Annotation:Frost is All Over (1) (The)

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X:1 T:Frost is All Over [1], The L:1/8 M:6/8 K:D A|d2f edc|dAF GFE|DFA DFA|Bcd efg| def edc|dAF GFE|DFA DFA|BAF d2:| |:e|f3 agf|g3 bag|faa agf|gfg efg| faa agf|gbb bag|fga efg|fdc d2:||

FROST IS ALL OVER [1], THE (Taan Sioc Imtigte). AKA and see "American Dwarf (The)," "Dancing of the Rabbits in Honan's Garden (The)," "D'Imthig an Sioc" (Frost is All Gone (The)), "Kitty Lie Over," "Lisdoonvarna," "Loughrea Jig (The)," "Mist of Clonmel," "On a Monday Morning," "Owl Creek," "Praties are Dug and the Frost is all over (The)," "What Would You Do if the Kettle Boiled Over?, What would I do if the Kettle Boiled Over?," "What Would You do if You Married a Soldier?" Irish (originally), English, American; Double Jig. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Stanford/Petrie): AAB (O'Neill/1001): AABB (O'Brien, Songer): AABBCC (Moylan): AABB' (Cranitch, Mulvihill, Taylor). Samuel Bayard identifies the tune as a version of "Masque (The)," later "Hey to the Camp," published by John Young in his Dancing Master of 1707 (13th ed., 148), and, he believes, dating probably to the 1600's. It also appears (as "Hey to the Camp") in Walsh's Dancing Master of 1731 (No. 221). If it was English in origin (not an established fact), the melody has survived today as a jig in both Irish and American traditions. However, tracing it has been complicated by the confounding association with sets of lyrics variously beginning "What would you do if the kettle boiled over," "What would you do if you married a soldier," "The praties are dug and the frost is all over," and similar variant verses. These lyrics have been powerfully associated not only with the "Frost is all over [1]" melody, but also with a close variant jig melody "Frost is All Over (3) (The)," and with another jig, musically unrelated but similar in character, that often is known nowadays as "Paddy's Return (1)." The lyrics below were popularized De Dannan member Johnny Moynihan (who had them from Seamus Ennis, who obtained them from Elizabeth Cronin of Macroon, County Cork, who recorded them in 1947):

The praties are dug and the frost is all over, Kitty lie over close to the wall.
What would you do if the kettle boiled over? What could I do but to fill it again.
What would you do if the cows eat the clover? What could I do but to set it again?
What would you do if you married a soldier? What could I do but to follow the gun?

An Australian variation begins:

What would you do if the billy boiled over?

where billy refers to a billy can, a tin can originally used for bully beef, and an improvised substituted for a kettle (Bob Bolton, 4/9/02, Mudcat Café Forum). A Pennsylvania version of the "Frost is all over [1]" jig was collected in the 1930's as an untitled cotillion by Bayard. 19th century Irish versions appear in the collections of P.W. Joyce (an untitled air, No. 516, from the Forde Collection), George Petrie (collected in County Armagh), and, in a distanced version recognizable mostly in the second part, of cleric James Goodman (Cork & Munster). "Frost" is known as a popular jig in County Donegal (hear an influential version was recorded by Paul O'Shaughnessy on the album "The Fiddle Music of Donegal"). The third part (appearing in Moylan's collection of Johnny O'Leary tunes, and, in recording, played by Jackie Daly and Patrick Street) is unusual and seldom played. See also the related tune "Loughrea Jig (The)."

Additional notes

Sources for notated versions: - The music manuscript collection of Rev. James Goodman (mid-19th century, County Cork) [Shields]; accordion player Johnny O'Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border), recorded in recital at Na Piobairi Uilleann, November, 1990 [Moylan]; set dance music recorded at Na Píobairí Uilleann in the late 1980's [Taylor]; Smokey McKeen (Maine) via accordion player Creighton Lindsay (Portland, Oregon) [Songer]; the Forde Collection [Joyce].

Printed sources : - Cranitch (Irish Fiddle Book), 1996; No. 4, p. 126. Cranitch (Irish Session Tunes: The Red Book), 2000; 6. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 516, p. 280 (appears as untitled air). McDermott (Allan's Irish Fiddler), c. 1920's' No. 2, p. 2. Moylan (Johnny O'Leary of Sliabh Luachra), 1994; No. 180, p. 104. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 13, p. 67 ("Coleman's version"). O'Brien (Jerry O'Brien's Accordion Instructor), Boston, 1949. O'Neill (O'Neill's Irish Music), 1915; No. 126, p. 73. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1986; No. 313, p. 66. Peoples (Fifty Irish Fiddle Tunes), 1986; 24. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 103. Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 1), 1927; No. 107, p. 46 (appears as "The Frost is all Gone"). Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 111. Shields/Goodman (Tunes of the Munster Pipers), 1998; No. 66, p. 30 (appears as "D'Imthig an Sioc/"The Frost is All Gone"). Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; p. 82. Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 850, p. 212. Taylor (Music for the Sets: Blue Book), 1995; p. 4. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, vol. 2), 1999; p. 32.

Recorded sources: - Coleman Music Center CHC 009, Alfie Joe Dinneen & Peg McGrath (1946-1995) – "The Coleman Archive, vol. 2: The Home Place" (2005). Folkways FD 6530, Old Grey Goose - "Maine Country Dance Music and Song" (1980). Green Linnet SIF 1000, Seamus Ennis – "40 Years of Irish Piping." Shanachie 79011, Planxty – "Cold Blow the Rainy Night." Shanachie 79012, Planxty – "The Planxty Collection" (1974).

See also listings at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [3]

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