The Orange Rogue-- Is The Big Man Within?BackBig Men, The Inside Story
(a set list with a discussion of that certain strange hardshoe slipjig)
Hear 'Is the Big Man Within?'
I am, as always, intrigued by things which are very subtly rebellious, rebellious in an informed, clever, almost snotty manner. Of course, then, I have, for a long period, been interested in such things as asymetrical "ceili" dances (dances with 5, 7, 11, or 13 dancers), as well as with all random permutations of slip jig. There are soooo many obstacles to choreographing with the slip jig, not the least pertinant of which being the inherent gender bias, or the fact that it has an odd time signature (9/8, of course), anmd, also, the fact that, unlike the reel, it cannot easily (populairly) be made into a hardshoe dance. Come to think of it, I really should have the same fascination with the hornpipe, because it, too, was relegated to one gender, until those lovely Cork dancers, and it cannot be made into softshoe (despite the time signature similarity, a reel is not a hornpipe in my book!). Oh well. Another interest for another time...
Anyhow, I was quite happy to hear, then, about the obscure set, "Is the Big Man Within?," which includes a slip jig rhythm... It is also the only set dance which switches rhythms-- it moves from 9/8 to 6/8 (jig time). Fun stuff, huh. You're probably not as nerdy as me, but who can tell. If I ever actually get to choose my own set music, you can bet that it will be a close call between my darling Orange and Mr. Big Man.(!!!) Read on..
These comments were taken from a mailing list I am on, the IRDANCE-L.
This section was from a posting by Donald Schuirmann.
"I do not know if the official list is on the web anywhere. The
information I have on the official list is as follows. In each
case, I give the name of the tune (which is also the name of the
dance), the number of bars of music in the step, and the number
of bars in the set part.
SET DANCES IN 2/4 TIME
The Blackbird 7 1/2 -- 15
Rodney's Glory 8 -- 12
The Downfall of Paris 8 --16
The King of the Fairies 8 -- 16
The Lodge Road 8 -- 20
Planxty Davis 16 --16
SET DANCES IN 4/4 TIME
The White Blanket 6 -- 12
Youghal Harbour 6 -- 14
The Hunt 8 -- 12
Madame Bonaparte 8 -- 12
The Piper Through the
Meadow Straying **** 8 -- 12
The Job of Journeywork 8 -- 14
The Garden of Daisies 8 -- 16
The Rambling Rake 8 -- 16
Bonaparte's Retreat 8 -- 20
The Kilkenny Races 8 -- 24
The Ace and Deuce
of Pipering 12 -- 12
SET DANCES IN 6/8 TIME
The Hurling Boys 8 -- 14
Jockey to the Fair 8 -- 14
Rub the Bag 8 -- 14
St. Patrick's Day 8 -- 14
Hurry the Jug 8 -- 16
The Orange Rogue **** 8 -- 16
The Humours of Bandon 8 -- 16
Miss Brown's Fancy 8 -- 16
The Three Sea Captains 8 -- 20
Planxty Drury 12 -- 16
The Blackthorn Stick 15 -- 15
The Drunken Gauger 15 -- 15
(EV.--a set of stars, or ****, equals a personal Elizabethan hurrah. The Piper is the set that Tom teaches us, and, well, the Orange Rogue citation should be obvious...)
(E.V.--for referance, dance times are as follows--
Hornpipe--4/4 or 2/4; originally triple time (6/4)
Jig--6/8
Slip Jig--9/8
Reel--4/4 or 2/4
Single Jig--6/8 or, rarely, 12/8
all time signature information courstesy of John Cullinane's Further Aspects of the History of Irish Dancing.)
(E.V.-- Get your sets recorded for you at any tempo you wish by Mike Shaffer!)
That is twenty-nine set dances. However, there is (or at least was)
a thirtieth set dance, called "Is the Big Man Within?" This is an
unusual set dance in that the thing that makes it a set dance (that is,
the thing that makes it a non-standard Irish dance tune) is not the
number of bars in one or both of the parts (it has 8 bars to the step
and 8 bars to the set part), but rather the fact that the step is in
9/8 time while the set part is in 6/8 time.
"Is the Big Man Within?"
is included on the official list in a document,
dated November 1988, sent out by IDTANA (Irish Dancing Teachers
Association of North America) to help students prepare for the TCRG
exam. However, more recently "Big Man" has failed to appear in some
collections of set dances (for example, Olive Hurley's two volume
"Sets and Solos" recordings), and I recently saw a Feis syllabus that
failed to include it. That is what led to my original posting asking if
it had, indeed, been dropped by the Commision. I would still like to
know."
This next post was from Sharon Goldwasser.
"I recently helped a friend here study for the music section of the TCRG
exam in January. I'm happy to say she got 100% on that section (!) and
passed the rest of the exam as well.
She did have me play Is the Big Man Within? as one of her study tunes
for the set dances, but I don't know if they asked her about it on the
exam. She's away for a week, but I can ask when she gets back, or someone
else might know.
We used Tom Hasting's book, Music for the Feis, and I played his settings
of the tunes, then she would identify the tune after listening. Tom's book
also gives the minimum metronome setting for each dance.
>
>By the way, a very nice listening version of "Big Man" may be found on
>James Kelly's recent "Traditional Irish Music" CD, on his own label I
>believe.
Just one cut on a great cd!"
Sharon Goldwasser
[email protected]
Tucson, AZ
(EV.--I assume that the new TCRG to whom she was referring was Rosemary Browne, one of our teachers here at the Bracken School. I know of no other new TCRGs from Tucson.)
Homer Simpson, the Ultimate Big Man.
To hear his chant ("Evil Homer"), click here.