Annotation:Great Eastern Polka (The)

Tune properties and standard notation

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GREAT EASTERN POLKA. English, Irish; Polka. G Major ('A' part) & D Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The composition is attributed to C. Coote Junr. by Trim. Charles Coote, Junior, was a Victorian-era British composer of light music and dance tunes, including the "Corn Flower Waltz," the "Bric a Brac Polka" and other generally forgettable melodies. The title 'Great Eastern' may refer to a region, or perhaps honors one of three great transatlantic steamships designed by Isambad Kingdom Brunel (whose father was Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, 1769-1849, a French-born engineer resident in England after the Revolution who constructed the first tunnel under the Thames, still in use today as part of the London Underground). The Great Eastern, in part because of its gigantic size, laid some of the first transatlantic cables.

Source for notated version: the Thomas Hardy manuscripts [Trim]; a manuscript attributed to the Pigott family of east Kerry [Breathnach].

Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ V), 1999; No. 108, p. 53. Trim (Thomas Hardy), 1990; No. 72.

Recorded sources:

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Tune properties and standard notation