Annotation:Pat Ward's Jig

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PAT WARD'S JIG. AKA and see "Highlander's Kneebuckle (2) (The)," "Leather Buttons," "Galway Reel (4)." Irish, Slide or Single Jig (12/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA’BB’. See note for "Annotation:Highlander's Kneebuckle (2) (The)" for information on the tune, which is variously played and noted in slide, single jig and reel versions.

Seamus Ennis, in liner notes to his album "The Pure Drop," remarks:

As a child, I remember Pat Ward. He was a native of Drogheda, an old man with a crescent shaped beard. He played a double changer--two reeds, two bores and two stop holes for each finger, as compared to the usual single piece. I would compare his tone with that of a very mellow concertina, to the best of my recollection, for I was but a child when he was tragically killed by a motor-bus near his house. My father learned this tune from him and as he had no name for it we referred to it as above at all times. Notice that the accepted performing rhythm of the single jig is nearly identical with that of a hornpipe--a 'common' tune simulated by the four threes of 12/8.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Treoir.

Recorded sources: Compass Records 7 4446 2,Oisíin McAuley – “From the Hills of Donegal” (2007). Sean Kane, Matt Molloy, Liam O’Flinn - "The Fire Aflame" Seamus Ennis - "The Pure Drop."

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