Key signature: Gmajor
Submitted on March 17th 2003 by lazyhound.
This tune has been added to 53 tunebooks.
Also known as An Caip Cul-Ard, An Gabhairin Bui, Bonny Laddie, Caidhp An Chúil Áird, Hieland Laddie, High Caul Cap, The High Caul Cap, The High Caul'd Cap, The High Cauled Cap, Highland Laddie, The Highland Laddie March, The Highland Laddie.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Donkey Riding
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: Gmaj
G>A BB|cA B2|BA AG/A/|BA A2|
G>A BB|cA B2|BA dd|G2 G2:|
|:e2 d>d|cd B2|BA AG/A/|BA A2|
e2 d>d|cd B2|BA dd|G2 G2:||
A tune that comes up occasionally in our sessions. A good tune for beginners (and everyone else), and useful for the set dancers.
# Posted on March 17th 2003 by lazyhound
Preview
Is it possible to preview music before downloading.
# Posted on March 17th 2003 by Marilyn
Sea Chantey
I know this as a sea chantey. No big surprise I guess, New York Girls works as both a Heaving (Capstan) Chantey and a polka. I'll give this a go next session.
# Posted on March 17th 2003 by Gra5ity
Sea chantey? Never thought of that, but it would be very possible bearing in mind that Bristol has a maritime history going back to the Middle Ages.
# Posted on March 17th 2003 by lazyhound
Endless Variation?
In his definitive work on the seafaring work songs, _Shanties from the Seven Seas_, Stan Hugill offers variants of this melody this melody in both the major and minor modes. The geography of the texts celebrate several ports in Great Britain, across the pond to Canada, on to ports on the East and Gulf coasts of the USA, around cape horn and even up to San Fransisco.
I've yet to find Bristol mentioned, Trevor, but I'll keep digging. Sea chanties and the men who sang them certainly got around and all sorts of melodic migrations took place.
I just tried the major mode melody posted above followed by the relative minor melody I know as _Dundee Whaler_ . I think they make an interesting set. I wonder how the other players at my local session would receive this. Only one way to find out.
# Posted on March 17th 2003 by Gra5ity
Donkeys
Great Big Sea does a version of this on their 1997 "Play" CD. My understanding is that it is indeed a sea chantey and the term donkey refers to a type of winch used on a sailing ship. GBS is from Newfoundland, which has quite a maritime history as well.
# Posted on March 23rd 2003 by Rando
Thanks Rando for that information. It's making more sense by the day. I've just now played the tune to my wife, and she recognised it and said that in her childhood in Bristol (UK) "Donkey Riding" (or "Riding on a Donkey") was a common tune in school playgrounds. She has, in later years, taught it to Girl Guide Brownies (junior Girl Scouts, I think they're called in the USA).
Up to about 30 or so years ago Bristol Docks were commercially very active, as they had been for centuries, and sea shanties would have been well-known in the area. Now, there is no commercial shipping and the docks have turned into a marina surrounded by high-priced housing.
What I don't know is whether the tune has a genuine Irish origin and has found its way round the world via Irish sailors as a she shanty, or whether its origin is non-Irish. Anyway, didn't the original polkas originate in mainland Europe and were brought back to the British Isles by soldiers returning from the Napoleonic Wars?
# Posted on March 23rd 2003 by lazyhound
Whoops! "sea shanty" not "she shanty" in tha last post! (freudian slip?)
# Posted on March 23rd 2003 by lazyhound
Pinning the tail on the donkey
I first heard this many years ago while driving across Dartmoor (don't ask!). Since then I've always played it for dancing with the last two bars in e-minor. Don't think I've ever seen the ending written down, but most people seem to play it that way.
# Posted on March 24th 2003 by colinturner
Trevor, this tune isn't Irish or from Bristol, although it does appear in O'Neill's as "The High Haul Cap". Long before the morris musicians got their hands on it, it was a Highland regimental quickstep march. This tune has existed since at least as far back as the 1600s. It's really really really old. It's also one of the most famous Scottish marches alongside the likes of Scotland The Brave, and I'm surprised you didn't pick up on this as it's always played at the Edinburgh military tattoo and other ceremonial occasions not just in Scotland but all over the world. Colin's right, in non-morris circles, those last 2 bars are played in the minor. This tune is the quintessential GHB tune - any other instrument does not do it justice IMO:
X: 1
T: Highland Laddie
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: March
K: D
A>B|d3e f2a2|g>fe>d f3f|f2e2 e2d<e|f2e2 e2d<B|
d3e f2a2|g>fe>d f2e>f|d2B2 B2A>B|d2B2 B2:|
|:f<g|a3g f2e>f|d<Bd<e f3f|f2e2 e2d<e|f2e2 e2f<g|
a3g f2e>f|d<Bd<e f2e>f|d2B2 B2A>B|d2B2 B2:|
It's really a 2/4 march, but there's not enough room to notate Scotch snaps etc in that metre.
# Posted on June 10th 2005 by Dow
Yeah and I don't like it in G either. It's best in D, nice and high and shrill. It's a war tune! Sends shivers up my spine when I hear it played on the pipes with that march rhythm rattled out on the drums. The morris version also sends shivers up my spine but for different reasons
# Posted on June 10th 2005 by Dow
Not the High Cauled Cap I Know
I guess I will have to dust off the music and enter the ABCs, because I can't find the version of the High Cauled Cap that I am familiar with, and that goes with a ceilidhe dance I once learned. When I do a search for that name, I come up with this tune and the Rakes of Mallow, neither of which is the tune I learned.
# Posted on February 8th 2006 by AlBrown
I was pretty sure this tune was Canadian
# Posted on May 14th 2006 by Dorkmeister
Not the "Cadhp an Chúil Áird", alias "Kype" In Know either...
"Donkey Riding"
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: A Major
|: A>B cc | dB c2 | cB BA/B/ | cB ce |
AA/B/ c/B/A/c/ | d/d/B ce | cB ee | A2 A2 :|
|: f2 e2 | de/d/ c2 | cB BA | c>B c/d/e |
fa ea | da c2 | cB e/e/e | A2 A2 :|
# Posted on May 15th 2006 by ceolachan