Annotation:Eveleen's Bower

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EVELEEN'S BOWER (Teimeal Eiblin). AKA and see "Bonnie Lass of Fyvie O (The)," "Constitution and Gurriere (The)," "Oh! Weep for the Hour". Irish, Air (4/4 time). A Major (O'Neill): C Major (Howe, Manson) D Major (O'Flannagan). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Howe, Manson): AB (O'Flannagan, O'Neill). The tune was credited to the blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan by Francis O'Neill, though by what authority is not known. Bruce Olson finds the tune originally attached to an Irish ballad of about 1780 called "Pretty Peggy of Derby, O" (or "Peggy Derby," "Peggy of Derby"), reprinted numerous times between 1784 and 1815 (including one by Moore, 1807-1808). Other ballads were similarly set to the tune: "Dandy O (The)," "Brandy O," "Landlady of France (The)," "Constitution and the Guerriere (The)," and "Bonnie Lass of Fyvio," among others. It is sometimes also erroneously attributed to Michael Kelly. The words to "Eveleen's Bower" are by Thomas Moore (1779-1852), printed in his Irish Melodies (1808-34) with music set by Sir John Stevenson, and begin:

Oh! weep for the hour,
When to Eveleen's bower,
The Lord of the Valley with false vows came;
The moon hid her light,
From the heavens that night,
And wept behind her clouds o'er the maiden's shame.

Moore's songs were much beloved for many generations, although not in all quarters. Some later writers believe his reworkings of earlier songs and replacement of older songs with his own verses were a gross misuse of the tradition. Even contemporaries were not always pleased, as in this critique from the writer Lydia Maria Child (in The Mother's Book, 2nd Edition, Carter & Hendee, Boston, 1831).

But books that frighten and painfully excite the youthful mind, bad as they are, are not so bad as the honied poison of Thomas Moore. He does not show his cloven foot. He does not try to make us in love with sin by vindicating all its deformity; he covers it with a silver veil, and makes it float so gracefully before the young and innocent, that it seems to them a creature of light. Such books do infinitely more mischief, than those openly bad in principles and in language; for danger that is concealed is not easily avoided. What words can be more delicate than Moore's 'Eveleen's Bower?' and what thoughts can be more indecent? Yet modest girls sing it, and think no harm.

The tune appears earliest in America in several commonplace books by amateur musicians from 1811 on, and was printed this country in Riley's Flute Melodies, vol. 2 (New York, 1817-20).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: P.M. Haverty (One Hundred Irish Airs vol. 1), 1858; No. 11, p. 5. Howe (Complete Preceptor for the Accordeon), 1843; p. 11. Howe (Second Part of the Musician's Companion), 1850, p. 9. Manson (Hamilton’s Universal Tune Book vol. 1), 1853, p. 155. O'Flannagan (The Hibernia Collection), 1860; p. 16. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 642, p. 115.

Recorded sources:

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