01 The Monaghan Jig - Patsy Touhey

Dunn Family Collection>
Music>
O'Neill Cylinders: 1 - 8>
01 The Monaghan Jig - Patsy Touhey

Tune Type: Jig
ON 1903, # 1033; ON 1907, # 245.

Touhey’s performance of this jig is a dazzling feat of virtuosity. Some of the outstanding stylistic features are the unusual crans on the second-octave E, and the fluent use of notes at the top of the upper range of the uilleann pipes chanter, including the rarely heard top D.

Touhey’s version contains four parts; three parts are given in O’Neill’s collections. The popularity of this tune today is due to the fact that the tune was recorded by the fiddle player Michael Coleman on a commercial 78rpm disc in New York in 1921. Coleman played four parts, and it has long been assumed that the fourth part was composed (or at least added) by Coleman himself; Coleman’s fourth part is regarded by traditional musicians as quite challenging. This recording reveals that Touhey played that fourth part, in a version even more elaborate than Coleman’s.

Abbreviations:

RMC = Ryan's Mammoth Collection, edited by William Bradbury Ryan (Boston, 1883)

SP = The Complete Collection of Irish Music as Noted by George Petrie (1789—1866), edited by Charles Villiers Stanford (1903)

Kerr 4 = Kerr’s Fourth Collection of Merry Melodies for the Violin (Glasgow, date unknown)

ON 1903 = O’Neill’s Music of Ireland, edited by Francis O’Neill (Chicago, 1903)

ON 1907 = 1001 Gems – The Dance Music of Ireland, edited by Francis O’Neill (Chicago, 1907)

ON 1915 = O’Neill’s Irish Music — 400 Choice Selections, edited by Francis O’Neill (Chicago, 1915)

ON 1922 = Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody, 2nd edition, edited by Francis O’Neill (Chicago, 1922)

PPT = The Piping of Patsy Touhey, edited by Pat Mitchell & Jackie Small (Dublin, 1986)