Morrison’s Jig

[HBrock25]

Hi there,

[jennifer-buehler]

I know that it’s in Sylvia Woods Irish Dance Tunes.

[Bonnie Shaljean]

The tune is normally played in E minor, but of course you can choose any key you want on the harp, though remember it’s the dorian mode, which means the sixth is raised.

[liath-hollins]

Play it in any key you like! I play it in C minor (3 flats), though as Bonnie points out, it’s in the Dorian mode. The only thing to consider is whether or not you’ll want to play it with other musicians, who will be cursing you if you’ve chosen a difficult key for them. (Guitarists and fiddlers hate C minor, and whistle players have no chance!)

I’ve never seen sheet music for it (aside from in the transcription from Alan Stivell’s ‘Renaissance of the Celtic Harp’, which is quite hard to get hold of these days). But it’s not too difficult to work out the tune for yourself, and then play around with accompaniments and ornamentation. It’s one of those pieces that I love to improvise around, you can do some quite bold things with the left hand harmonies and it sounds great

[Bonnie Shaljean]

Sorry, quick correction to my earlier post – I didn’t mean minims I meant crotchets (=quarter notes).

[tony-morosco]

If you are not overly concerned with playing it in a strictly traditional manner I really like Verlene Shermer’s arrangement of it in her book Traditional Tunes with a Twist.

It actually isn’t as “twisted” as most of the other arrangements in the book (all of which are brilliant in my opinion), but the harmonies in the accompaniment have a decidedly modern feel to them.

[Frejya Athena]

Hi everyone,

[Author]

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