Annotation:Jolly Young Waterman (The)

Tune properties and standard notation

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JOLLY YOUNG WATERMAN, THE (An Og-badoir Greannmar). AKA - "An Og-Badoir Greannmar." English, Air (6/8 time, "cheerfully"). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Composed by English composer Charles Dibdin [1] (1745-1814) who also wrote lyrics for his melody, and included in his successful opera The Waterman (1744). O'Neill obviously thought it had Irish associations, as he included it in Music of Ireland (1903).

Charles Dibdin

Dibdin's lyric begins:

And did you not hear of a jolly young waterman,
Who at Blackfriar's Bridge used for to ply;
And he feather'd his oars with such skill and dexterity
Winning each heart and delighting each eye;
He look'd so neat and row'd so steadily,
The maidens all flock'd in his boat so readily,
And he eyed the young rogues with so charming an air,
He eyed the young rogues with so charming an air,
That this jolly young waterman ne'er was in want of a fare.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 530, p. 92.

Recorded sources:

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Tune properties and standard notation