Has anyone ever transcribed or played “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” as a jig?
It’s written in 6/8, and we were messing around with it last night at our sesion. It’s not a straight tranposition, thought. I ended adding notes to keep the meter correct at the jig tempo.
Thought I’d take a crack at writing something, but wondered if anyone else had tried this.
I’ve thought about it, and I would think it would work fine. Peter Knight did an arrangement of Bach that he called “Bach goes to Limerick,” on Steeleye Span’s All Around My Hat. I don’t know how literal it was, I suspect a few notes were changed to keep the tempo flowing and put it in the right mode.
That’s funny! We’ve messed around with it in sessions on occasion, too. But I can’t remember – is it in 6/8 or 9/8? Then it would be a slip jig … ? 
Actually, you know what would be cool is to write it out as “Jesu” and then transition it into a jiglike object. Could be fun as a recessional in those weddings where people want sort of an Irish theme …
Also, for inspiration listen to De Danaan’s “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (In Galway).” They take a Handel piece and make it rock – without having to do much more than add a little swing.
Good luck!
cat.
I have no doubt it would work.
Eileen Ivers did a wonderful adaptation of Pachalbel’s Canon in D, moving from the classical rendition into a reel.
And I’ve recently heard some hornpipes played as reels…really kicks 'em up a notch or two. 
I posted on the ITM forum about ABC notation so I can get this into a format most people can read. Not everyone in my sesion reads standard music notation (“that’s called a quarter note, or ‘quaver’”).
-Tom
Godspeed to ye, sir! Looking forward to what you come up with!
Your hornpipes into reels thing is true – there are hornpipes that have become reels over time or in various hands. And the converse seems true, too – lately I’ve been slowing some reels down in an attempt to add more bounce, and some of them are almost hornpipey. (Is that a word? Better than ‘pornhypey’ I guess 
)
It works. This is one of my favourite melodies to doodle around with, and i’ve played it in every possible way. It does a good Samba too! The only difficulty is the f-natural that shows up in the part where it goes da-da-di-dada-da-dada-di-dadada… 
Another nice hymnbook jig is “Lobe den Herren” (“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty the King of Creation”)
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/p/t/pttlta.htm – careful with the horrible loud MIDI that attacks you when you open the page, keep you finger near the volume control.
g
In Bluegrass, all hornpipes become reels.
Is there an Irish version of “Billy in the Lowground”? I learned a version from a Japanese mandolin player that sounds quite nice slowed down and played as a hornpipe. (I play it the standard way at http://www.coastalfog.net/flatpick/tablature/tab_main.html )
If you listen to “Fisher’s Hornpipe” and “Huckleberry Hornpipe” on the same page, you’ll see that they don’t sound even remotely like hornpipes. I need to listen to one of Byron Berline’s versions of “Huckleberry” again someday to see if he does play it more like a real hornpipe–else why call it one?
I wouldn’t do that, it would be a blasphemy. I love Bach and his music has been butchered too often already. And I don’t like crossovers at all. Baroque is fine, Irish is nice, but don’t mix it, just keep the music pure.
I think old Bach would be pleased.
It is in 9-8 indeed; thus a slip jig. The running eighths in Jesu are so beautifully crafted that they would sound great in any context, classical, trad, or otherwise.
I’ve never heard it played as a jig before, but Mick Woodruff did a beautiful job of arranging and recording it as a quintet.
http://fingertrip.net/clipsnip/jesujoy-mick.mp3
Is there an Irish version of “Billy in the Lowground”? I learned a version from a Japanese mandolin player that sounds quite nice slowed down and played as a hornpipe. (I play it the standard way at > http://www.coastalfog.net/flatpick/tablature/tab_main.html > )
Billy in the Lowground is one of my ALLTIME favorite old time tunes.(right up there with Red Haired Boy(yeah, a good Irish tune there, and Gotta See Your Momma) I grew up with it played by men who had it handed down to them(none read music) in the traditional way these tunes stay alive. I’ve gotta say I have to listen real hard to hear the tune I learned in this clip. But, that’s real traditional music, always changing with the player.
I do play it on whistle, the way I learned it from the old folks. If I knew how, I’d post a clip. Maybe I can find a clip somewhere on the web that’s closer to how I know the tune.
It works out just fine with only minimal tinkering.
Another great one is the Badinerie from Bach’s Orchestral Suite #2 for flute and orchestra. If you play the tune “dotted” it becomes a terrific,albeit difficult, hornpipe. Several half fingerings needed. This was recorded as Bach’s Rambles by ( I think) De Dannan.
Bach wrote some of the most astoundingly good music ever conceived. It works on just about any instrument or arrangement. Cosmic stuff indeed.
Yowza! I can see it, though. This is one of my favourite flute pieces, but it’s very hard to play at the speed it’s usually played, even on a modern flute.
Also, remember the Sicillienne from the Eb flute sonata (? i think), that was done very nicely by Jethro Tull.
g
Claudine,
I understand. But most of these composers believed their music should be for all people. If they can use a common tune and put sacred lyrics to it to compose a hymn; why can’e we go the other way?
I certainly would NOT do it too every piece. I agree some things should be left well enough alone.
-Tom
It’s your whistle Tom, you play whatever you like on it mate.
How about Greensleeves as a jig? You can find it in O’Neill’s in that format.
I seem to recall reading that Eileen Ivers (or someone) found an old, up-tempo transcription of a tune that sounded so much like the Canon that it leads one to suspect that Pachabel stole the theme.
I’ve been wanting to try Jesu as a jig, too, but to hack it apart until it fits contra dance parameters–36 bars, with A and B parts. It certainly does NOT lend itself to that kind of surgery.
And about hornpipes–lots of them in contra dance tradition, but they’re almost never played dotted because we’re afraid it will make the dancers limp around the room unevenly, and then fall down.
sigh–back to work.
M