Annotation:Woman of the House (1)

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X:1 T:Bana Thee Alauragum T:Bean an Tigh ar Lár agam T:Woman of the House [1] M:C L:1/8 R:Reel B:Stephen Grier music manuscript collection (Book 2, c. 1883, No. 236, p. 50) B: http://grier.itma.ie/book-two#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=49&z=-101.2125%2C301.2782%2C3727.7609%2C1510.6131 N:Stephen Grier (c. 1824-1894) was a piper and fiddler from N:Newpark, Bohey, Gortletteragh, south Co. Leitrim. Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D DEFD GFED|D2 dB ABAF|DEFD GFGA |BE ED/E/ BE E2| DEFD GFED|D2 dB ABAF|DEFD GFED|AD DE/D/ AD D2|| c2 cA B2 BG|A2 AB AGFE|D2 Bd cBAG|BE ED/E/ BE E2| c2 cA B2 BG|ABAB AGFE|DEFD GFED|AD DE/D/ AD D2| c2 cA B2 BG|A2 AB AGFE|D2 Bd cBAG|BE ED/E/ BE E2| dcBd cBAc|BAGB AGFE|DEFD GFED|AD DE/D/ AD D2||

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WOMAN OF THE HOUSE [1], THE (“Bean a Tig air Lár” or “Bean an Tighe/Ti ar Lár”). AKA - “Bean a’ Tigh Faoi Chlair” (The Woman of the House in the Closed Coffin). Irish, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'B (O'Neill/1850): ABB’ (Moylan): AABB (most versions). One of the earliest versions, set in the key of ‘D’ Major, is in the c. 1883 music manuscript collection of Gortletteragh, County Leitrim, fiddler Stephen Grier, who entered it as “Bana Thee Arlar Agam,” a phonetic spelling of the correct Irish title “Bean an Tigh ar Lár Agam,” notes researcher Conor Ward. County Donegal fiddlers tend to play the tune in A Major, as would be in Scotland. For more on the Donegal origins of the tune see note for “annotation:Bean an Ti ar Lár (1).” The first part corresponds to that of "Bummer's Reel (1)." See also the variants “Mistress of the House (The)” (Woman of the House (2)) and “O'Keeffe's Woman of the House”. The great Irish music compiler Francis O’Neill learned this tune from County Mayo piper James O’Brien, who visited Chicago (where O’Neill worked in the police department) in 1876. O’Neill describes him as “a neat, tasty Irish piper of the Connacht school of close players, and though his Union pipes were small, they were sweet and musical...One of his peculiarities—and an unpleasant one, occasionally—was a habit of stopping the music in order to indulge in conversation. He could not be induced to play a tune in full, when under the influence of stimulants, as his loquacity was uncontrollable, and he never hesitated under such conditions to express a passing sentiment. Amiable and harmless at all times, he died at a comparatively early age in Chicago, a victim to conviviality, his only weakness.” Paul de Grae writes that O'Neill's version "may be regarded as a transitional stage in the evolution of this tune from Joyce's older setting [c.f. "Cows are a-Milking"] to the way it is generally played nowadays: the first parts are almost the same, but there is considerable divergence in the second. The 'older' and 'newer' versions--if that is indeed what they are--can be compared in [Breathnach's] Ceol Rince na hÉirreann vol. 1, the former being No, 71 and the latter No. 86 (as "Bean an Tí ar Lár", a title more associated with another, unrelated reel)." De Grae also notes that “O'Keeffe's Woman of the House” is quite like O'Neill's version.

Charlie Piggott, in his book Blooming Meadows (1998) written with Fintan Vallely, relates the story of a Galway session attended by, among others, the great Galway button accordion player Joe Cooley and a somewhat irascible old fiddler named Paddy Meenahan. A fiddle player was having some difficulty bringing out the well-known “Woman of the House” and Meenahan was losing patience, finally saying words to the effect that the fiddler’s tune wasn’t “Woman of the House,” for Paddy well knew how it should be played. Cooley expertly soothed the tense situation by chiming in that surely there could be two women in that house!

The tune was recorded in New York by many of the great Irish recording artists of the 78 RPM era, including melodeon player Peter J. Conlon (1923), County Leitrim flute player John McKenna (1880-1947) who recorded it in 1924 under the title “Lady of the House”, south Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman (1927), fiddler Packie Dolan (1928), and Hugh Gillespie (1929). It is one of the most frequently recorded reels in the history of Irish music sound recordings.