Annotation:Hole in the Wall (1) (The)

Tune properties and standard notation

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HOLE IN THE WALL [1], THE. English, Country Dance Tune (3/2 or 3/4 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The air was published in the Dancing Master, c. 1725, published at the time by John Young, heir to the Playford music publishing concern. Barnes (1986) dates the melody to 1698. The melody may appear in the English composer Purcell's "Abdelazar" suite. Hole-in-the-Wall is a descriptive name for many pubs and taverns, to this day, usually denoting small, perhaps cozy establishments set within a building row. Sometimes the name is more literal: Dublin's Hole in the Wall Pub was named after an establishment that served soldiers from a nearby barracks through a hole in the wall. A famous Hole-in-the-Wall was in Kilkenny, behind High Street, and was from 1750-1850 one of Ireland's more reknowned supper-houses, patronized by the Duke of Wellington, Sir Jonah Barrington and Henry Grattan. A popular verse of the time went:

If you ever go to Kilkenny
Remember the Hole in the Wall;
You may there get blind drunk for a penny,
Or tipsy for nothing at all.

Brendan Breathnach collected a similar verse from James Gannon in the mid-20th century. Set to the 9/8 time tune of "Moll Roe" or "Táim in Arrears," Gannon's words go:

Whenever you go to Kilkenny,
Look out for the Hole in the Wall;
It's there you'll get pigs' feet and bacon
And buttermilk for nothing at all.

Young's title may refer to one tavern called Hole-in-the-Wall in London's Strand, scene of the capture of one of the most famous highwaymen in England, Claude Duval, around 1670. Duval was born in Normandy in 1643 but became attached as a servant to a group of English Royalists in that country and returned to England with them when Charles II was restored to the throne. Learning gentlemanly manners in his capacity as a footman to a nobleman, Duval by 1666 had embarked on a life of crime, although he maintained his gallant and fashionable ways. He was variously described as an alchemist, an expert card player and gambler, living the life of a rake. The dashing highwayman was subject of a book by William Pope, written soon after Duval's death, assuring his lasting fame by reporting his exploits. One such recorded by Pope involved Duval's robbery of a coach containing a nobleman and his lady. She, putting on a brave front and determined not to be cowed, took out a flageolet or tin-whistle and began to play a tune, causing Duval to respond by taking out his own whistle and playing as well. Taking it one step further, Duval complimented the nobleman on his wife's playing and suggested that she would probably be just as skilled a dancer-then invited her to dance with him on the heath. The dance complete the lady rejoined her husband, whom Duval assessed a fee for neglecting to pay for the music, stealing four hundred pounds from him. Duval's epitaph reads, in part, "Here lies Du Vall. Reader if male thou art, look to thy purse. If female, to thy heart."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986. Fleming-Williams (English Dance Airs; Popular Selection), 1965; p. 6. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 19. Watson (A Rollick of Recorders), 1975; No. 7, p. 8.

Recorded sources:

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Tune properties and standard notation