Annotation:Old Man Quinn

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OLD MAN QUINN ("An Swanduine Ua Cuinn" or "Ua Cuinn an Seanduine"). Irish, Hornpipe. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. The elderly James Quinn (1805-1890), originally from Cloone, County Leitrim, was source James Early's relative and his tutor on the uilleann pipes. Francis O'Neill (1924) describes him as "an old time Chicago piper," familiarly known as Old Man Quinn, without whom "no (Irish music) gathering would be complete" while he lived. Quinn a skilled performer in the Connaught style of closed staccato piping, having originally been tutored in Leitrim by Gusty Nicols, his landlord and a gentleman piper of repute (see note for "annotation:Gusty's Frolics"). The young Quinn became skilled enough to acquire a position as a resident piper to a Cavan landowner in the 1820's with whom he stayed for 10 years (remunerated at the rate of 50 £ per annum, plus the use of a horse, a handsome sum for the time). By 1840 Quinn had joined the Irish Diaspora and emigrated to New York before making his way to Chicago, where he set up a successful livery business. He was the first piper resident in Chicago, writes O'Neill, who regretted not noting more tunes from the old man's repertoire before he died. The tune appears in Stephen Greir's (1824-1894 of Abbeylare, Granard, County Longford, who lived in Bohey, Gortletteragh, County Leitrim) manuscript collection compiled in 1883. See also note for "annotation:Cloone Hornpipe."

James Early (c. 1840-1914)

Source for notated version: Chicago Police Sergeant James Early, originally from Aughavas, County Leitrim [O'Neill].

Printed sources: O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 185. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 1649, p. 306. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 871, p. 150. Treoir, vol. 33, No. 2, 2001; p. 27.

Recorded sources: Drumlin Records, The McNamara Family - "Leitrim's Hidden Treasure" (1998).

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