Annotation:As I Went Out Upon the Ice

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AS I WENT OUT UPON THE ICE (Ag Dul amach ar an Leac Oighir dom). AKA and see "Glin Cottage Polka (2) (The)," "Johnny O'Leary's (1)." Irish, Polka. Ireland, Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border. A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Editors Moylan and Breathnach suggest a connection with the comic song "Taglioni," which goes:

As I went out upon the ice,

The ice being rough and stony,

The ice it broke and down I went

And wet my tanlee ownee.

or:

One day as I went out to skate,

The ice was rough and stony;

And the ice it bent so in I went

And wet my Taglioni.

Moylan, however, notes that all versions of the song he heard were sung to slide tunes, not polkas. The tune is usually played with "Jimmy Doyle's Polka (1)" in Sliabh Luachra tradition. See also the related "Dálaigh's Polka."

Source for notated version: fiddler Denis Murphy, 1966 (Gneeveguilla, Co. Kerry, Ireland) [Breathnach]; accordion player Johnny O'Leary (Sliabh Luachra region), recorded in recital at Na Píobairí Uilleann, February, 1981 [Moylan].

Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ 2), 1976; No. 122, pg. 65. Breathnach, Ceol: A Journal of Irish Music, vol. 5, no. 1, 1981; 15e. Mallinson (101 Polkas), 1997; No. 19, pg. 8. Moylan (Johnny O'Leary of Sliabh Luachra), 1994; No. 52, pg. 31.

Recorded sources: RTE CD174, "The Sliabh Luachra Fiddle Master Padraig O'Keeffe."

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