Mug Of Brown Ale: A Song History

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"The Mug of Brown Ale" is an Irish double jig, usually in A Dorian with two repeated eight-bar parts, and it has collected an unusually long list of other names, among them "Delaney's Drummers," "The Clare Jig," "Paddy in London," "Ginger's Favourite," "The Butcher's March," "The Spoonful of Treacle" and "The Raffle Jig."[1] The Traditional Tune Archive reports that Bayard, writing in 1981, placed the melody in an ill-defined tune family, probably Irish in his view, whose members carry many interchangeable titles.[2] irishtune.info also lists "Apples in Winter" among this jig's names, while the Tune Archive treats "Apples in Winter" as a separate tune that resembles this one in mode, general contour and opening bars but belongs to a different tune family.[1][2] The name is shared with yet another A Dorian jig, better known as "Old Man Dillon," so the title alone does not settle which tune is meant.[3][4]

A round brown-glazed stoneware jug with a narrow neck, handle and pewter lid

Raeren, Germany, Jug with Pewter Lid, salt-glazed stoneware with brown glaze and pewter, 1602. A brown stoneware jug, shown for the ale of the title; it has no connection to the tune.

The earliest printing the Tune Archive gives is in Kerr's Merry Melodies, around 1875, and Francis O'Neill later included it in The Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907).[2][1] On record, irishtune.info lists it, under other titles, from the fiddler Jim Morrison in 1922, from Michael Cashin and Tom Doyle in 1928 and from the piper Leo Rowsome in 1938.[1] Séamus Ennis recorded the fiddlers Padraig O'Keeffe, Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford playing it for the BBC at Charlie Horan's bar in Castleisland, County Kerry, on 9 September 1952, and Topic issued the session in 1977 as Kerry Fiddles; the track calls it "Apples in Winter," but irishtune.info identifies the tune as this jig.[5][6] It has since been printed in session and fiddle collections such as Pat Mitchell's The Dance Music of Willie Clancy, Martin Mulvihill's First Collection of Traditional Irish Music and Dave Mallinson's 100 Essential Irish Session Tunes, and recorded by players including the accordion player Joe Burke and, for Smithsonian Folkways, Rodney Miller.[1][2]

Mark Gilston sets it for mountain dulcimer in Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 1, the first book of his two-volume collection of Irish melodies, sold as a 52-page PDF that he publishes himself; the tune index pictured on the book's product page cross-references "Clare Jig" and "Ginger's Favourite" to his "Mug of Brown Ale," which points to this jig rather than "Old Man Dillon."[7]

Our book that contains the song "Mug Of Brown Ale"

Sources

  1. irishtune.info: "Mug of Brown Ale, The".
  2. Traditional Tune Archive: "Mug of Brown Ale (1)".
  3. irishtune.info: "Old Man Dillon".
  4. Traditional Tune Archive: "Mug of Brown Ale (2) (The)".
  5. irishtune.info: "Kerry Fiddles".
  6. Mainly Norfolk: "Padraig O'Keeffe, Denis Murphy, Julia Clifford: Kerry Fiddles".
  7. Mark Gilston: "Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 1".
  8. Image: Raeren, Germany, Jug with Pewter Lid, salt-glazed stoneware with brown glaze and pewter, 1602. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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