Annotation:Tell Her I Am (1)

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X:0 T:Tell Her I Am [1] M:6/8 L:1/8 B:O'Neill's Music of Ireland. 1850 Melodies, 1903, p. 140, no. 749 Z:François-Emmanuel de Wasseige K:G V:1 clef=treble name="0." [V:1] d|edB GAB|DED GAB|DED cBA|BGE E2d| edB GAB|DED GAB|AGE cBA|BGG G2:| |:d|B/c/dB def|gfe dBG|ABA AGA|BGE E2d| Bcd def|{a}gfe dBG|AGE cBA|BGG G2:|]



TELL HER I AM [1] ("Inneos/Innis Di Go B-Fuilim," or "Abair Lei go bhFuil Me"). AKA and see “Boys of the Town (4) (The),” "Humors of Ballymore (2) (The)," "Jackson's Daisy," "Jackson's Duishig," "Jackson's Dooshay." Irish, Double Jig (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Cole, Laufman, O'Neill/1850 & 1001): AABBCC’ (Harker/Rafferty), AA'BBC (Breathnach): AA'BBCC' (Cranitch, O'Neill/Krassen). "Tell Her I Am [1]" was recorded in New York by influential County Sligo fiddler wikipedia:Michael Coleman (1891-1945) in 1927, paired (as the second tune) with “Trip to Sligo.” Coleman’s version of the tune (the one played today) is in three parts and is most similar to Francis O’Neill's two-part version in the first strain; it is more similar to the two-part setting collected by James Goodman (with the addition of a third part).

Charlie Piggott, in his book Blooming Meadows (1998, written with Fintan Vallely), relates the story regarding a remark by Coleman, who was at the time living in New York. Coleman was performing when a female admirer asked her companion to find out from the fiddler whether or not he was married. “Tell Her I Am,” he replied, in an inside joke. Piggott also relates that Galway accordion player Joe Cooley (who also lived for some time in America) also fancied the jig, which he learned in the 1940’s in Dublin from the playing of Kilkenny fiddler John Kelly. A bemused Cooley often, tongue in cheek, asked his flatmate for the name of the tune, anticipating the reply. Invariable it came in a tortured, garbled, improperly understood variation, “Tell Her Who Am I.” Paul de Grae suggests "the slightly cryptic title may be a garbling of "A Tailor I am"; there is an unrelated jig of that title"[1].

Coleman’s setting is certainly the standard setting nowadays for the tune, although not the earliest one. O’Neill printed the tune in 1903, in a different setting then the one employed by Coleman (who was a boy of 12 in County Sligo at the time). William Bradbury Ryan's Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883) includes the tune in a setting more akin to Coleman’s, and which is also similar to a setting collected by Church of Ireland cleric and uilleann piper wikipedia:James_Goodman_(musicologist) (1828-1896) in Munster in the 1860s, under the title “Humors of Ballymore (2) (The).”

Breathnach finds the alternate title “Jackson’s Dasey” (sic) in a manuscript from Castleisland, County Kerry.

Early 20th century uilleann pipers Patsy Touhey and Bernard Delaney both recorded versions of "Tell Her I Am," Touhey on wax cylinder.

There is an internet report that the tune, differently interpreted, is popular with Orange marching bands. Paul de Grae writes: “The only time I’ve heard O’Neill’s setting played is by the anonymous céilí band on a Peter Sellers comedy recording from 1960. It’s one of ‘Three Folk Songs, Collected in Hi-Fi’, introduced by Sellers impersonating a German ethnomusicologist: the band, allegedly ‘Pat O’Shaughnessy and His Men of Shamrock’, breaks up in disorder when one member (Sellers again, of course) accuses another of playing a bum note. It can be found on the internet.”


Additional notes
Source for notated version : - fiddler Michael Coleman (Co. Sligo, Ireland/N.Y.C.) [Breathnach, Miller & Perron]; piper Bernard Delaney, originally from Tullamore, County Kerry [O’Neill]; New Jersey flute player Mike Rafferty, born in Ballinakill, Co. Galway, in 1926 [Harker].

Printed sources : - Breathnach (Ceol Rince na hÉireann vol. III), 1985; No. 33, p. 15. Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 55. Cranitch (Irish Fiddle Book), 1996; No. 15, p. 130. Cranitch (Irish Session Tunes: Red Book), 2000; 15. Harker (300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty), 2005; No. 228, p. 70. Laufman (Okay, Let's Try a Contra, Men on the Right, Ladies on the Left, Up and Down the Hall), 1973; p. 23. Miller & Perron (Irish Traditional Fiddle Music), 2nd Edition, 2006; p. 38. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 20. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 749, p. 140. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 37, p. 23. Brian Prior (Foinn Seisiún 2), 2001; p. 4. Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 85. Hugh and Lisa Shields (Tunes of the Munster Pipers, vol. 2), 2013; No. 749. Vallely (Learn to Play the Tin Whistle with the Armagh Pipers Club, vol. 2), No. 4.

Recorded sources : - Decca Records 12085 (78 RPM), Michael Coleman (1936). Green Linnet SIF1035, Brian Conway & Tony De Marco - "The Apples in Winter" (1981). Green Linnett GLCD 1181, Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill - “The Lonesome Touch” (1997). Intrepid Records, Michael Coleman - “The Heyday of Michael Coleman” (1973). Shanachie Records, "The Classic Recordings of Michael Coleman."

See also listing at :
Hear Michael Coleman’s 1936 recording at the Internet Archive [1] (this is the second time Coleman recorded the tune, paired this time with "Richard Brennan's Favorite")
Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Alan Ng’s Irishtune.info [3]



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  1. Paul de Grae, “Notes on Sources of Tunes in the O’Neill Collections”, 2017 [4].