Annotation:Jig of Slurs
Tune properties and standard notation
JIG OF SLURS. Scottish (originally), Irish; Jig. Ireland, County Donegal. D Major ('A' and 'B' parts) & G Major ('C' and 'D' parts). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. Composed by the great Highland bagpiper Pipe Major G. S. MacLennan (1883-1927), who knew a good composition when it occurred to him. He wrote in 1910:
My Jig o' Slurs I'm extremely proud of, not of course as a tune with a fine melody but for its grand execution. I do not know of a tune which is nearly as difficult or requires such a nimble finger to play. The person who can play it through two or three times without missing a slur has no cause to be ashamed of his fingers.
The melody is played on the bagpipes with a series of roles, with the title "Jig o' Slurs" descriptive of its almost nonstop series of these rolls separating two melody notes. The tune has been a staple of Scottish music sessions, and many Irish as well, so much so that it occasionally has been called, by session wags, the "Jar of Slugs." It is often paired in sessions with "Atholl Highlanders (The)." The has also been used as a vehicle for American contra dancing. Words have been written the tune by Andy Hunter for a song called "Up and Awa' Wi' the Laverock" (the laverock is a skylark), referencing the holiday of an angler. The refrain, set to the fourth part of the tune, goes:
Up and awa' and awa' wi' the laverock
Up and awa' and awa' in the mornin'
Up and awa' and awa' wi' the laverock
Up and awa' tae the hills wi' me.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Martin (Ceol na Fidhle), vol. 1, 1991; p. 42. Songer (Portland Collection, vol. 2), 2005; p. 101.
Recorded sources: Nimbus NI 5320, Ciaran Tourish et al - "Fiddle Sticks: Irish Traditional Music from Donegal" (1991). Plant Life Records PLR-017, "The Tannahill Weavers" (1979). Wild Asparagus 003, Wild Asparagus - "Tone Roads" (1990). Janet Russell & Christine Kydd - "Dancin' Chantin'" (song, "Up and Awa' Wi' the Laverock").
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Hear a 1956 recorded version by fiddler Morag MacIntyre (Paisley, Renfrewshire) at Tobar an Dualchais [2]