Laurie Griffiths wrote: > > Yeah. There are some old music history books that claimed that the > Irish got the jig from the Italian tarantella. The explanation for > this seems to have been that the historians didn't believe that > anyone in the British Isles had the brains to invent anything > themselves, so they must have got it from more cultured people.
Well, people all over the world have always had a tendency to look abroad for "exotic" dance music (the French/English branle-contry dance-contre danse-contra dance-etc... connection is a prime example of this) or if that failed, invent something (such as the French fake Scottish "eccosaise"). When it comes to the jig, the agreed upon "truth" during the 19th and early 20th Centuries was that the British jig came from the giga of the Italian baroque suite, although it's obviously the other way around. But then again, that was the dark age of musicology and you shouldn't take *anything* written in any music history books during that period seriously unless confirmed by more reliable sources. That being said, the jig - as we know it from the Elizabethan period and onwards - *is* strikingly similar to the sarabande, the canario, one of the two most important dances knwon as "tarantella" and a couple of other Spanish and Italian dances. So far nobody has come up with any connection, but I think there *has* to be. The term "jig" seems to have been originally used as a common term for most any uptempo dance with lots of jumpin' and jivin' and jiggn'. One of the best known mid-16th C. jigs, Kemp's jig, shows no resemblance at all to the modern jig, but is a dead ringer for a rujero. (Concidering the fact that it's named after a famous actor/dancer/performer, it's probably a set dance anyway.) X:1 T:Kemp's jig C:anon. O:England Z:Transcribed by Frank Nordberg - http://www.musicaviva.com N:Slightly simplified version M:C L:1/4 K:D "D"f>e f"A"e|"Bm"d>e d"A"c|"G"B"D"A "G"B"A"c|"D"d3z:| |:"D"fa fa|"D"fa/g/ f2|"C"eg eg|"C"ed/=c/ "G"B"A"^c| "D"dAFA dAFA|"G"B"D"A "G"B"A"c|"D"d3z:| Frank http://www.musicaviva.com To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
