Annotation:Riding a Mile (2)

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RIDE(ING) A MILE [2] ("Ag Marcuigeade Mile" or "Dean Marcaigeact Mile"). AKA – “Ride a Mule,” “Rise a Mile.” Irish, Slip Jig. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Cole, Kennedy, O'Neill/1850): ABC (O'Neill/1915 & 100M1). The first strain is shared with “Riding a Mile (1),” and thus with the large 9/8 tune family that includes “Cummilum,” “Fairest put on awhile,” “First Slip (The),” “Hey my kitten,” “I don’t care,” “Is cuma liom,” “Mad Moll (1),” “Mile to Ride (A),” “Stamfordham Hopping,” “Stanhope in Weardale,” “Stannerton Hopping,” “Walk a Mile.” The strain is an old one and known throughout Britain and Ireland; however, the stains of the "Ride/Riding a Mile" family of tunes are variously combined and recombined with other strains and arranged in different orders. As researcher Paul de Grae points out, the setting in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883) shares the first strain of O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland (1907) version, but grafted onto another part not found in other settings. Meanwhile, O'Neill's three part DMI setting is similar in two parts to the setting he printed in Music of Ireland (1903) but the third part is different. Further obscuring is provided by the fact that O'Neill's two MOI settings have parts reversed from one-another.

A distanced early version appears in Henry Playford's collection of Scottish dance tunes published in the year 1698 (as “Mad Moll”). Northumbrian small-pipers knew it by several titles, including “A Mile to Ride,” "Stannerton (or Stamfordham) Hopping,” “Stanhope i' Weardale” and “The Fleet's a Coming.” Northumbrian musician William Vickers printed it three times in his 1770 music manuscript (as “A Mile to Ride,” “Stanhope in Weardale,” and “Stannerton Hopping”). De Grae says the titles "Kitten (The)," "Mad Moll (1)" and "Yellow Stockings," despite being given by O'Neill as alternate titles for "Riding a Mile," are properly belong in the tune family O'Neill prints as "Up and Down Again."

Additional notes

Source for notated version: - set dance music recorded at Na Píobairí Uilleann, late 1980’s [Taylor].

Printed sources : - Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 61. Giblin (Collection of Traditional Irish Dance Music), 1928; 65. Kennedy (Fiddler’s Tune-Book: Slip Jigs and Waltzes), 1999; No. 67, p. 15. O'Neill (O’Neill’s Irish Music), 1915; No. 221, p. 118. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 1158, p. 218. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 453, p. 88. Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 92. Taylor ('Music for the Sets: Blue Book), 1995; p. 18.

Recorded sources: - Green Linnet SIF 1015, Eugene O'Donnell - "Slow Airs and Set Dances" (1978, as "Ride a Mile"). Green Linnet GLCD 1184, Patrick Street – “Made in Cork” (1997. Learned from fiddler Andy McGann). Shanachie 78033, Connie O’Connell – “Ceol Cill na Martra/Music from Cill na Martra” (2000).

See also listings at:
Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Alan Ng’s Irishtune.info [2]