

# Posted on August 3rd 2004 by ceolachan

Paddy McGinty's goat

This was the Val Doonican recording in the sixties-probably best forgotten. :-) The second part of this tune is very similar to Paddy McGinty's Goat which is maybe a pity. :-)
Which came first, I wonder?

# Posted on August 3rd 2004 by Johannes J

The Chicken or the Egg? what provenance?

1931 is as far back as I can take it, though that probably originates a few years earlier, the 20s. Yeah, it was ever on my mind, but I never found this, though rarely, with "the goat" added on. However, I know the humour of the folks that used to put this stuff together and carried it as 'tradition' before the dance and music police became and established force, most officers having their residence outside the isle of Eire, but not exclusively. Mind you, the 'grand inquisitors' did exist and roam the country way back then, witch hunting, deciding what would and wouldn't be collected or called 'Irish', what should be 'burned', or changing key signatures and the like to suit their want...

This is a quirky tune however you put it...

# Posted on August 3rd 2004 by ceolachan

Closer to the bone - or the way it is sometimes gnawed now - in song or dance

A More recent version:

# Posted on August 3rd 2004 by ceolachan

& - not forgetting the ears, a bit of the song from a lovely bunch of ladies:

http://www.ennissisters.com/music.htm

"The Ennis Sisters - Can't Be the Same" - track 6

Much preferred to Val Doonican's 1967 recording.

Mister Patrick McGinty, an Irishman of note,
Came into a fortune, so bought himself a goat.
Said he, "Sure, of goat's milk I mean to have my fill!"
But when he got his Nanny home, he found it was a Bill.

- - - A NUMBER OF VERSES SKIPPED OVER - - -

Now this old goat of Pat's had a wondrous appetite
One morning for breakfast he ate some dynamite
A whole box of matches he swallowed all serene
And then he goes and swallows up a quart of kerosene.

He sat by the fireside, didn't give a hang
He swallowed a spark and exploded with a bang
So if ever you go to heaven you can bet your bottom note
That the angel with the whiskers on is Paddy McGinty's goat...

C'est la vie...

# Posted on August 3rd 2004 by ceolachan

I hesitated including this - a third part

For whatever reason, and I can't find it in my notes, I sometimes segway into this third part:

# Posted on August 8th 2004 by ceolachan

Barndance!:

1.) Couples in a waltz/ballroom hold, partners facing, man's back to the centre of the dance space/woman facing him...begin with weight on Man's R/Woman's L:

PHRASE (8 bars) - - -

Bar 1: two stamps without taking weight
(M=L, L/W=R, R)

Bar 2: moving in Line-Of-Direction: step-together-step
(M=LRL/W=RLR)

Bars 3-4: REPEAT with opposite footwork and direction

Bars 5-8: REPEAT ALL THAT

PHRASE - - -

Bars 1-6: Couples dance 'round = 6 X 123, turning as a couple Clockwise and travelling around the dance space in the Line-Of-Direction (Anti-Clockwise/ACW/CCW)...

Bars 7-8: Options - to continue with 123 twice more, or the 'doubling'/pivot/dreher = 4 X 1 - 2 - 3 - 4...

NOTE: The basic steps (3s) can be danced smooth or with a hop/skip, meaning that the traveling step can be hop-123, and the doubling/pivot/dreher can be a 'hop-step'... Couples can also just choose to 'promenade' the last half of the dance, in an open hold facing and travelling around in the LOD...

2.) Similar to the above except it begins in an open hold (cross-back or waist-shoulder) facing the LOD, man on her Left, the woman to his Right:

PHRASE (8 bars) - - -

Bar 1: two stamps without taking weight (variations exist)

Bar 2: drop hold and turn in toward each other to face the other way, take hold again (man to her R/woman on his L)

Bars 3-4: REPEAT with opposite footwork and direction, still turning for bar 4.

Bars 5-8: REPEAT ALL THAT

PHRASE - - - 8 bars as in the first version of the dance given above...

NOTE: There are Highlands also fitting these descriptions, using the classic stock of 'Fling' steps for the 'stamps'... These could be done easily to either, 32 bars or 16. The finish, dancing around and finishing with the 'doubling'/pivot/dreher is classic for this family of dances and eventually entered into the dancing of the sets, not to everyone's acceptance. Later other couple dances and styling entered the sets, especially in the 20s and 30s and was called by the disapproving 'jazzin''... Some of this styling survives and is now taken as 'traditional'.

# Posted on August 17th 2004 by ceolachan

Phrase 2 - Bars 7-8

The 'doubling' for these last two bars of the dance should read '4 X step (or hop-step)' and = 1-2-3-4
(M: L-R-L-R/W: R-L-R-L)

# Posted on August 17th 2004 by ceolachan