Annotation:Sixpenny Money

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SIXPENNY MONEY (Airgead Réalach). AKA and see “Madcap (The).” Irish, Double Jig (6/8 time). D Major (Harker/Rafferty): D Mixolydian (Breathnach, Tubridy). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Mitchell): AABB (most versions). A piper's tune played by two of the most influential uilleann pipers of the 20th century. It was in the repertory of County Clare uilleann piper Willie Clancy, and was recorded several times by piper Séamus Ennis. According to liner notes for the album "Sets in Our Way" by the group Drónán, "Tradition says the tune was played when the hat was being passed around for collecting money, hence the name." However, this assertion in not elsewhere verified. Breathnach (1963) states that three hundred barrels of ‘sixpenny money’ were put up by Cliona when she was trying to win Seán ac Séamais from his wife, as told in the Munster Storyteller (Seanchaí Muimhneach).

Additional notes

Source for notated version: - piper Willie Clancy (1918-1973, Miltown Malbay, west Clare) [Breathnach, Mitchell]; New Jersey flute player Mike Rafferty, born in Ballinakill, Co. Galway, in 1926 [Harker].

Printed sources : - Breathnach (CRÉ I), 1963; No. 39, p. 16. Harker (300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty), 2005; No. 205, p. 63. Mallinson (100 Essential), 1995; No. 98, p. 42. McNulty (Dance Music of Ireland), 1965; p. 21. Mitchell (Dance Music of Willie Clancy), 1993; No. 18, p. 39. Sullivan (Session Tunes, vol. 2); No. 34, p. 14. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, Book Two), 1999; p. 36.

Recorded sources: -RTÉ RTECD 199, Séamus Ennis - "The Return from Fingal" (1997). Drónán - "Sets in Our Way" (2010).

See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]

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