Jig

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The jig (French gigue , fem. ) Or the jig ( Irish an port , masc. ) Is both a lively folk dance throughout the British Isles and the underlying melody. In the 16th century it was widespread in England , only later did it become a typical dance in Ireland . In Irish folk , the jig after the reel is still the most popular tune type. In the Baroque era , the gigue also found its way into art music as part of the suite .

The dance was originally mainly a solo tap dance similar to the hornpipe . This applies to the dramatic jig, the morris jig and to this day to the jigs in Irish step dance. It was not until later that counter dances were also called jig. As a designation for pieces of music, the name can already be found at the end of the 16th century.

Younger jigs are based on a rhythm composed of three bars. The basic rhythmic unit has a duration of three eighth notes. These basic units then result in two-digit (6/8, stress pattern heavy - easy ) or three-digit bars (9/8, difficult - easy - easy ). Most of the melodies consist of eighth notes (see note example) or groups of quarter and eighth notes. There are virtually no other note values except at the end of a phrase.

Usually a jig is divided into two parts of eight bars. Each part is repeated once (AABB). However, this rule is only to be understood as a rough guideline, as there can be three or more parts with a different number of bars, especially with slip jigs.

England

“The first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes repentance, and with his bad legs falls into the cinquepace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave. "

- William Shakespeare : Much Ado about Nothing, 1600

The dramatic jig

"Kempe's Jig", 1600

The jig was already widespread in England in the 16th century. “Kempe's Jig” became famous: the dancer and actor William Kempe (also known as “Will Kemp”) danced over a hundred miles from London to Norwich in February and March 1600. Kempe was famous for its jigs in general. These jigs, also called farces , were a kind of humorous drama, similar to the Commedia dell'arte , although the focus was on the dance. Kempe's predecessor Richard Tarlton († 1588) had the jig from a folk dance with singing. B. danced at May festivals, developed into this partly improvised, partly written mixture of dance, drama and singing. These jigs, with their often indecent content, were regularly performed as a follow-up to theater plays. They were extremely popular with audiences and often attracted more viewers than the actual pieces. The associated disorder was soon so great that in Middlesex on October 1, 1612 an “Order for suppressinge of jigges att the end of playes” (law for the suppression of jigs at the end of pieces) was issued.

Steps and movements of the popular jigs in the 16th century are not recorded. The only thing that is certain is that they were always happy, lively dances. The Jig this time can be the most likely Morris Dance or Morris Dancing assign.

The oldest surviving records of pieces of music, which are called jig or gigg (e) , also come from this period . William Byrd's “Lady Nevell's Virginal Book” from 1591 contains a piece entitled “A Galliards Gygge” , which, however, is in 3/2 time and stylistically corresponds more to a fast Galliard. Formally, however, this piece is in four parts with ornate reprises, plus a complete variation in the same form; this is a clear difference to the normally three-part English Galliardas. In the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book there are at least five gigges : two by John Bull (including the famous " Doctor Bull's my selfe ") and one gigg by Byrd are in fast 6/4 time with frequent dots, and are in two parts (with ornate reprises) ; these three pieces already correspond to the later widespread baroque type. A Gigge by Giles Farnaby and Nobody's Gigge by his son Richard Farnaby are extremely virtuoso variation works in straight, but not very fast, Allabreve time . Several jigs are also found in John Dowland's manuscripts, e.g. B. Mrs Vauxes Gigge or Mistris Winters Jumpe - very cheerful pieces that are formally similar to a Courante or Volta . There were English jigs in the time signature 2/4, 2/2, 6/4, 6/8, 3/8, 9/8, 9/4.

The jig also reached France in the 17th century. It was probably Jacques Gaultier , court lutenist in London from 1619 to 1649, who introduced them to French lute music. In the French spelling gigue it found its way into the suite (cf. “Gigue Angloise” and “ Gigue pour des Anglois ”) and thus into European art music . As a ballroom dance, this gigue doesn't seem to have played a major role. (→ main article jig )

Counter dance

In the 17th century the jig was integrated into the new counter dances . John Playford's collection " The English Dancing Master " from 1651 contains some jigs: Kemps Jegg (named after William Kempe), Lord of Carnarvans Jegg , Millisons Jegge . In addition to the sheet music, the instructions for the corresponding contra dances are printed here. The melodies were partly taken from older farce jigs: Nobody's Jig is the melody of the farce jig “Pickelherring”, and Kemps Jegg is a variant of “Rowland”, the most famous of these pieces, which was performed by Will Kempe.

Until the end of the 18th century, jigs held a permanent place in the numerous collections of country dances, on a par with other dance pieces such as hornpipe and morris dances, for example in John Walsh's collection The Third Book of The most Celebrated Jiggs, Lancashire Hornpipes, Scotch and Highland Lilts, Northern Frisks, Morris's and Cheshire Rounds, with Hornpipes the Bagpipe manner , ca.1730 .

Morris Jig

A "side" of Morris dancers

In southern England, especially in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire , this highly developed type of jig can still be found today. In Morris Dance, a jig is a dance that is danced by one or two male soloists. The usual steps of the Morris Dance are used for dancing. The dancer breaks away from his group of six dancers called “Side” and throws off his hat. So he can show his skills and at the same time give the other dancers a break.

There are various special jigs in which the dancer holds handkerchiefs or a stick in his hands. A form called "bacca pipes" is danced over long, fragile clay pipes that are crossed on the floor. Jigs, which were danced over crossed objects such as whips, flails or broomsticks, were also common in southern England under the name "Pater-o-pee" and are very similar to the Scottish solo sword dance performed over crossed swords .

The music used is in straight bars (2/2, 6/8) and usually consists of two or three sections of eight bars. It used to be played on pipe and tabor , synonymous with whittle and dub ( one-handed flute and drum that are played simultaneously by a musician) or fiddle . Today, in addition to fiddle and drums, melodeons are also common.

Ireland

Céilí Dance: Haymaker's Jig

For Shakespeare, the jig was still typically Scottish. By the 19th century, however, the jigs' permanent connection with Ireland had developed:

“Endearing Waltz! - to thy more melting tune
Bow Irish Jig, and ancient Rigadoon.
Scotch reels, avaunt! and Country-dance forego
Your future claims to each fantastic toe! "

- Lord Byron : The Waltz, 1813

The jig was first mentioned in Ireland around 1569: In a letter to Queen Elizabeth, Sir Henry Sydney expressed his enthusiasm for Anglo-Irish women dancing “Irish jigs”. In Martin's Month's Mind (a Puritan pamphlet of the Marprelate controversy ) 1589 "Irish Hayes, Jiggs, and Roundelays" are mentioned. However, these are isolated documents that always come from the English. There is no purely Irish or Gaelic evidence for the jig at this time. It is very likely that the English carried over the familiar term to the lively dances of Ireland.

Breandán Breathnach suggests that the jig came to Ireland from England, possibly as early as the 16th century, and that local marches became faster dance tunes. Other melodies were adopted from England, and it was only afterwards that the countless Irish jigs that are an essential part of Irish dance music today were created. (In Scotland, the close relationship between old marches and jigs can be clearly demonstrated, especially in bagpipe music.)

In the 18th century, the jig is found in Ireland in its current form. O'Farrell's "Collection of National Irish Music for the Union Pipes" from 1804 contains some jigs that must have been common in the late 18th century, some of which, like "When the Cock Crows it's Day" ("Tá an coileach ag fogairt an lae ”) , can still be played today.

Today, alongside the reel , the jig is the most important tune type in Irish folk , both in session music and in Irish dance . In Ireland, a further subdivision of the jig developed that did not exist before. In session music, one can distinguish between the following types:

  • Double jig (6/8). This is the most common type. If one speaks simply of jigs , double jigs are usually meant. The bars are in two digits, and each beat consists of three eighth notes. The tempo is typically 110 to 127 bpm .
  • Single jig . Single jigs differ from double jigs in that instead of groups of eighth notes, they also contain groups of quarter and eighth notes. They are notated in 12/8, but also in 6/8 time. You can by the rhythm ago very a triplet played Hornpipe similar.
  • Slide (mostly 12/8). Put simply, a slide is a fast-paced single jig (tempo: around 137 bpm). Slides are a specialty of the south-west of Ireland ( Munster province ), which differ slightly in style from the single jigs in other regions. Slides are mainly played during set dances .
  • Slip Jig (9/8), also called Hop Jig . Here, too, a distinction can be made between two types: faster ones, which are made up of groups of quarter notes + eighth notes, and slower ones, which consist of eighth notes throughout. (Occasionally the term hop jig is used for the first type, slip jig for the second type. This distinction is more common among dancers than among musicians. Traditionally, both forms are called slip jig by musicians.) Slip jigs are usually played even faster than that other guys, the tempo is 144 bpm.

Jigs are usually not played as individual pieces due to their shortness. Instead, session musicians combine two or more jigs (or other dances) into a set of flowing melodies. The variation on the instrumentation is also popular in newer Irish folk. An instrument begins and repeats the respective jig over and over again. With each repetition, another instrument joins in and the underlying melody is varied by ornamentation typical of the instrument.

In Irish dance all of these types are used. The usual division of the dances differs somewhat from the musical one:

  • Light Jigs : in Soft Shoes with solo steps (Music: Double Jigs, 116 bpm)
  • Heavy jigs , also treble jigs : in hard shoes, quick step steps (music: slightly slower double jigs, 73 to 92 bpm)
  • Single jigs : soft shoe dance with solo steps
  • Slip jigs : mostly only women and girls danced solo steps in soft shoes

Jigs are danced both as a solo dance and, with simpler steps, as a set dance.

Examples

Double Jig: The Irish Washerwoman (18th century)
Single Jig: Off She Goes! (around 1800)
Slip Jig: Drops of Brandy (18th century)

Scotland

The oldest evidence for the word Jig comes from the Edinburgh poet Alexander Scott (approx. 1520–1582):

“Sum luvis new cum to toun
with jeigis to mak thame joly;
sum luvis dance up and doun
To meiss thair malancoly. "

- Alexander Scott : A Ballat maid to the Derisioun of wanton Women

In the 17th century, Scotch jigs are mentioned a lot in English sources. The exact nature of these jigs is unknown. An 18th century dance collection calls one type of dance for two people "Cumberlands". “ Cumberlands, ” the scribe continues, “were called Jigs in the Central Counties of Scotland , and Strathspeys in the Highlands and Northern Counties ; if they were danced by two men with swords and round shields, they were called sword dances . ”Dean-Smith believes it is possible that the Scotch Jigs admired in England were the ancestors of modern highland dances , which also include sword dances.

In Scottish music, the jigs are not further subdivided. You can find 6/8 and 9/8 jigs next to each other without any linguistic distinction. Jigs are practically always used , while Irish musicians usually make a consistent distinction between double, single, slip jigs and slides.

Scottish Country Dance

In the 18th century, country dances imported from England became the predominant ballroom dance in Scotland as well. There was dancing to jigs, but also to the typical Scottish reels and to the Strathspeys, which appeared around 1750 . These three rhythms are also danced to in modern Scottish Country Dance .

Originally, the reel predominated (or pieces in even bars, 2/4 or 2/2). The Drummond Castle Manuscript , entitled “A Collection of Country Dances written for the use of his Grace the Duke of Perth by Dav. Young, 1734 “, contains 40 straight-bar pieces, about five jigs each in 6/8 and 9/8 time. In modern Scottish Country Dance, jigs (nowadays always 6/8), reels and strathspeys are numerically equivalent.

The separation was by no means strict, you could definitely dance a reel to jig music. An example is The Reel of the Black Cocks , a 2-pair reel that was danced to The Shaggy Gray Buck , a jig in 6/8 time. From the dancer's point of view, jigs and reels are actually almost equivalent: both have two-digit bars and the same tempo, and they are danced with practically the same steps.

Bagpipe music

In the Gaelic-speaking Highlands , jigs were of no importance before the advent of country dances. However, there were already many melodies in 6/8 time there before, so that the jig could easily find its way into it.

The first collection of sheet music for the Great Highland Bagpipe was Joseph MacDonald's A Complete Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe ; the first printed collection was published by Donald Macdonald in 1822. The early collections of pipe music included many pieces in 6/8 time, some called jig, but many called march. Many of these pieces were (and still are) played a little faster than jig or slower than march. An example is Gairm nan Coileach ("the cockcrow "), printed in 1822 by Donald MacDonald under the Gaelic title that later became known as The Cock of the North . Another example is Pibroch of Donald Dhu . This melody, which is played today as both a 6/8 march and a jig, goes back to a piobaireachd that probably dates back to the 15th century. As a jig, the melody can also be found outside of Scottish pipe music, e.g. B. in O'Neill's Music of Ireland under the title Black Donald the Piper .

Piobaireachd Dhomnuill Duibh - Black Donald's March , beginning of the basic melody ( Urlar ) of the Piobaireachd version in modern notation (today in 4/4, earlier in 6/8)
Pibroch of Donald Dhu , pipe setting as 6/8 march or jig, Part 1
Pibroch of Donald Dhu “Scotch Jig” from James Kerr's Collection of Merry Melodies for the Violin , Glasgow 1875

By the end of the 19th century, jigs largely disappeared from pipe music. In collections printed around 1840 there were still 20 of 100 pieces of jigs, around 1900 there were only five. They were no longer used as dance music and initially played no part in competitions. Very few Scottish jigs like The Stable Boys and The Thief of Lochaber have survived - often as finger exercises. P / M GS McLennan (1883–1927) wrote in 1910 as a note on his composition Jig of Slurs :

I'm immensely fund of jig playing and consider it one of the finest methods possible for putting one into form. In fact one cannot play jigs unless in tip-top form… My 'Jig of Slurs' I'm extremely proud of - not Of course as a tune with a fine melody, but for it's grand execution. I do not know of a tune - Piobaireachd or anything - which is nearly so difficult or requires such a nimble finger to play. The person who can play it through two or three times without missing a slur has no cause to be ashamed of his fingers.

In the meantime, the pipers also understood jig mostly as Irish jig , and Irish tunes such as Paddy Carey or Cork Hill found their way into pipe music, followed by new compositions in the Irish style, such as Center's Jig by James Center (1879-1919).

After 1930, jigs regained importance: a jig competition was held for the first time in Oban , and Pipe Major John Wilson later expressed his amazement that many of the best pipers hardly knew any jigs. Since then, jig competitions have had a permanent place in competitions, and numerous new pipe jigs have been composed, which - like The Curlew - are now considered classic again.

Word origin

The name of the dance first appears in the English language as Jig , Gigge , Jegge, etc. Ä. As a name for an older form of the violin , the word gigue can be found in the lexicon of Johannes de Garlandia in the 13th century (from this word comes mhd. gîge , German violin ). It is possible that the name of the dance is derived from this instrument; A derivation via the verb to jig from old French is just as possible . giguer "dance". There is no evidence for either derivation. The French word gigue for dance was adopted from English in the 17th century.

Both the name of the dance and that of the musical instrument probably go back to gigue meaning “ham”, colloquially also “legs”. The violin was given this nickname because of its similar, round shape at the time. A direct derivation of the verb giguer “dance, hop” from “ham” is quite conceivable.

See also

literature

  • Charles Read Baskerville: The Elizabethan Jig and related Song Drama . University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1929 (English).
  • Breandán Breathnach: Folk Music and Dances of Ireland . Talbot Press, Dublin 1971, ISBN 1-900428-65-2 (English, reprint 1996).
  • Roderik D. Cannon: The Highland Bagpipe and its Music. New Edition . John Donald Publishers, Edinburgh 2002, ISBN 0-85976-549-0 (English).
  • Margaret Dean-Smith: Jig . In: Music in the past and present . tape 7 , 1958, pp. 46-54 .
  • George S. Emmerson: Rantin 'pipe and tremblin' string. A history of Scottish dance music . Dent, London 1971, ISBN 0-460-03891-5 (English).
  • George S. Emmerson: A Social History of Scottish Dance. Ane Celestial Recreation . McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal 1972, ISBN 0-7735-0087-1 (English).
  • Georg Feder: Gigue . In: Music in the past and present . tape 5 , 1956, pp. 110-115 .
  • Daniel Fryklund: Etymological studies on violin - jig - jig . In: Studier i modern språkvetenskap . tape 6 . Uppsala 1917, p. 99-110 .
  • William H. Grattan Flood: A History of Irish Music . 1905 (English, libraryireland.com ).
  • Peter Thomson: Shakespeare's Theater . Routledge, London 1992, ISBN 0-415-05148-7 (English).
  • Fintan Vallely: The Companion to Irish Traditional Music . New York University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-8147-8802-5 (English).

grades

  • The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (revised Dover Edition), 2 vol., Ed. by JA Fuller Maitland u. W. Barclay Squire, corrected et al. ed. by Blanche Winogron, New York: Dover Publications, 1979/1980.

Web links

Videos on YouTube ( Flash required ):

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Farce . In: R. Cotgrave: A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues . London 1611.
  2. ↑ Middlesex Sessions Rolls: 1612, Middlesex county records: Volume 2: 1603-25. 1887, pp. 78-84.
  3. ↑ Apart from the pieces we have just discussed, there are still a few anonymous pieces which, stylistically correspond to a gigge, but are not labeled as such, e.g. B. Watkin's Ale , which is right in front of Byrds Gigg (Vol. 2, pp. 236f).
  4. ^ The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (revised Dover Edition), ..., New York: Dover Publications, 1979/1980, Vol. 2, pp. 257-258 (Bull) & p. 237 (Byrd).
  5. ^ The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (revised Dover Edition), ..., New York: Dover Publications, 1979/1980, Vol. 2, pp. 162ff (Richard Farnaby) & p. 416f (Giles Farnaby).
  6. ↑ a b c MGG , article "Gigue"
  7. ↑ Adalbert Quadt (ed.): Guitar music from the 16th to 18th centuries Century. 4 volumes. German publishing house for music, Leipzig 1970–1984. Volume 3, p. 20.
  8. ↑ pbm.com
  9. ↑ Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , Art. "Jig"
  10. ↑ a b MGG , article "Jig"
  11. ^ WH Grattan Flood 1905
  12. ↑ Breandán Breathnach: Tús an Poirt in Éireann (origin of the jigs in Ireland). In: Irish Folk Music Studies, Vol. 1; see. The origins of Irish traditional music at standingstones.com
  13. ↑ irishtune.info
  14. ^ Fintan Vallely: The Companion to Irish Traditional Music.
  15. ↑ thesession.org
  16. ↑ Breandán Breathn after 1971
  17. ↑ thesession.org
  18. ↑ Cannon 2002, p. 88 f.
  19. ^ Highland Bagpipe Music. Compiled by George S. McLennan. 1929
  20. ↑ Cannon 2002, p. 109 ff.
  21. ↑ Cannon 2002, p. 146 f.
  22. ↑ gigue in the French-language Wiktionary