"The Gold Ring"- What is the significance of the title?
"The Gold Ring" program is named after the great multi-part double jig, one of the best-known -- and most complex -- tunes in the Irish tradition. It has long been a show-piece for uilleann pipers, and is most closely associated with Willie Clancy and Seamus Ennis. It also carries with it a story of magical origins perfectly appropriate for such a wonderful tune. In his fine book Ireland, a Bicycle and a Tin Whistle, author and musician David A. Wilson tells the tale:
' "The Gold Ring" - there's a story attached to the name. A long, long time
ago - if I were there then, I wouldn't be there now; if I were there then and now, I would
have a new story or an old story, or I might have no story at all - the birds could talk,
giants roamed the land, and fairy music filled the air. There was a farmer, and he was
walking across the fields one night, when he heard the faint strains of music in the
distance. Moving closer, he saw a fairy piper playing a fairy dance. But when the fairies
sensed his presence, they scattered into the woods and vanished into the earth. The farmer
went up to the place where the piper had played and there he found a tiny gold ring lying
on the ground. So he put it in his pocket, carried it home, and took out his fiddle to
celebrate his good fortune with a few reels. But when he put the bow across the strings,
he couldn't get a decent sound of it at all, save for the scratching of an old key in an
old lock. And no matter how much he played that fiddle, not a note could he get out of it.
So the next night, he returned with the ring and his fiddle to the place where he had
found the fairies, and he waited and he waited. And just as the first glimmer of dawn
appeared over the eastern sky, he heard the faint rustle of soft feet on golden leaves.
When he turned around, he came face to face with the fairy piper.
"I've come for what is mine," says the piper. "For if truth be told, I
can't play a slide or a jig or a reel without that ring." "You can have it and
welcome," said the farmer. "For if truth be told, I can't play a slide or a jig
or a reel with it." And he tossed the ring back, and took out his fiddle, and played
the finest reel of his life. And the fairy piper picks up the ring, and takes out his
pipes, and plays the finest jig that human ears had ever heard. "Would you ever be
after teaching me that tune?" asked the farmer. "I would so," says the
fairy piper, and they sat down together until the farmer had it. "And what would it
be called?" asked the farmer. "The Gold Ring," says the fairy piper,
disappearing into the half-light of dawn.'
David A. Wilson, Ireland, a
Bicycle and a Tin Whistle, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1995.
Used with the kind permission of the author.