Catching up! So here is this clever little jig called Humours of Trim (or Humors for this side of the pond perhaps). Which naturally brought up the question, “what exactly is a humour, anyway and why are there so many tunes with it in their name?” Good question you might say. I agree.
First, according to some very diligent person on thesession.org there are:
3 Polkas
3 Slides
8 Hornpipes
12 Slip Jigs
31 Reels
48 Jigs
with “Humours” in the title. So clearly it is not related to a particular rhythm.
Just as in our class, there seemed many theories but no hard answers. The one that worked for me was that the comes from the Middle English word for “fluids” or “moisture”. Based on the balance of 4 fluids in the body which determined one’s emotional state. So, in effect, the Humours of someplace would mean the general temperament of a particular area (or in the case of Humours of Whiskey, presumably one’s temperament after enjoying a good snort). I’m feeling rather sanguine about this explanation, so feel free to add to the discussion 🙂
Apparently it could be considered a precursor to the somewhat popular Myers Briggs temperament sorter – enjoy the background reading.
