Annotation:Moll Roone

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MOLL ROONE. AKA – "Molly Roone." AKA and see "Farewell--But Whenever You Welcome the Hour." Irish, Air. D Major (Miller & Perron): G Major (Clinton, Hannam, Haverty). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Clinton, Haverty): AAB (Miller & Perron). Thomas Moore (1779–1852) used the melody for his song "Farewell--But Whenever You Welcome the Hour." His lyric begins:

Farewell, but whenever you welcome the hour,
That awakens the night-song of mirth in your bower,
Then think of the friend who once welcomed it too,
And forgot his own griefs to be happy with you.
His griefs may return, not a hope may remain,
Of the few that had brightened his pathway of pain,
But he ne'er will forget the short vision that threw
It's enchantment around him while lingering with you.

The lyric to the song "Molly Roone" goes:

There's a girl in Kilmurry—my own love'd one—
The loveliest caileen that the sun shines on;
Her eyes are as bright as the May-tide moon,
And the devil a girl like my own Moll Roone!

The tune contains much melodic material from the English melody "Nutting Girl (The)" and was re-used by Samuel Lover as the melodic basis for his popular song "The Low-Backed Car."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Clinton (Gems of Ireland), 1841; No. 51, p. 26. Hannam (Irish Melodies, vol. 3), c. 1810; p. 9. Haverty (One Hundred Irish Airs, vol. 3), 1859; No. 217, p. 105. Miller & Perron (Irish Traditional Fiddle Music), 1977; vol. 3, No. 69. O'Flannagan (The Hibernia Collection), Boston, 1860; p. 26.

Recorded sources: Tradition TLP 1024, Mary O'Hara. Vocalion 14931 (78 rpm), 1924, The Four Provinces Orchestra (as "Moll Room," last of a medley including "Katie O'Connor," "Colleen Rue" and "Foggy Dew").

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