Key signature: Gmajor
Submitted on August 29th 2003 by dafydd.
This tune has been added to 13 tunebooks.
Also known as Black Joak, Sprig Of Shillelagh.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Sprig Of Shillelah, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
|:DGG GFG|ABA AGF|GBd dcB|
AcB AGF|GAB EFG|DEF G3:|
BGB dBd|ece d2c|BGB dBd|
gfe d2c|BcB BAG|ABA AGF|
GBd dcB|AcB AGF|GAB EFG|DEF G3||
The Sprig Of Shillelah
From the playing of Paddy Glackin.
# Posted on March 1st 2003 by dafydd
I haven't heard this tune--so forgive me if I'm being dense. But is the first half really just six measures, and the second half ten?
# Posted on December 26th 2003 by Will CPT
The Sprig Of Shillelah
Transcribed faithfully from a recording by Paddy Glackin.It's probably a tune for a set dance,where the number of bars has to fit the steps.Take a look at Jackson's Return From Dover on this site.
# Posted on March 1st 2003 by dafydd
The Sprig Of Shillelah
Or it could be an Irish version of a Welsh tune.Many Welsh jigs have a six/ten bar structure.
# Posted on March 1st 2003 by dafydd
Bean setting?
This tune is used for a Bleddington Morris Dance who's name escapes me for the moment - possibly Bean Setting?
# Posted on December 28th 2003 by Alancorsini
Mick Moloney recorded this on 3 way street with Seamus Egan & Eugene O'Donnell, he explains about the tune with the following : "Seamus and I picked up these unusual tunes at the Great Banjo Meltdown in Lebanon State Park Tennessee in 1993 from minstrel banjo player Joe Ayers from Virginia. They were both published in 1861 in the Converse Banjo Book, one of the first tutors published for the minstrel banjo. Both tunes have an unusual twist. The first is a jig with a single A part and a double B part. The second is clearly an old set dance piece with an A part six bars long, followed by a B part with 10 bars. A song with the same name sung to this tune was very popular on the late 19th century American Stage."
The other tune referred to is the Rambling Boy.
Seamus Connolly recorded The Sprig of Shillelah as a set dance, on I believe Notes from my Mind, can't find the Album right this minute.
# Posted on December 28th 2003 by banjowalsh
This is also, or rather, was originally, an English tune, used in Morris dances, and is called The Black Joke - the joke being the very unusual timing, described above. There also exist a Red Joke, and other coloured Jokes, but I don't know them. They are from various parts of rural England, I'm told.
I got it from 3-Way Street, and had it down as an "American-Irish" tune, till I played it in a session with Martin Brown, the well-known English fiddler and mandolin player, who joined in with me as I took up the tune. Afterwards when I mentioned the "name" The Sprig of Shillelagh, I was quickly corrected by Martin as to its real name, and its origin. So there we witnessed a tune going from England, maybe to Ireland, but definitely across the Atlantic to America, then back across the Atlantic via a Scot playing in the Irish tradition, through to an Englishman playing the English tradition...and the tune had picked up a new name on its travels!
Funny ole world innit?
# Posted on February 5th 2007 by Key Maniac Lad
The Black Joke
> the joke being the very unusual timing:
I forgot to say it was explained to me that this unusual timing makes it very difficult to dance to. So I guess they all fell about laughing at each other's efforts......
...it was probably funny at the time...........
# Posted on February 5th 2007 by Key Maniac Lad
Me ole mucker Peter Kennedy (rest his soul) used to make me play this for dancing. It was, btw, exactly as Dafydd has transcribed it. But he (Peter) had a very specific (couples)dance for it, of which, alas, I have no memory or knowledge, not being a dancer myself.
I'd be interested if anybody knows the dance ...
OTOH, he may have cobbled it from some Morris dance or other.
# Posted on February 5th 2007 by benhall.1
couold be Welsh - I'm just going by what Martin Brown, Paul Gross and John Offord have led me to believe - who am I to argue with THEIR cumulative knowledge of English tunes!!
# Posted on February 6th 2007 by Key Maniac Lad
The Sprig Of Shillelah
There is further discussion of this "joak/joke" tune in the comments on tune #7110 (which is a different version of the tune), and in the comments dated 28/4/2007 on discussion #13496.
# Posted on April 28th 2007 by lazyhound
"Black Joak" ~ jig
Key signature: G Major
Submitted on April 27th 2007 by lazyhound.
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/7110
Discussion: "4/4 & so much more"
# Posted on April 25th 2007 by TheMuse
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/13496
# Posted on April 28th 2007 by ceolachan