Hello! Ask me (almost) anything about traditional music.
Annotation:Carraroe Jig (The)
X:1 T:Carraroe M:6/8 L:1/8 R:jig K:D DED F2 A | dfe d2 B | AFA def | afd e2 f | DED F2 A | dfe d2 c | d2 B AFA | dAF E2 D :| |:dfa afa | bge edB | dfa afa | bge e2 f | dfa afa | bge edB | d2 B AFA | dAF E2 D :||
CARRAROE (JIG), THE. AKA and see "Portrowe (2)." Irish, Jig (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. See also related tunes "Blue Bonnets Jig," "Scotsman over the Border," "Mist on the Meadow (3)," "Mist in the Glen." Reg Hall (1995) provides (in liner notes to the reissue Irish Dance Music): "In 1926, Father Tom Larkin created the Ballinakill Traditional Dance Players for local public ceilidh dances, bringing together fiddle and flute players, all men, small-farmers and ear players, from the tradition of country-house dancing." Members included Jerry Moloney and Tommy Whyte on fiddles, and Stephen Moloney and Tommy Whelan on flute. The piano player with the Ballinakill Ceili Band (who recorded in the 1930's) was named Anna Rafferty. Her home, where the band often gathered, was Carraroe House, in Ballinakill, east Co. Galway. However, that is not the origin of this particular tune's name. It is one of the first two tunes (along with "What will we do if the kettle boils over") learned by concertina player Gerdie Comman (b. 1917) of Ballyknock, Kilnamona, County Clare. He was 8 or 9 years old at the time and learned from a Mrs. Barry who lived in Rushane. Hall (1995) calls the tune a relative of the pipe march "Blue Bonnets Over the Border (1)" but it is much closer to "Blue Bonnets Jig." Bronx fiddler Martin Mulvihill (1919-1987) mistakenly entered the tune as "Portrowe (2)" in his 1st Collection (1986).
