Annotation:Paddy Mack

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PADDY MACK (Padraig Mac Conmara). AKA and see "Humors of Clashmore," "Botar an Loca," "Botar na Loca," "Lakeside Road (The)," "Shippool Castle Hornpipe," "Worcester Hornpipe." Irish, Hornpipe. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The hornpipe has an English provenance and appears under several titles (and untitled as well) in several older English musicians' manuscript collections. In his Irish Folk Music: A Fascinating Hobby (1910), O'Neill explained the origins of both his title and alternate title:

Long before the writer ever expected to tread on the soil of County Clare, "Paddy" Mack's fame as a fiddler had been well sung in Chicago. He was blind, of course, as almost all others were who lived by their musical skill in Ireland. It was our good fortune while traveling in the year 1906 to meet and be entertained by two of his pupils--Michael Touhey and John Allen--at their homes, as well as at Clashmore House, the residence of Mr. James Conway, our hospitable host. Both were charming fiddlers whose free and easy style of bowing gave their tunes that delightful spirit and swing peculiar to the best traditional Irish musicians.

Old Mr. Touhey, familiarly called "Darby Simon," who had known Mrs. O'Neill in her girlhood, summond his son Michael from the hayfield to play for us. Flattered by Mrs. O'Neill's recollection of his skill and agility as a dancer, the old man, verging on to eighty years of age, but still active and erect, stepped onto the "flag of the fire" and "battered" one of "Paddy" Mack's hornpipe thereon in a manner few of the present generation could equal, and he didn't seem at all distressed by the exercise.

Here was a scene worthy of the brush of Hogarth and the pen of Carleton. The interior of a peasant's cottage, with cupboard and dresser and settle ranged against white-washed walls, affords a study not unworthy of the artist's talent. The large open fireplace, with comfortable seats on either side, served as a frame for the picture of the octogenarian father dancing a hornpipe to the fiddling of his own son. What a subject for a word-painter--and where else but in Ireland could such a sight be seen. ... [pp. 121-122]

Not having a name for the hornpipe, O'Neill called it "Paddy Mack" in honor of the long-deceased fiddle teacher.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: O'Neill (O’Neill’s Irish Music), 1915; No. 329, p. 162. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 951, p. 162.

Recorded sources:

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