Annotation:Jenny's Chickens
Tune properties and standard notation
JENNY'S CHICKENS. AKA - "Jennie's Chickens." AKA and see "All the Go," "Jock and Jill," "Malcolm's Wedding," "Sleepy Maggy/Sleepy Maggie." Irish, Reel. B Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC (Mallinson): AABB'CC' (Fiddler Mag., Martin & Hughes). Popularized by the great Irish-American (County Sligo/New York) fiddler Michael Coleman whose setting has become a classic (paired with, and preceded by, "Bonnie Kate (1)"). It appears as an untitled reel in Feldman & O'Doherty's Northern Fiddler (1979), 172. Daniel Michael Collins (1977) opines the reel has potential for boredom due to the number of repeated phrases; only by use of ornaments does it stay interesting. A Scots provenance is often cited for the melody: see the related Scots tune "Sleepy Maggy/Sleepy Maggie," as well as the ancestral reel from Scots composer Robert Bremner, "Malcolm's Wedding", from his 1757 Collection of Reels.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Bulmer & Sharpley (Music from Ireland), 1974, vol. 2, No. 18. Fiddler Magazine, Spring 1994; p. 21. Lyth (Bowing Styles in Irish Fiddle Playing, vol. 1), 1981; 51. Mallinson (100 Essential), 1995; No. 13, p. 5. Martin & Hughes (Ho-ro-gheallaidh), 1990; p. 39.
Recorded sources: BM-91, Buddy MacMaster - "Glencoe Hall." Cló Iar-Chonnachta CICD 173, Brian Conway - "Consider the Source" (2008). Green Linnet SIF-1110, James Kelly - "My Love is in America: The Boston College Irish Fiddle Festival" (1991). Shanachie 29009, "Andy McGann and Paul Brady." Shanachie 79064, Matt Molloy - "Heathery Breeze" (1999). Viva W103, Sean McGuire - "Irish Jigs and Reels" (c. 1960's, a reissue of "Sean Maguire Plays," the first recording of McGuire that Josephine Keegan accompanied on piano). 'Ón tSean-Am Anall' (Danny O'Donnell).
See also listings at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [3]
thesession.org [4]
Hear Michael Coleman's 1934 recording at the Comhaltas Archive [5]
Hear Andy McGann's, Vincent Griffith's and other versions at the Comhaltas Archive [6]