Annotation:Jackson's Maid at the Fair (1)

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JACKSON'S MAID AT THE FAIR [1]. AKA and see "Ghaoith ó ndeas (A)," "Maid at the Fair," "Peter Inagh," "Why should not poor folk." Irish, Jig. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (O'Neill): AABBCC (Kennedy, O'Farrell). The title refers to the 18th century Irish gentleman-composer Walker "Piper" Jackson, of the townland of Lisdaun, parish of Ballingarry, Aughrim, County Limerick. The tune appears first in print under this title in O'Farrell's National Irish Music for the Union Pipes (1804), albeit as "Maid at the Fair," sans 'Jackson'. The piper printed the tune a few years later in his Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes [1] (vol. 1, p. 71), published c. 1811. Dates for O'Farrell's publications vary, however. Bunting printed a version of the tune as "A Ghaoith ó ndeas" in his General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland in 1809. In a later publication, The Ancient Music of Ireland (1840) Bunting printed a variant as "Why should not poor folk" (see note for that melody). The alternate title "Peter Inagh" Breathnach found in a manuscript collection by John O'Daly, in the National Library in Dublin.

Brendan Breathnach (1996) says the title is a translation of an obscene title in Irish. It is what flute player Ciaran Carson (writing in his book Last Night's Fun, 1996, p. 12) describes "that class of tune that also includes the "Maid at the Fair", "Pay the Girl Her Fourpence," "Two and Sixpenny Girl," and other such titles.

Source for notated version: copied from O'Farrell's Pocket Companion (c. 1805) [O'Neill].

Printed sources: Kennedy (Jigs & Quicksteps, Trips & Humours), 1997; No. 84, p. 21. O'Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. 1); c. 1805; p. 71. O'Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922; No. 148.

Recorded sources:

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