Annotation:Up the Heathery Mountain and Through the Rushy Fields

Find traditional instrumental music



X:1 T:Up the Heathery Mountain and Through the Rushy Fields M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"With life" S:Hugh O'Beirne, 1846, piper, Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, via William Forde B:P.W. Joyce - Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909, No. 598) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Gdor G2G GFG|B3 B2c|d2c2 B2G|F3-F2 F| G2G {A}GFG|B2G B2c|d2c B2G|G3-G2|| B/c/|d2g g2f|d2f d2B|c2d B2G|F3-F2z| G2G GFG|B2G B2c|d2c B2G|G3-G2z||



UP THE HEATHERY MOUNTAIN AND THROUGH THE RUSHY FIELDS. Irish, Air (6/8 time, “with life”). G Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB.


Additional notes
Source for notated version : - Hugh O'Beirne, professional piper[1] Ballinamore, south County Leitrim, 1846, via County Cork collector William Forde (1795-1850) [Joyce].

Printed sources : - Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 597, p. 310.






Back to Up the Heathery Mountain and Through the Rushy Fields

0.00
(0 votes)




  1. P.W. Joyce concluded that O'Beirne had been a fiddler in his Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909, p. 296). However, William Forde, the only collector who had direct contact with O'Beirne, wrote in a letter to John Windele of Cork, dated Sept. 21, 1846, that he had obtained over 150 airs from a piper, Huge Beirne. Forde was seeking to supplement his collection with music from Connaught and the north, and was glad to make the musician's acquaintance, staying on in Ballinamore longer than he originally planned. He also found O'Beirne in poor health in the time of Great Famine, writing "Stirabout and bad potatoes were working fatally on a sinking frame," and aided the piper by improving his diet ("but a mutton chop twice a day has changed Hugh's face wonderfully").