This is a great 4-part pipe jig written by Canadian piper Colin Magee for the wedding of James and Louise Troy in June 1975. My interpretation is on octave with guitar backing. I could find no mention of this tune elsewhere on the SAW group, though I had posted a tenor guitar version many years back as a Soundcloud file; I have long since deleted my Soundcloud account so decided to record the tune, this time on octave.
I was half expecting you to launch into Biddy from Sligo, I first heard Troy's Wedding on Ossian's Borders album back in 1984, that was a long time ago. Can you sing like Tony Cuffe? That would be grand. Excellent playing by the way.
Nice and bright almost spring-like rhythm John. Great to hear a longer tune too.
Thanks John. I'd always assumed that Troy was the first name of the groom.
What a lighthearted tune, making the sun come out in these dark days of winter, with Christmas cards drying on a line (I assume)
Truly a melody for a happy occasion! Those have been rare in 2020, but you are cheering us all up by sharing the tune. Thanks!
Many thanks, all. Bren, I too thought Troy would be the groom's name, and it was on a piping site I learned of Mr and Mrs Troy. Bertram, the line of cards is my concession to the festive season at the moment!
Thanks for this happy recording, John.
Definitely sounds like a happy time at a wedding. Great job John.
Thanks, Frithjof and Robert. Can I suggest that you have a listen to the tune played by pipers, lads? Scots piper Robert Matheson has it in a set on an old CD, but you may find it on YT.
Nice jig, well played John!
This isn’t Matteson, but a piper anyhow. Interesting that his timing for what is a jig has got to be quite a bit more than 0.6! Going towards being a reel. https://youtu.be/eoPI_qgLieA (A slip jig is maybe 0.45, a straight jig is 2:1, ie. 0.5 and a driving reel is 1:1, ie 1)
Simon, once again your answer completely bamboozles me with the numbers and ratios you quote above. Most pipers, especially the ones with the best techniques, will play around the speed of Stuart Liddell, the piper I believe is playing on the YouTube link you have posted. Stuart is one of our very finest pipers and a really great guy. He is Pipe Major of the current (and past) World Champion Grade 1 Pipe Band, Inveraray and District. Yes, a plug for a very local Argyllshire band. He also tutored both of my daughters many years ago at the Strachur and District Piping Association Summer Piping School.
Simon, like John, I am curious what those numbers mean. The piper in your link is playing quite fast, but I am used to expressing that in bpm units. So, explanation please?
Sorry I’m trying to make sense of it myself as well. Okay explanation. I am quoting numbers because I'm thinking about students who are trying to learn to play specific rhythms of jigs, reels or whatever. I get frustrated if someone says you should play this jig like so-and-so, because they're not actually telling me how to do it, in specific terms. Using the jig as an example. (1,2,3 4,5,6) is how we would count a straight jig. And to start with a student will play each of those numbers with an equal length of time. Often a jig will miss the middle note so it would be 1,-,3 4,-,6 again each digit or character (the -) has the same time length. Now we can see that the 1, and the 4, have twice the note length as the 3 and the 6. So the ratio of time between the 1 and the 3, and also the 4 and the 6 is 2:1. Now forgetting for the moment where the middle note will be placed, we can see that a standard jig is what we could call a 2:1 time ratio. To some people this might sound like a jig played in a Classical style, but we can use a time ratio to avoid any debate (cultural, social or otherwise) So it's 2:1 which is the same, numerically speaking as 8:4, the same ratio. But what about 7:4? 7:4 would mean that the first note is slightly shorter (and it would mean that some people would say that your jigs sound Irish!) 3:2 is beginning to sound like a hornpipe, and 1:1 would sound like a straight reel. Slip jigs have that extended feel, the ratios go from 2:1 with an increasing first number towards 3:1 (very Scottish).
Oh and I use a decimal number, because it's easier to remember and to see the differences. So a straight reel 1:1 would be 1. An Irish jig could be 0.66, or 0.57 a straight jig 0.5 and a slip jig could be maybe 0.45 Then there’s the question: is the timing further divided into fours or threes ( the famous snap) or other...
Well Bertram, I blame you! You did ask for an explanation, but as Simon himself says in his opening sentence, "Sorry I’m trying to make sense of it myself as well". You and I will have to carry on playing as we do.
Trying to recap that and put it in other words: Simon has one bottle of pronounced notes and one of unpronounced notes, like whisky and water. These he mixes in various ratios, the slip jig being the strongest cocktail in his bar. I'll have Vodka Martini, shaken not stirred...
No Bertram! It’s more like lemonade in tall glasses with different flavoured ice cubes.
Nicely played, John. But it wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be about the Star Trek NG episode "Haven" with the quarantine plague ship (really!) and where the Enterprise's counselor Troi (not Troy, but I thought maybe it was a typo) is supposed to marry some dude (who looks half her age) at a traditional naked wedding (going clothes-free at weddings is part of their custom). But it turns out that neither Troi nor groom-to-be are really into the whole arranged-marriage idea, whether clothed or not, so... The groom rebels and runs off with a bare-midriff blonde soul-mate he'd never met before (but had been dreaming about since childhood), so the happy couple are in bliss, and Troi doesn't have to marry anyone yet (good, since she fancies that impossibly pompous Riker who likes holographic harpists. Turns out the groom thinks he can find a cure for the plague and thus save an entire civilization from doom (what a guy!), while Cap'n Picard (the bald guy with the sexy voice and British accent who looks more French than English) fends off a romantic advance from Troi's meddling mother (played by Gene Roddenberry's wife Majel Barret, who also played Nurse Chapel in the 1960s, as well as many if not most of the computer voices all throughout the various Trek series), and everyone lives happily ever after. Oh, did I mention that this episode also has a 7-foot-tall giant? Yep. Played by Dutch actor Carel Struycken, who also played Lurch on some Addams Family remakes. One can only imagine that the Trek scriptwriters were having some fun pulling out all the stops, to amuse the viewers. Anyway... good pickin' there John, even though it wasn't what I was expecting and that's probably a good thing!
JL, I'll have to listen to John's rendition a few more times to remove the pictures of that wedding tradition from my head (just thinking where they probably place the groom's ring makes me cringe) I'd have thought that at a Troy's traditional wedding the groom would enter by means of a wooden horse.
Bertram,
Gentlemen, please! Not at Christmas and there might be innocent people reading this thread.
