Croosting Cap (The)

 CROOSTING CAP. AKA and see "The Sod of Turf." Irish, Jig. Ireland, Munster. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. One meaning of 'croosting', a Hibernia-English word, is derived from the Irish word crustial, meaning 'drub, belabor'. Similarly, used as a verb, to croost means to throw stones or clods from the hand, devived from the Irish crústa, meaning a missile, a clod. There was a custom called the 'croosting' in 'merry wake' tradition in Ireland, where the dead person is waked with carnivalesque features. Generally an individual would be called upon to be a master of ceremonies of sorts, to be the "organiser and director of the pranks and games of the wake assembly" (Ó Crualaoich, 1998, p. 191), aided by his 'hardy boys' or 'prime lads.' These pranks and games had the purpose of keeping the wake attendees awake throughout the night. The games could be mimicry of local institutions or leading citizens, horseplay, lewdness, and 'croosting', which apparently consisted of pelting those assembled with hard turf and other objects. Source for notated version: "A Munster jig from William Sheady. (via the Irish collector) P.W. Joyce" [Stanford/Petrie]. Printed source: Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 927, p. 236.

X:1 T:Croosting Cap, The M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig B:Stanford/Petrie, Complete Collection, No. 927 (1905) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G dcA AGF|cBc AFA|dcA AGF|A2G G3|dcA AFA| cBc AFA|dcA f2d|g2G G3||dcA f2a|gga f2g| dcA f2a|g2G GBc|dcA f2a|gga f2g|dcA f2a|g2G G3||

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