Annotation:Rambling Pitchfork (The)

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X:3 T:Rambling Pitchfork, The M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig K:D EFF AFF | dFF AFD | GFG ABc | ded cAG | EFF AFF | dFF AFD |GFG BAG |1 AFD D2E :|2 AFD D2A || |: dcd fed | ecA {c}AFA | dcd efg | f/g/af gfe | ~d3 fed |ecA {c}AGF | ~G3 BAG |1 AFD D2A :|2 AFD D3 ||

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RAMBLING PITCHFORK, THE (Ab Gabhal siúlach). AKA and see “Baxter's Big,” “Fisherman's Jig,” "Fisherman's Widow (The),” “Friendly Neighbor (The),” "Guertin Boys," "Píce Fánach (An)," "Railway Jig (The)," "Roland's Return," “St. Patrick's Day in the Evening, "Wedding Trip.” Irish, Double Jig (6/8 time). D Minor (Goodman, Levey): D Major (most versions): G Major (Kerr). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Kerr): AABB (Cranitch, Levey, Mallinson, Taylor/Tweed): AABB' (Allens): AA'BB' (Alewine). The title “Rambling Pitchfork” refers to an itinerant farm laborer, in the same sense that ‘hired gun’ refers to a mercenary—-in other words, the main implement of one's occupation stands for the individual. The jig as "Rambling Pitchfork" first appears in print in Irish violinist R.M. Levey's First Collection of Dance Music of Ireland (London, 1858), although George Petrie printed a version of the the melody as "Pipe on the Hob" a few years earlier in his Ancient Music of Ireland (1855) Levey printed a updated version of the jig as an untitled tune in his second collection of 1873 that sounds more like the version played today.

An early sound recording of the tune, under the title “Lambert's Jig (1),” was by the Ballinakill (Co. Galway) Traditional Dance Players, in London, 1931. The renowned County Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman recorded it in New York in 1921 in the 78 RPM era, as did accordion player Michael J. Conlon a few years later. Piper Tom Ennis, with fiddler James Morrison, recorded "Rambling Pitchfork" for Columbia Records in 1922, albeit under the title "Wedding Trip." Fiddler Paddy Killoran also recorded the tune in New York in 1937, but called it "Guertin Boys" after a small town in his native south County Sligo. The jig appears in the mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork uilleann piper and Church of Ireland cleric James Goodman, set in the key of F major/D minor, and was nearly identically reproduced under the title "Roland's Return" in Frank Roche's Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 1 (1912)--quite like R.M. Levey's version.

First strain cognates can also be found in O'Neill's "Killashandra Lasses (The)" and "Humors of Castlelyons (The)," as well as in Ryan's "Judy McFadden's (1)" and "Patrick Maloney's Favorite."

The tune was famously paired with “Sporting Pitchfork” on the 1978 Paddy Glackin/Paddy Keenan album (Doublin’), the medley being known as The Pitchforks. Kilmaley, County Clare, fiddler, flute player and uilleann piper Peader O’Loughlin remembers that the famous Milltown Malbay, County Clare, piper Willie Clancy loved to dance the “Rambling Pitchfork.” “Willie was one of them, Willie Clancy that could do the step great.” Clancy played the tune “in his mouth” (i.e. by mouth-music) as he danced it, and always incorporated the rolls and triplets which corresponded to the dance steps. “Peader understood that when Clancy played the “Rambling Pitchfork” on the pipes that he imagined himself dancing out the steps simultaneously” (Charlie Piggott, Blooming Meadows, 1998, p. 170).

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