Annotation:Swaggering Jig (1) (The)
X:1 T:Swaggering Jig [1], The M:9/8 L:1/8 R:Slip Jig S:James Goodman (1828─1896) music manuscript collection, S:vol. 3, p. 167. Mid-19th century, County Cork F:http://goodman.itma.ie/volume-three#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=170&z=-5155.8953%2C0%2C18487.7906%2C6432 F:at Trinity College Dublin / Irish Traditional Music Archive goodman.itma.ie Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G g|fed Bdd Add|fed Bdd e2g|fed Bdd Add| ede fdB A2:||:g|fga aba afd|fga agf e2g| fga aba afd|ede fdB A2:|]
SWAGGERING JIG [1], THE (“An port bagarac” or “Port na buaiceála”). AKA and see "Drunken Ganger's (The)," "Girls Take Care How You Marry," “Give Us a Drink of Water (2),” “In debt in the public house,” "Just at the Height of Her Bloom," “McDonnell's Rant” (O’Farrell), "Munster Rake (The)," "Noggin of Cream (The)," "Oh! the Marriage;," “Old Woman's Consort/Seanduine Coileáilte (An)” (Breathnach - CRÉ II, 98), "Silly Old Man (1)," “Táim i n-Arréars,” "Táim in Arréir dTigh an Óil," "Tiggit along the Room," “The Virgin Queen,” "Welcome the Piper.” Irish, Slip Jig (9/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (most versions): AABB (Kennedy). "The Swaggering Jig [1]" is a member of a large family of 9/8 time melodies used as slip jigs and song airs. It should be noted there are a few other slip jigs with the title “Swaggering Jig.” Various sets of words have been set to the tune, the following from the band Dervish:
I went to the fair of Bellaghy,
I bought a wee swag of a pig,
I gathered it up in my arms,
And danced the swaggering jig.
And it's high to the top of the heather,
And high to the but of the sprig,
And high to the bonnie wee lassie
Who danced the swaggering jig.
As I went to the fair of Bellaghy,
I bought a wee slip of a pig,
And being down by the poor house,
I whistled the swaggering jig.
And it's high to the cups and the saucers,
And high to the butter and bread,
And high to the bonnie wee lassie
Who danced the swaggering jig.
I being down by the poor house,
I whistled so loud and so shrill,
I made all the fairies to tremble
That lived around Corcoran's hill.
And it's high to the top of the heather
And high to the but of the sprig,
And high to the bonnie wee lassie
Who danced the swaggering jig.
See also the closely related 9/8 time English stage song and Scottish country dance "Jockey Has Gotten a Wife" and Canon James Goodman's related tunes "Pol Ruaidh” and "Cuckold Old Man." It appears in the mid-19th century music manuscript collection of Dublin dentist and collector Henry Hudson under the title "Silly Old Man" AKA "Girls Take Care How You Marry." "Drunken Ganger's (The)" in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883) is also cognate, as its its twin (with parts reversed), an untitled 'hop jig' in the manuscript collection of George Petrie [1] (1790-1866) [Stanford/Petrie, 1905, No. 979]. See also James Goodman's related (particularly in the first strain) "Drunken Gauger (4)." Breathnach (1985) found the title "Tiggit along the Room" for the tune in a manuscript from County Limerick.
