Annotation:Little Girl of My Heart
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LITTLE GIRL OF MY HEART (Cailín beag mo Chroidhe). AKA and see "Colleen Bheag Machree," "How Can I Marry You?" Irish, Air (4/4 time). D Major/Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. O'Neill states he frequently heard his parents sing this song when a boy near Bantry in west Cork. The song tells of a girl who tries to conclude an engagement, only to have her reluctant beau put her off by telling her he has a shortage in his wardrobe; when she supplies the article, he demurs and says he needs one more, and so on. O'Neill (in Irish Folk Music) says: "Then as now it appears excuses to avoid incurring distasteful obligations were never wanting."
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: O'Neill (O'Neill's Irish Music), 1915; No. 19, p. 19. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 4, p. 1.
Recorded sources:
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