Annotation:Ligrum Cush

Back to Ligrum Cush

LIGRUM CUSH. AKA and see "Lacrum Cosh," "Lantrum's Curse," "Kinloch of Kinloch (2)." Irish, Jig (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (O'Neill): AABB (Hime). O'Neill (1922), who found the tune in Glasgow publisher James Aird's late 18th century collection, remarks: "The expression Ligrum Cus, evidently corrupt Gaelic, may be translated "Let go my foot". It may also relate to the rent question. We can hardly blame the Scotch, while Irish titles in Moore's Melodies present similar difficulties." A tune by this name ("Ligurum Cuss") was the indicated tune for a song by Kane O'Hara for his opera Midas (1764). 'Ligrum Cush' (and its spelling variants) may be an 'Englished' version of the Irish gliogram cos; gliogram meaning 'rattling noise'. Dinneen's dictionary gives an example of its use:

A bhean an tighe cuir síos sop dam,
Gorinncfidh mé "gliogram cos" duit

Which translates as:

O woman of the house, put a bed down for me
So that I might dance the gliogram cos for you.

The jig melody broadly belongs to a large tune British/Irish family that has developed different branches (see also "Kinloch of Kinloch (1)" and "Kinloch of Kinloch (4)," "Sean Buidhe/Séan Buí," "Over the Water to Charlie," "Pot Stick," "Marquis of Granby (The)/Marquess of Granby (The), and O'Neill's two "Yellow John (1)/Yellow John (2)" versions. "Séan Buí" versions are older than Aird's "Ligrum Cush," and appear, for example in the 1779 music manuscript collection of James Biggins (Leeds, England).

Source for notated version: copied from James Aird's Selections of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs (1782-97) [O'Neill].

Printed sources: Hime (Forty Eight Original Irish Dances Never before Printed with Basses), 1804; No. 20. O'Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922; No. 105. Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5), 1797; p. 39.

Recorded sources: