Annotation:Contentment is Wealth (1)
X:1 T:Contentment is Wealth [1] M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig S:O'Neill - Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907), No. 28 Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Amin A/B/ | c>BA A<ag | e>^de A2c | B>AG Gge | d>cB/A/ G2 a/b/ | c'ba gba | edB g2e | dBG GAB | cAA A2 :| |: c/d/ |ecA Acd | e^de A2 B/c/ | dBG GBc | d^cd G2 c/d/ | ecA Acd | eag e2d | edc Bcd | cAA A2 :| |: e/d/ | cea cea | cAA A2 d/c/ | Bdg Bdg | BGG G2 e/d/ | cBA a^ga | bag a2d | edc Bcd | cAA A2 :||
CONTENTMENT IS WEALTH [1] ("Is Ionmus an Sagarlacd" or "Is Saidbreas an Sastacd). AKA and see "Golden Keyboard (2)." Irish, Double Jig. A Dorian (O'Neill): E Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. "Contentment is Wealth" is a title applied to several jigs that share the first strain; second strains differ. Samuel Bayard identified this tune as an offshoot of the old jig "Lumps of Pudding (2)/Lumps of Puddings (2)." As to the title, the Scots national poet Robert Burns wrote a song to the air called "Contented Wi' Little," which expresses a similar sentiment, although the title is probably taken from an old adage. Bruce Olson believes it may have derived from a line in the second verso of the song "(Come) haste to the wedding (ye friends and ye neighbors)," which goes:
We boast of no wealth but contentment and health,
The melody has been a favorite jig at Irish sessions in New York (where it is played in E Minor) and was recorded by fiddler Hugh Gillespie in the 1930's.
Father John Quinn finds certain settings of "Contentment is Wealth" to be quite similar to "Molloy's Jig," and suggests the latter may be a derivation of the former, although considered a separate tune. "It is as if 'Molloy’s Jig' developed from 'Contentment is Wealth'," he writes, "by occasional octave jumping, which perhaps happened on a flute."
