Around the House and Mind the Dresser

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Theme code Index
Also known as
Composer/Core Source
Region	Ireland
Genre/Style	Irish
Meter/Rhythm	Slide
Key/Tonic of	D
Accidental	2 sharps
Mode	Ionian (Major)
Time signature	12/8
History
Structure	AABB
Editor/Compiler
Book/Manuscript title
Tune and/or Page number
Year of publication/Date of MS
Artist	Biography:Chieftains (The)
Title of recording	Bonaparte's Retreat
Record label/Catalogue nr.	Shanachie 79026
Year recorded
Media
Score ()

AROUND THE HOUSE AND MIND THE DRESSER. Irish, Slide (12/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Ciaran Carson references the title in his book Last Night’s Fun (1996), in regards to his observations on the spatial changes a room undergoes during a ceili:

When a ceili is made the dimensions of the room change subtly as the talk includes some news of the outside world. Music starts up, and the dimensions alter once again as dancers take the floor and those not dancing make space and squeeze up against each other, backs to the wall. ‘Around the House and Mind the Dresser’. The room seems to expand or contract in Tardis-like defiance of the laws of time and space. (pg. 114)

House dances, popular in the years before the move to dance-halls in Ireland, were held in the central room of a cottage—the kitchen. Table, chairs, benches and other pieces of furniture were moved to the walls, leaving room for a set in the middle. Donal Hickey, in his book Stone Mad for Music (1999), recalls a time that Sliabh Luachra musicians Pádraig O’Keeffe and Paddy Cronin played a house dance in Cordal. The hostess, noting her rather cramped quarters and seeking to conserve space for dancing, asked the pair to mount chairs set on the top of a table and play there. “Christ, Paddy,” said O’Keeffe, “we’ll g’up in the gallery”—and there they played.

Recorded sources: Shanachie 79026, Chieftains - “Bonaparte’s Retreat.” Shanachie SHA79027, the Chieftains - “Live.”

X:1
T:Around the House and Mind the Dresser
M:12/8
L:1/8
C:D Major
S:Trad.
R:slide
D:Chieftains "Live”
Z:Gary Chapin
K:D
g|f2d A2=c B2A G2g|f2d ABc d3 d2g|f2d A2=c B2A G3|fag fBc d3 d2::a|
f2g agf e2f gfe|f2g agf e3 g3|f2g agf e2f g2{a}g|gfe ABc d3 d2:||