Wednesday 18 August 2021
Tune of the Day: The Pipe on the Hob
Traditional Irish jig
The earliest known appearance of this Dorian-mode jig is in Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903.
A hob was originally a raised surface in a fireplace directly aside where the cooking fire is built, and was a place to rest a kettle or pot while it heated. According to uilleann piper Séamus Ennis, one of the tune's Irish names was properly translated as “Piper on the Hob” or “Piper of the Embers”, a poetic nickname for the cricket, the “musical” insect.