Annotation:Jack of all Trades (3)

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X: 1 T: Jack Of All Trades [3] R: polka M: 2/4 L: 1/8 K: Gmaj dc|BG GG|DG GG|FG AB|(cA) dc|BG GG|DG GG|Ad cA|GG B2| dg gg|de ff|d c/c/ AG|(FG) AA|BB cA|GG Ac|Bd AF|GG dc| BG GG|(DG) GG|FG AB|c2 dc|BG GG|DG GG|Ad cA|GG||


JACK OF ALL TRADES [3]. AKA - "Birmingham Jack of all Trades," "Dublin Jack of all Trades." Irish, Polka (2/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. According to fiddler Connie O'Connell (County Cork), Dublin fiddler John Kelly (originally from County Clare) fashioned the polka "Jack of all Trades" from a song air that relates in verse all the skills that Jack possesses[1], stanza by stanza, often with the name of a city or town (thus "Birmingham Jack of all Trades" and "Dublin Jack of all Trades" [Roud 3017][2]. There are a number of other songs set to the tune as well, including "The Connemara Wedding," "Early in the Morning," "The Golden Days of Queen Bess," "Peggy O'Hara's Wedding," and "The Roving Jack of all Trades." Drew Beisswenger (2012) suggests the tune "could perhaps be viewed as a major-scale version of "Green Cottage (3) (The).""


Additional notes
Source for notated version : - Connie O'Connell (County Cork) [Beisswenger].

Printed sources : - Drew Beisswenger with Connie O'Connell (Irish Fiddle Music from Counties Cork and Kerry), 2012; p. 106.



See also listing at :
See Colm O Lochlainn, Irish Street Ballads (London: Constable & Co, Ltd., 1939) or Frank Harte, Songs of Dublin, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 58-59, for the song "Dublin Jack of all Trades."

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  1. ↑ Variously a porter, pastry cook, baker, coffin maker, and preacher.
  2. ↑ See Beisswenger, Irish Fiddle Music from Counties Cork and Kerry, 2012, p. 106.
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