Stamp along with me

On jigs

I have become enamoured of jigs. Last year I watched Come From Away, the stage musical about the little town that hosted all the diverted planes on September 11th, and there’s probably lots to say about that (or you could just watch it - Apple TV+), but what most stuck with me was its jigs.

Watching those jigs I was mostly annoyed that they were broken up with dialogue, which meant I wouldn’t be able to get all roused listening to the cast album. I don’t care about your endearing, carefully told story! I want the jig and nothing but the jig!

Jon Batiste says to write and play music that makes you want to dance, that that music is the elemental stuff. I agree, for reasons words don’t get at; it’s music bypassing everything else and going straight to the body. How does a fiddle, played standing up on a floor covered in sawdust, make a person leap to their feet and link arms with a neighbour? What a mysterious thing.

Today then, as we celebrate the jig as a form, the music that makes you want to stamp your feet and say “what ho!” with great conviviality, I share with you ‘Shine You No More’, by Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, and performed by his Danish String Quartet.

(If I may share a secret with you I had only listened to this track on Spotify until today and assumed all the players were women, but that teaches me to check my privilege and remember that in the year of our Lord 2024 string players can be men, too.)

Watch here, and wait in particularly for how the very serious Scandinavian men get so excited and revved up for the fun bit (the “Drop” in EDM, the “Fun bit” in 21st century string quartet works):

May jig, or any other, make you stomp your feet and get right into things.

If that doesn’t happen, may you wonder what happened to the little child inside of you, go and watch Come From Away, and try again.

Until next week.

Katie