Annotation:Port Patrick (1)

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X:1 T:Port Patrick [1] M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig S:Bremner – Scots Reels (1757) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Amix f | ecA ABc | d2c TB2A | ecA ABA | B2c d2f | ecA ABc | d2c TB2A | (c/d/e)c (B/c/d)B | cAA A2:| |: e | fdf ece | fdf ece | f^ga edc | B2c d2f | ef^g agf | edc TB2A | (c/de)c (B/c/d)B | cAA A2:|]

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PORT PATRICK [1] (Cuain-Padraic). AKA - "Churlish Husband (The)," "Loosen the Belts," "'Sann agam tha'm Bodach 'smios th'air an t-saoghal." AKA and see "Lass and the Money is All My Own (The)." Scottish, Irish; Air, March or Double Jig. G Major (Aird, O’Neill, Thompson): A Mixolydian (Bremner). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Portpatrick [1] is a coastal village in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland, with a sheltered harbor. It was a ferry port of passengers, postal mail and freight between Ireland and Scotland. At one time it was a destination for couples from Ireland seeking a quick wedding, conducted by the Church of Scotland minister (see note for "English Bring to Gratney Green the Lasses that Hae Siller" for more). According to Alison Kinnaird, however, Port simply means a 'tune' in harp repertory--in other words, 'Patrick's tune'--and categorize it as part of the harp canon. John Purser disagrees, and is of the opinion that the title does refer to the town, and not an older harp tune. The tune is sometimes attributed Rory Dall (Blind Rory), although there were two harper-composers by that name; one Blind Roderick Morison (c. 1660-1713) was the harper to the MacLeods on the island of Skye, while the other was an older Irish harper who plied his trade in Scotland. The connection to either one has yet to be established, and while the 6/8 tune may have been 'traditional' in the mid-18th century, there is no definitive older connection.

John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of this tune in print in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection. His contemporary, cellist and composer James Oswald, printed the tune about the same time in two sections: the first being a duple-time slow setting (perhaps Oswald's own contribution), while the second is the lively jig that usually appears alone as "Port Patrick."

Hugh and Lisa Shields point to a cognate tune, "Loosen the Belts," in volume 1 (p. 237) of the large mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper James Goodman. The researchers also suggest a relationship with William Bradbury Ryan's "Frazer's Jig (2)" and another Goodman tune, "Drum" (located in a section of airs attributed to Walker "Piper" Jackson), although while 'Drum' and 'Frazer's' are clearly cognate, the relationship with "Port Patrick [1]" seems superficial at best.

The tune appears in a few American musicians' manuscript of the latter 18th century, sometimes as a quickstep, including the copybooks of fifer Thomas Nixon (Danbury, Conn., 1776-78), fiddlers John and William Pitt Turner (Norwich, Conn., 1788), and fiddler George White (Cherry Valley, N.Y., 1790). See also note for "Lass and the Money is All My Own" for more.

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