Annotation:Cruiskeen Lawn (1)
X: 1 T: Cruskeen Lawn [1] T: Cruisc\'in L\'an N: O'Farrell's Pocket Companion v.3 (Sky ed. p.117) N: Irish M: C L: 1/8 R: hornpipe F:http://john-chambers.us/~jc/music/book/OFPC/hornpipe/CruskeenLawn.abc K: Am E2| AEAB c2 Bc| dcBA AGFE| A2 AB cBcd| e6 :| d2| ecce g2 fe| dBGB d2 cd| e>cd>B e2 E2| A2 AB c3d| ecdB e2 E^G| A6 :|
CRUISKEEN LAWN (Cruiscin Lan). AKA - "Crooskeen Lawn," "Crúisgín Lán (An)," "Cruisk." AKA and see "O'Sullivan's Return," "Men of '82 (The)," "Wife Who Was Dumb (The)," "Dumb Dumb Dumb." Irish, Air (4/4 time). G Minor (O'Neill): A Minor (O'Farrell, O'Flannagan, Robbins): C Minor (Haverty). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (O'Flannagan, O'Neill): AABB (O'Farrell, Robbins). "Cruiskeen Lawn" is the Englished form of the Gaelic title Cruiscin Lan/Crúisgín Lán (An) which means 'The Full Little Jug'. Flood (1905) mentions a rather bold assertion that Dr. Sigerson, in " 'The Bards of the Gael and Gall', believes this tune evidences strong Scandinavian musical influences from the period of the Norse invasions of Ireland c. 800-1050. He is in error," states Flood, who doubts the tune dates from the Norse period or even mediaeval days. Alfred Moffat (Minstrelsy of Ireland, 1897) found the earliest appearance of the Irish air in Charles Coffey's opera The Beggar's Wedding (Dublin, 1729) as the tune for the song "There was a pretty girl" (air iii). Moffat also noted that Dublin music publisher Smollett Holden printed the air in his Old Established Irish Tunes as "The Cruiskeen Lawn", a version identical to the one Thomas Moore later used for his "Song of the Battle Eve" in Irish Melodies.
Cazden (et al, Folk Songs of the Catskills, 1982) finds the earliest publication of the song to be a sheet-music copy printed in New York by Edward Riley, dated between 1823 and 1831, and notes that the song became a favorite on both sides of the Atlantic during the mid-19th century. As a popular tune it was used for several other ballads and hymns, including the American shape-note piece "Consolation" (Sacred Harp, 1848). See also note to "Cruisgin Beag (An)" and "We'll take again a cruiskeen a cruiskeen laun." See also Carolan's "O'Reilly of Athcarne," similar in the opening bars. Moffat believed London publisher John Walsh's "Put in All" to be a version of "Cruiskeen Lawn."
