Annotation:Twisting of the Rope (1) (The)

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X:1 T:Twisting of the Rope, The M:3/4 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Moderate" B:O’Neill – Music of Ireland (1903), No. 115 Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G D|GD Gz/A/|B/c/B/A/|G2 B/A/G A>E|GD Gz/A/ B/c/B/A/|B2 de e>d| g/f/e/d/ e/d/c/B/ d/c/B/A/|G2 B/A/G AE|GD GA B/e/d/c/|B2 A2 Gz/d/| g/f/g/d/ e/^d/e/B/ d/c/B/A/|G2 B/A/G A>E|GD G>A B/e/d/c/|B4 {B}A>G|G4 z||

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TWISTING OF THE ROPE [1], THE (Casadh an tSúgáin). AKA and see "How dear to me the hour." Irish, Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. AKA – “Twisting the Hayrope.” AKA and see "White Blanket (The)." Irish, Air (3/4 time, "moderate time, spirited"). G Major (Joyce): G Mixolydian (Boys of the Lough). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Boys of the Lough): AABB (Joyce). "Twisting of the Rope" is one of the outstanding songs in Irish repertory, as both a vocal (sean nos) and instrumental air. Cowdery categorizes the tune as belonging to the "Ballyhee" family of tunes. The melody should be compared with "An Suisin Ban" (The White Blanket) as was noted by the Irish collector Edward Bunting, who may have collected the tune in 1792 from Irish harper Rose Mooney. “The Twisting of the Rope” appears in Bunting’s A General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music (1796) in a form not too different from that sung today. Junior Crehan’s niece maintains the late County Clare fiddler was the first to play “Casadh an tSúgáin” and the set dance "Suisin Ban (An)" together; he made an influential recording for RTE radio of the pair during a session at Mrs. Crotty’s house in Kilrush.

A hayrope is made from twisting strands of hay into a rope and is made to be draped over a stack of hay, weighted at both ends with stones to hold the stack (called a reek) down. The song, based on a folktale, relates an incident with a suitor and either his less-than-enchanted lady or her parents, who, to get rid of him, cunningly enlist his help in twisting a hay rope, which as it grows longer compels him to retreat through the door, which they promptly slam. Modern literary versions are very well known in Ireland, especially that by Yeats, who published a short-story called “The Twisting of the Rope” which often appears in anthologies. Ben Forker (Modern Irish Short Stories, p. 75) remarks that it provided the basis for the first modern Gaelic play, Douglas Hyde's Casadh an tSúgáin, performed in Dublin in 1901. Caoimhin Mac Aoidh (1994) relates a similar story-variant from Mickey and John Doherty of Donegal. In that version a wandering fiddler insists on accommodations from two sisters living alone. The younger sister tricks him in the manner of the first tale, and the elder sister slams the door when he has retreated outside, severing the rope. The Doherty’s version ends with the fiddler seeing the humor in the situation and he composes a reel which he calls “The Girl That Was Too Smart for the Fiddler” (the tune the Dohertys usually played with this story, however, was “Boyne Hunt (1),” called “Perthshire Hunt (The)” in Scotland).

The Irish words go:

A Rí na bhfeart cad do chas ins a' dúthaigh seo mé?
'S gur mó cailín deas a gheobhainn im' dhúthaigín beag féin;
Gur casadh mé isteach mar a raibh searc agus grá geal mo chléibh,
'S chuir an tseanbhean amach mé ag casadh an tsúgáinín féir.

cúrfa (chorus):
Má bhíonn tú liúm [liom], a stóirín mo chroí,
Má bhíonn tú liúm [liom], bí liúm ós comhair an tsaoil;
Má bhíonn tú liúm [liom], bí liúm gach orlach de d'chroí,
Sé mo lom go fann nach liúm Dé Domhnaigh thu mar mhnaoi.
[Sé mo lom nach fán leat thu Dé Domhnaigh mar mnaoi]

Tá mo cheannsa liath le bliain is ní le críonnacht é,
Ní bheathaíd na bréithre na bráithre pé sa domhan scéal é;
Is táim i d' dhiaidh le bliain is gan fáil agam ort féin,
'S gur geall le fia mé' 'r sliabh go mbeadh gáir con 'na dhiaidh.

Do threabfainn, d'fhuirsinn, chuirfinn síol ins a' chré,
'S do dhéanfainn obair shocair, álainn, mhín, réidh,
Do chuirfinn crú fén each is mire shiúil riamh ar féar

Scottish poet James Hogg noted in his "How dear to me the hour" in his book of poetry called Songs (1831, p. 139) that "The verses were once harmonized by [R.A.] Smith to an Irish air called 'The Twisting of the Rope'". He is referring to R.A. Smith's volume Irish Minstrelsy, published in Edinburgh in 1825, wherein he set Hogg's poem to the Irish air "Twisting of the Rope" (p. 73). The first stanza of Hogg's song goes:

How dear to me the hour when daylight springs,
And sheds new glories on the opening view,
When westward far the towering mountain springs
To heaven's own gate, his carols to renew!

Thomas Moore's (1779-1852) song, also called "How dear to me the hour" and also set to "Twisting of the Rope," was published in his Irish Melodies (1808-1834). His first stanza goes:

How dear to me the hour when daylight dies,
And sunbeams melt along the silent sea,
For then sweet dreams of other days arise,
And memory breathes her vesper sigh to thee.

Moore's melody is altered from his source, Bunting, with the addition of quaver rests inserted in the first four-bar phrase, which would prove difficult to sing in one breath.

See also the note for "annotation:Suisin Buidhe (An)."

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