Key signature: Gmajor
Submitted on January 11th 2009 by nicholas.
This tune has been added to 10 tunebooks.
Also known as The Drovers Lads (Gillian An Drover), Gillean Nan Drobher, The Grumbling Carle.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Drover Lads
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
B|: GBd g3 | agf g2 e | dBB B2e | dBB B2A |
GBd g3 | agf g2 e | dBA A2 e | dBA A2 B :|
|: GBd dBd | ege dBG | dBB B2e | dBB B2A |
GBd dBd | ege dBG | dBA A2e | dBA A2 B :|
|: GBB gBB | aBB bBB | dBB B2 e | dBB B2 A |
GBB gBB | aBB bBB | dBA A2 e |1 dBA A2 B :|2 dBA A2 g||
|:bag agf | gfe efg | dBB B2 e | dBB B2 g |
bag agf | gfe efg | dBA A2 e |1 dBA A2 g :|2 dBA A3 ||
Drover Lads
This is a tune which I've heard at a local session; it can be found (in ABC notation) in Kuntz's on-line tune compendium "The Fiddler's Companion".
Apparently there is an un-named version of this in Breandan Breathnach's "Ceol Rince na hEireann" Vol. 2. The tune seems to me to sit very naturally with Irish ones, though I gather it is a Scottish one.
Playing it myself on whistle, I tend to alter bars 2 and 6 of the third part from:- | aBB bBB | to:- | aBB gBB | - because octave jumps can be awkward on the whistle, and I prefer the latter rendering anyway. But I've submitted Kuntz's version, which with the possible exception of this small variation is exactly the tune I've been hearing and learning.
In the c18 and into the c19, droving cattle from Scotland - notably the Highlands - into England was a major industry. The drovers' routes sometimes followed what are now main roads and sometimes paths which remain (if it all) as undeveloped tracks, down both East and West sides of Northern England.
# Posted on January 11th 2009 by nicholas
Drover Lads
I have not been able to find the un-named version in Breathnach Vol 2, neither in the Jigs section nor in the Slides section (which interestingly has a fair number of 6/8s).
# Posted on January 11th 2009 by lazyhound
Drover Lads
Thanks for that info, lazyhound - I cited the Breathnach detail from somewhere, but did not check for myself.
(I think I've got Breathnach 2 up in an attic, but I couldn't be fagged to go up and look for it...)
# Posted on January 12th 2009 by nicholas
It's Scottish and quite old
I was taught it in July 2003 under the title Gillean an Drobhair by Colm O'Rua at a workshop at the Gaelic College on Skye. It's also in a book of fiddle tunes called The Well travelled Fiddler's Collection published by Taigh na Teud. Originally from the "Skye Collection".
Nice little jig and good for fourth finger work on mandolin/banjo
# Posted on January 13th 2009 by Edgar Bolton
Gillian An Drover
There is an air called Gillian An Drover, spelled in this or a similar way in English (it's a corruption of the Gaelic name). I think it's a slowed-down version of the tune submitted here, but I'm not sure on this point. Alistair Anderson recorded it with The High Level Ranters many years ago.
The tune submitted here is a straightforward jig, for which I am sure the name Gillian An Drover is also correct (it is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic for "Drover Lads").
# Posted on January 15th 2009 by nicholas
Gillean nan Drobher
I know this as a pipe tune by the name of either The Grumbling Carle or Gillean nan Drobher
# Posted on January 15th 2009 by bogman
Drover Lads
Played on harp by Robert Douglas Kerr:
http://www.scottish-harp.co.uk/musicoptional/mp3/drover2.mp3
# Posted on January 15th 2009 by Ramiro