I composed this slip jig for my good friend, Saileog Ní Cheannabháin. The title comes from a nickname given to Saileog by her brother Eoghan. I wrote the tune to accompany, Racha Do Dheaide Go Sydeney, a song melody learned from Saileog that I subsequently recorded on In Flow, in 2016. The tune is presented here in the key of A major but I frequently play it in the key of F major.
The name Brigid or Bríd is ‘all around us’ in Irish life. Both my grandmothers were Brigid and Biddy and my own name is Caitlín-Bríd. My grandmother came from St Brigid’s Well, at Liscannor in Co. Clare and my first dancing lessons were at Kilbride hall in Co. Meath.There is a tune and dance called ‘St Patrick’s Day’ that is known all over the world, so for St. Brigid’s Day this year, I thought it was time she got a tune and a dance of her own.
When trying to decide on what type of tune to compose for St.Brigid’s Day, I settled on a slip-jig for a couple of reasons. It’s traditionally a feminine dance and I also felt that the slip-jig suited the feast of St Brigid – the first day of spring.
Legend has it that Brigid asked the King of Leinster for some land in Kildare so that she could build a monastery. When he declined, she didn’t give up. She later returned and asked him if he’d give her the land that her cloak would cover. He laughed and said he would! So four of her sisters took a corner each of the cloak and walked in opposite directions – north, south, east and west. As they walked the cloak spread and grew and stretched across many acres. And this is where she built her monastery, one of the first in Ireland.
The tune I wrote has four parts, representing the St Brigid’s Cross, and also the four corners of her cloak stretching out so far and wide. The dance is a percussive slip-jig, which is unusual, as the slip-jig is usually a light-shoe dance, but I wanted it to represent Brigid’s strength and the ground she broke in her time.
I called the tune and the dance ‘St Brigid’s Day’.
I dedicated this tune on my album Croí to all music lovers. At the time of writing it I was involved in co-creating a benefit concert called The Gift of Music in aid of the building of an ashram in India. I asked my musician friends to take part and they all said yes!
We had a great afternoon in the Cliffs of Moher hotel in Liscannor, where the concert was held, and it was a huge success.
I see this tune as an Irish style mantra slip jig in honour of the gift of music.
Myself and my husband, John Mc Intyre, composed this set together when our two young children had just fallen asleep one night and silence had fallen on the house. We wanted to write a piece in honour of one of Ireland’s most loved poets who had just passed away and the admiration that so many people had for him, from artists to farmers, was just immense. We wanted the piece, instead of being a lament, to be strong and uplifting and the march into a slip jig just seemed right. The very first time we performed the piece was part of ‘Inish’ festival on Inishboffin, and sitting in the tiny audience unbeknownst to us, was Seamus’ daughter.
Another of my Lockdown tunes named after a walk in a local woods where the trees tangled around eachother.
Best of friends is the third of these slip jigs and signals a resolution to sockgate.
Give me patience is a follow up to odd socks… I think the title is pretty self-explanatory.
Odd socks got it’s title from a row between my two daughters when they were very small over a pair of socks. The more indignant of the two’s argument was that she had worn them the previous day!
This slip jig is the second of a pair of tunes I composed for a wonderful friend and Riverdance colleague, Eithne Walls, who was tragically killed in the Air France disaster off the coast of Brazil, in 2009. A beautiful dancer, she is hugely missed by all who knew her.
The full set can be heard on my second album “Súgach Sámh / Happy Out”
Both this tune and Port Muireann Anna were composed on the piano on the same day in June 2018. They’re dedicated to my siblings Eoghan and Muireann (I also put their middle names in the titles).
I can’t remember many details about what was happening but it was an improvisation, loosely based on what I perceived to be the general way they might have been at the time!
Both this tune and Port Eoghan Páraic were composed on the piano on the same day in June 2018. They’re dedicated to my siblings Eoghan and Muireann (I also put their middle names in the titles). I can’t remember many details about what was happening but it was an improvisation, loosely based on what I perceived to be the general way they might have been at the time!
This slip jig is named after my Gran Olive’s wonderful homemade jam, which I adore!
It can be found on my debut album “Ón Dá Thaobh / From Both Sides”.
I find that the 9/8 time, the slip jig, is a lovely way of creating. There’s a lovely beat to it. It welcomes you in and helps you come up with notes. I wanted to get a mood that was not down that way but lowered, and expressive of something that was happening around us.
