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"Knocknagow Jig", in Gaelic "Cnoc-Na-Gaba" or "Cnoc na nGaibhne" is an Irish
double jig in A Dorian ('A', 'B', and 'C' parts) and A Major ('D' part).
The parts are played AABB (Breathnach) or AABBCCDD (Carlin, O'Neill).
Breathnach prints "Knocknagow" as two separate tunes, versus O'Neill's four part tune. The modern version, probably popularized by accordion player Joe Burke, differs from O'Neill toward a more dorian mode setting. Knocknagow was the name of an imaginary place by County Tipperary author Charles Kickham (1826-82), an Irish Nationalist and Fenian. "Knocknagow,” or “The Homes of Tipperary” was thought by O’Sullivan to be one of the finest tales of peasant life ever written and Yeats described it as "The most honest of Irish novels". It was printed in Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann III (1985), Bulmer & Sharpley's Music from Ireland, vol. 4 (1976), Carlin's Master Collection (1984) (appears as "Baile Na Finne") and Krassen's O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1976) and O'Neill's Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies (1903). |