| >> A really extreme case is the well-known contra jig Maggie Brown's
| >> Favorite. In its original (Irish) form...
| >
| >How sure are you about this, John? Nathaniel Gow put his name to it
| >("Miss Margaret Brown, now Lady Camden") in the early 19th century
|
| I've never seen an Irish source quoted that was earlier than Gow, so I
| think it's Nat's tune.
|
| - Kate D.
You're probably both right. I've always thought of it as "Irish"
because those are the musicians that I've heard play it, in addition
to New England contra-dance musicians (who consider it Irish). I've
never much heard it in Scottish context.
But this shouldn't be surprising. Any supposed barrier between the
Irish and Scottish traditions is pretty much just a myth, and there's
nothing at all odd about a Scottish tune being played mostly by Irish
musicians (or vice-versa). Finding a "standard" Irish step dance to a
Scottish tune is also nothing especially peculiar.
I have seen the tune attributed to Carolan, but I've also seen that
debunked. Lots of tunes get attributed to him incorrectly.
(For that matter, I play for a Rapper sword team, and if you ask them
about good tunes for their dance, they'll invariably say "Irish
double jigs". And one of the tunes that they really like is Stan
Chapman's, which we all know was written by Jerry Holland. So much
for any attempt at accurate national classification. ;-)
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