OK, I’m confused, which is not unusual, but in any event here goes. A few months ago I had a conversation at session that went something like this:
Me: Oh, I know that tune, isn’t that “The Frost is All Over?” Fiddle player: No, that’s Kitty Lie Over. Me: Isn’t that the song that goes, “What would you do if the kettle boils over…” Fiddle player: Yep, Kitty Lie Over Me: Huh? That’s on Planxty’s Cold Blow and the Rainy Night and they call it The Frost is All Over. Another fiddle player: You’re thinking of a different tune. The Frost is All Over goes like this. (plays a tune) Me: Oh, yeah that sounds very similar, but then why does Planxty… (me to self, “Aw screw it”)
Jump to three months later. I decide to go look for the sheet music to “Kitty Lie Over”. The Session, and ABC Notation return “The Frost is All Over”. What gives? Are these two different tunes, the same tune or variations of the same tune?
Yeah - familiar session scenario, that, or close variations thereon. It’s kinda a tradition!
The Planxty set is listed as The Hare in the Corn, The Frost is All Over and Gander in the Pratie Hole. For some reason, no-one ever seems to muddle the latter with the first two, but there’s a significant tendency to play the B music of the second to the A of the first, or some such…
The Fiddlers Companion has 10 tunes by the title of The Hare in the Corn listed, but not all have notations and the Planxty one is listed (without a notation) as “10???”- though that looks a bit odd as #6 is basically the same thing: http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/HAR.htm#HARE_IN_THE_CORN_[6]
Wow, thanks Jem! The notes here for the Frost Is All Over are definitely different than the one I found but like a lot of tunes I guess there are just different variations.
Not just variations (in the performing sense) or different versions, but (equally common) totally different tunes by the same title. Have a look at some of those under The Frost… and/or The Hare… in Fiddlers Companion, which does a fair job of cross-referencing to alternate/different titles for essentially the same (closely similar or “cognate”, in-the-same-family) tunes, too.
Exactly. I think that’s what I was thinking but it just didn’t come out that way when I typed it. So basically what they were telling me at session was correct and it’s the fact that the same lyrics have been applied to both tunes that was throwing me off.
Thanks again for the info. Those links really help shed some light on it.
The notes here for the Frost Is All Over are definitely different than the one I found but like a lot of tunes I guess there are just different variations.
Jem’s notes are more or less the version Planxty played, which came through Seámus Ennis from the singing of Elisabeth Cronin.
It’s easy to see how they get confused; all those words are in there. Meanwhile, here’s the tune I know as “The Frost is All Over”:
X: 1
T:The Frost Is All Over
T:The Mist Of Clonmel
M:6/8
L:1/8
R:jig
K:D
A | def edB | AFD E2 D | FAA AFA | Bee edB |
def edB | AFD E2 D | FAA AFA | Bdc d2 ::
e | f3 afd | g3 bag | f3 afd | gfg efg |
f3 afd | g3 bag | fga efg | fdc d2
To add to the festivity, the DeDannan recording I have combines both – the sung "Kitty Lie Over (also called “What’ll I Do if the Kettle Boils Over?”) first, followed by “The Frost is All Over” I’ve included above. Maybe that’s where your fiddler friend got the wires crossed.
And then there’s that daggoned “East at Glandart.” And the Munsterous Buttermilks. It’s a schlippery schlope, I tellschya.
I think I’ll just clear the whole mess up and start calling it the ‘For You to be Drunk and Me to Be Sober’ set.
