Annotation:Little Brother of My Heart
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LITTLE BROTHER OF MY HEART ("Dearbratairin O Mo Croide" or "Drahaareen-O Mochree"). Irish, Air (3/4 time). D Major (Joyce/1909, Roche): F Major (Joyce/1890). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. In his 1890 edition of Ancient Irish Music, P.W. Joyce notes that this air was well-known all over the south of Ireland, and that he had known both air and words since his childhood (in the 1840's in Limerick). "This song, sung to the same air as 'Jemmy My Thousand Treasures' (which is an older song), was perhaps more familiar in Munster than that song. I have many copies of it on ballad-sheets, printed by 'Haly, Printer, Cork'" (Joyce).
I am a young follow that always loved rural sport;
The fairs and the patrons of Erin I used to resort;
The true sons of Bacchus were always my companie,
Until I was deprived of my Draharee-O-Machree!
O'Farrell's "McGuires Lament" has also been said to be a "crude version" of this air, but the resemblance escapes me.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 24. Joyce (Ancient Irish Music), 1890; No. 38, p. 40. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 402, pp. 212-213. Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 1), 1912; No. 18, p. 12.
Recorded sources:
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