Annotation:We brought the summer with us

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WE BROUGHT THE SUMMER WITH US (Thugamar féin an Samhradh linn, Thugamar fáin an samhradh linn). AKA and see “Hugar mu fean,” “Samhradh Samhradh.” Irish, Slow Air (6/8 or 3/4 time). E Major/Mixolydian (Stanford/Petrie): D Mixolydian (Ó Canainn). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Ó Canainn): AB (Stanford/Petrie). The melody, which is still very much a part of the living tradition, appears earliest in Neales’ Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes (Dublin, 1726), which Ó Canainn (1978) believes to be the first real collection of exclusively Irish folk music. It also appears in Burke Thumoth’s collection of c. 1750 and Cooke’s Selection of Twenty-one Favourite Original Irish Airs arranged for Pianoforte, Violin or Flute (Dublin, 1793). Breandan Breathnach, in Folk Music and Dances of Ireland, notes that the air is an example of the rare airs in Lah (Aeolian) mode.p.44 Burk Thumoth (1742) prints the tune as “Hugar mu fean”

Of all the fish that’s in the sea,
The Herring is king, the herring is king.
Sing thugamur fein an samhra linn
Tis we have brought the summer in.

Fr. John Quinn finds the tune family to contain a number of airs and dance tune versions in modes from major to dorian, including “Hugar mu fean/feian” (set both as a song air and as a jig), the jig “Back to Skibbereen,” . See also O’Neill’s version, an air setting, under the title “Boy of My Heart (The),” notes Quinn, as well as Thomas Moore’s song “Come, send round the wine.”

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Ó Canainn (Traditional Slow Airs of Ireland), 1995; No. 97, p. 83 (appears as “Thugamar Féin an Samhradh Linn”). Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 502, p. 127. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, vol. 1), 1999; p. 2 (appears as “Thugamar Féin an Samhradh Linn”).

Recorded sources:

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