Miller's Maggot: A Song History
"Miller's Maggot" is an Irish single jig in 6/8, usually played in G major, which some musicians also treat as a slide.[1][2] The odd word in its name comes from older English usage: in Playford's day a "maggot" could mean a slight or small tune, and the Traditional Tune Archive notes that such titles are rare in Ireland and more typical of English and Lowland Scots music.[1]
Jean-Jacques de Boissieu, Landscape with Watermill, brown ink wash and point of brush, about 1790. A watermill, shown for the miller of the title; it has no connection to the tune.
Its earliest known printing is in the early-nineteenth-century publications of O'Farrell, an Irish uilleann piper, but the sources consulted here differ on which one: the Traditional Tune Archive points to his National Irish Music for the Union Pipes (1804), while Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann names his Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, issued in volumes around 1804/5 to 1810.[1][3] O'Farrell lived in London, his collections take in Scottish and English tunes as well as Irish ones, and he named no source for this one.[1] P. W. Joyce later printed it in his 1909 collection of Irish folk music.[1] In the twentieth century the jig became associated with John Kelly (1912–1987), a concertina player and fiddler from Rehy on Loop Head in County Clare who spent most of his life in Dublin, and Comhaltas says it is often called "John Kelly's," although the Traditional Tune Archive describes it as a rare tune that has kept a single name for centuries.[1][3]
Recordings include Kerry Elkin's Soir et Matin (1990), the self-titled Solas album (1996), Sliabh Notes' Gleanntán (around 1999) and the album Riches of Clare (2009).[1][2] On record it has been set after other jigs such as "Killavil," "Geese in the Bog" and "Young Tom Ennis."[2] In mountain dulcimer circles it appears in Aaron O'Rourke's Irish Session Tunes, Volume 1, a Fingers Of Steel book of 36 session jigs, reels and polkas in DAD tuning, with a brief introduction to session playing and an explanation of Irish ornamentation.[4]
Sources
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Miller's Maggot (The)".
- irishtune.info: "Miller's Maggot".
- Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann: "The Luachrachán's Jig/The Miller's Maggot".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Aaron O'Rourke, Irish Session Tunes, Volume 1".
- Image: Jean-Jacques de Boissieu, Landscape with Watermill, brown ink wash and point of brush, about 1790. The Cleveland Museum of Art.