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 traditional instrumental music with annotations, formerly known as
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This is the only occasion on which country dances are performed at the Irish court. The ball on Patrick’s night is always opened by the lively dance of “Patrick’s day.” The dowagers of both sexes then come into play; and “the Irish trot” of many a veteran belle, recalls the good old times of the Rutland Court: when French quadrilles were “undreamed of in philosophy” of the dancing of that noted epoch.
St. Patrick's Day

Played by: Leo Rowsome
Source: Spotify
Image: The Irish Brigade attached to the French forces which helped turn the tide of battle against the English troops at the battle of Fontenoy.

St. Patrick's Day

The first mention of the tune is that it was one of two tunes (with "The White Cockade") played by the pipers of the Irish Brigade attached to the French forces which helped turn the tide of battle against the English troops at the battle of Fontenoy on May 11, 1745.

Flood (1906) and O’Neill (1913) believe was probably the last appearance in battle of the Irish Piob mor (war pipes or great pipes, which survived only in Scotland) of which there is any mention.

Rutherford's 200 Country Dances, volume 1, 1756, contains the first country dance printing of the tune, which also appears in English collections as a jig by the name "Barbary Bell."

Typically for popular melodies of the time, it also became the vehicle for many songs, including air 35, "A plague of these wenches," in the opera Love in a Village by T.A. Arne and I. Bickerstaffe (London, 1762). As song, country dance or quickstep it remained popular for many years. In later military tradition it was played on December 31, 1811 by the 87th Regiment band as a French attack became a rout at Tarifa, and Winstock (1970) remarks it was a favourite quickstep of the Napoleonic era Peninsular War in the British army.

Queen Victoria requested the melody from piper Thomas Mahon when she and the Prince Consort visited Ireland for the first time in 1849. Mahon was surprised to learn that she and the Prince were familiar “with the best gems in Irish music,” and he also played “The Royal Irish Quadrilles” and “Garryowen” at their behest.

The Queen must have been impressed with his playing, for she directed that henceforth Mahon have the title “Professor of the Irish Union Bagpipers to Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria” (O’Neill, 1913). English country dance versions appear several times in James Oswald’s Caledonian Pocket Companion (London, 1760), and James Aird printed it in Glasgow in his Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1 (1782). In fact, English printings of the tune by far predate Irish ones, and it may be the provenance is English, despite the Irish-sounding title.

...more at: St. Patrick's Day - full Score(s) and Annotations


X:11 T:Patrick's Day in the Morning with Variations M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig S:Philip Carolan music manuscript collection N:Philip Carolan (c. 1839-1910, Crossmolina, County Mayo), a musically literate N:farmer and fiddler who compiled his ms. probably during 1863-1873. S:Angela Buckley, thesis, “A Critical Edition of the Irish Music Manuscripts of S:Philip Carolan c. 1839-1910, vol. 2”, Waterford Institute of Technology, S:2007, p. 118. Carolan ms. 2, No. 34. K:G V:1 clef=treble name="11." [V:1] D|GAG GAB|ded dcB|AcB AGF|EFE E2D| GAG GBd|gfe dcB|AcB AGF|1 E2F G2:|2 E2F G3|| |:def gag|fed edB|def gag|fed e3| def gag |fed efg|gdB ecA|1 dBG AGF:|2 dBG AGD|| |:(G/F/)G/A/G (G/F/)G/A/(B/c/)|(d/c/)d/e/d (e/d/)c/B/(A/G/)|(B/A/)B/c/(B/A/) GED| E/F/(GF) .E.Dz| |:(G/F/)G/A/G (G/F/)G/A/(B/c/)|(d/c/)d/e/d (e/d/)c/B/(A/G/)|(B/A/)B/c/(B/A/) GED|E2-F G2z:| |:def (g/a/)g/f/e|(f/g/)f/e/d e2B|def (g/a/)g/f/e|(f/g/)f/e/d e2-f| def (g/a/)g/f/e|(d/e/)f/e/d e2B|def (g/a/)g/f/e|(f/g/)f/e/d efg| (G/F/)G/A/G (G/F/)G/A/(B/c/)|(d/c/)d/e/d (e/d/)c/B/(A/G/)|(B/A/)B/c/(B/A/) GED|E/F/(GF) EDz| (G/F/)G/A/G (G/F/)G/A/(B/c/)|(d/c/)d/e/d (e/d/)c/B/(A/G/)|(B/A/)B/c/(B/A/) GED|(E2F) G2z:| |:.G/.A/.B/.c/.d/.e/ .B/.c/.d/.e/.f/.g/|ded dBG|.B/.A/.B/.c/.d/.c/ .B/.A/.G/.F/.E/.D/|.E/.F/GF EDz| .G/.A/.B/.c/.d/.e/ .B/.c/.d/.e/.f/.g/|ded dBG|.B/.A/.B/.c/.d/.c/ .B/.A/.G/.F/.E/.D/|E2F G2:|]

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Although we are not trained musicologists and make no pretense to the profession, we have tried to apply such professional rigors to this Semantic Abc Web as we have internalized through our own formal and informal education.
This demands the gathering of as much information as possible about folk pieces to attempt to trace tune families, determine origins, influences and patterns of aural/oral transmittal, and to study individual and regional styles of performance.
Many musicians, like ourselves, are simply curious about titles, origins, sources and anecdotes regarding the music they play. Who, for example, can resist the urge to know where the title Blowzabella came from or what it means, or speculating on the motivations for naming a perfectly respectable tune Bloody Oul' Hag, is it Tay Ye Want?
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