Annotation:McDonnell's Rant

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McDONNELL'S (SLIP JIG). AKA - "McDonnell's Rant." Irish, Slip Jig. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB'. The dates for the O'Farrell collection, printed by John Gow in London, England, vary; O'Neill gives 1797, while Pat Sky gives 1804, based on an entry in the Stationer's Hall Registers.

Seán Donnelly, in his article "A Piping MP: Joseph Myles McDonnell (1796-1872), Doo Castle, Ballaghadereen, County Mayo" [The Seán Reid Society Journal, vol. 1, March, 1999], notes that ‘McDonnell the gentleman piper’, was recorded as having performed on stage in County Cork in the 1770's. He believes it is the same 'McDonnell the piper' from whom Edward Bunting collected tunes from in the 1790's, and further believes that O'Farrell's tunes "McDonnell's Rant" and "McDonnell's Hornpipe" were named in his honor. "Like Denis Courtney, John Murphy and O’Farrell himself, McDonnell was to be found playing in London in the 1790s, where they all enjoyed the patronage of the Highland Society of London, and McDonnell and Murphy also visited Edinburgh to give recitals in the late 1790s." McDOnnell's given name was James.

Source for notated version: copied from O'Farrell's National Irish Music (1797) [O'Neill].

Printed sources: Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 7, p. 108. O'Farrell (National Irish Music for the Union Pipes), 1804; p. 23 (appears as "McDonnell's Rant"). O'Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922; No. 188 (appears as "McDonnell's Rant").

Recorded sources:

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