Annotation:Job of Journeywork (1)

Tune properties and standard notation

JOB OF JOURNEY WORK [1], THE ("Greim/Mir Obairaonlae" or "Obair an Aistir"). AKA - "Stone Grinds All." Irish, Scottish; Set Dance (cut time or 4/4). D Mixolydian (Roche): D Major (O'Neill): D Major/Mixolydian (Cranitch, Joyce, Mulvihill, Stanford/Petrie). Standard. AB (Standord/Petrie): AABB (Cranitch, Joyce, Mulvihill, O'Neill, Roche). Francis O'Neill (1922) said this set-dance tune was derived from a song air. Samuel Bayard (1954) published a study of a tune family he called "The Job of Journeywork," evidently feeling "this long, irregular tune developed by the eighteenth century Irish dancing masters was somehow archetypical" (Cowdery, 1990). The second strain of the melody has been the one which has spawned the most variants, one of many of the "standard building blocks" (Ó Canainn, 1978) of the Irish melodic tradition. See "Tom Sullivan's" and "Matt Hayes's Polka (2)" for examples of conjoining phrases based in part on "The Job of Journeywork." Joyce (1890) states the tune was "a great favourite" in some of the Munster counties twenty or thirty years before he first published his volume in 1873.

However, the first printed appearance of the tune appears to be in James Aird's Selection of Scotch, English Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 3 (Glasgow, 1788). It is perhaps based on an older air called "My Wife She's ta'en the Gee." Robert Burns used the tune for one of his songs appearing in the Scots Musical Museum (vol. V, Edinburth, 1788, No. 480), entitled "Here's His Health in Water." The great east Clare fiddle stylist Paddy Canny's recording of the tune has been called the standard for modern settings and was used as the theme for the radio program of the same name in Ireland. Some similarity has been noted between "Job of Journeywork" and a tune printed by Stanford in his Irish Melodies (1894) called "Little Red Fox (The)." The versions printed by Howe and Joyce are virtually identical. The melody is called "Stone Grinds All" in Connecticut fifer Giles Gibb's (1760-1780) music manuscript book.

In Irish tradition "Job of Journeywork" is one of the four tunes called the Traditional Sets (i.e. set dances), along with "St. Patrick's Day," "Blackbird (The)" and "Garden of Daisies (1)."

Source for notated version: A Munster dance. From (the Irish collector) Mr. Joyce" [Stanford/Petrie]; Joyce himself learned it from "hearing it constantly played by pipers and fiddlers" [Joyce].

Printed sources: Cotter (Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor), 1989; 87. Cranitch (The Irish Fiddle Book), 1996; No. 92, p. 163. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 20. Joyce (Ancient Irish Music), 1890; No. 37, pp. 38-39. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 1, p. 109. O'Neill (O'Neill's Irish Music), 1915; No. 394, p. 188. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 1792, p. 336. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 966, p. 166. Reavy (The Music of Corktown). Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 2, 1912; No. 271, p. 29. Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 892, pg. 226.

Recorded sources: Columbia Legacy CK 48693, "The Best of the Chieftains" (1992). Gael-Linn CEF 045, "Paddy Keenan" (1975).