Annotation:Pretty Brown Girl (2) (The)

Back to Pretty Brown Girl (2) (The)

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PRETTY BROWN GIRL [2], THE (An Cailín Deas Donn). AKA – “Pretty Brown-Haired Girl.” AKA and see "Cailín Deas Donn (1) (An)," "Colleen Dhas Dhoun," “Colleen Dhas Dun,” "My Pretty Fair Maid," "Pretty Fair Maid (The)," "Máirín Buggerty.” Irish, Double Jig. Ireland, Connaught. G Major (Breathnach, Levey, O’Neill): D Major (O’Farrell). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Levey): AABB (Breathnach, O’Farrell, O’Neill). "An Cailín Deas Donn" or "The Pretty Brown Girl [2]" exists in both song and instrumental version, and each strain of the two-part tune has shown up in other songs/tunes.

The melody was printed by uilleann piper O’Farrell in his Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes (1810) as “Calleen Das Dawn.” Breathnach (1976) finds two settings in Stanford/Petrie (1905) under the “Pretty Brown Girl” title and as “A Connaught tune” (1327/28), and he finds second strain of Petrie’s “Buachallín Óg (1)" (No. 1266) the same as the first strain of “Pretty Brown Girl.” Glasgow publisher biography:James Aird’s “Big Bow Wow” uses the same first strain. O’Neill’s “Move up to Me” has the second part of “Pretty Brown Girl” as does his song “Did You See My Man Looking for Me? (1)” (in Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody, 1922, No. 24).

Songs set to the tune have the parts reversed from the way musicians it in instrumental versions, so that the song chorus goes with the first part of the instrumental music.

Source for notated version: flute player Jim Conroy, 1970 (Cluain Cua, near Graigue, Co. Galway, Ireland) [Breathnach].

Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ II), 1976; No. 14, p. 10. Levey (Dance Music of Ireland, 2nd Collection), 1873; No. 54, p. 23 (appears as “Colleen Dhas Dun”). O’Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. IV), 1810; p. 75. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1986; No. 151, p. 40.

Recorded sources:

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