Lend Us A Tab
SS014
The title of this march means "Lend me a cigarette", and it is peculiar in that it is the only one of the smallpipe pieces that ends on the tonic, the "satisfying" home note.
In addition, although all the main Song Time and Halifax pieces are quite carefully written out (with the untitled air being an exception), the final three notes of this piece have been scribbled rather unceremoniously:
There also a crossing-out in bar 6:
A further peculiarity is that the title, rather than being written above the first stave (as in the case of every other piece), is in fact written in the wrong place, above the second stave, and with a non-cursive "T"
The prevailing theory is that the writer had recently given up smoking, and the frustrations caused by this led to the various errors in the manuscript, and the lapse in one of the "rules" of Snookish smallpipe tune writing. It is ironic that the writer chose to end the piece on a restful tonic to indicate such an unsettled state.
NOTES ON THE PIECE
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Northumbrian Smallpipe characteristic:
Diatonic transposition in bars 1-4 and 5-8 [blue boxes]
Leaping intervallic figures in bars 7-8 and 15-16 [pink boxes]
Snookish characteristics:
Major 7th interval in bars 4-5 [orange boxes]
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Other Comments
No Tempo is indicated
The title is written in the wrong place
This is the only one of the smallpipe pieces that finishes on the tonic (G or Doh) [green circles]