Annotation:Kitty Gone a Milking
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KITTY'S GONE A-MILKING. AKA - "Kitty Goes a-Milking," "Kitty is gone a milking." AKA and see "Repeal of the Union." Irish, Reel (cut or whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (O'Malley, Tubridy): AAB (Harker/Rafferty, Stanford/Petrie): AABB (Mulvihill): AABB' (Mitchell). There is a remarkable absence of alternate names for such a popular session tune, a version of which appears a(as "Kitty is gone a milking") in the mid-19th century music manuscript collection of Canon James Goodman (County Cork). The tune was included in a three-tune medley famously recorded on a 78 RPM disk by County Meath fiddler Frank O'Higgins, featured on early Irish radio broadcasts. O’Higgins (1891-1975), a fiddler from Glenamona, Kilskeer, County Meath, in Dublin in 1938 (who paired the tune with “Merry Sisters (The)” and "Dogs Among the Bushes (The)"). Paddy Ryan, writing in Treoir, records that O’Higgins “was a highly esteemed figure in traditional music circles in and around Dublin. He also taught the fiddler for many years and, among his star pupils was Larry Redican, who was prominent in New York traditional music circles during his lifetime there.” See also the related "Monasterevin Fancy (The)."
Sources for notated versions: piper Willie Clancy (1918-1973, Miltown Malbay, west Clare) [Mitchell]; Frank McCollam (Ballycastle, County Antrim) [Mulvihill]; Frank O'Higgins [Bulmer & Sharpley]; from a recording of Paddy Canney and P.J. Hayes [O'Malley].
Printed sources: Bulmer & Sharpley (Music from Ireland), 1974, vol. 1, No. 25. Harker (300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty), 2005; No. 2, p. 1. Mitchell (Dance Music of Willie Clancy), 1976; No. 31, p. 45. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 99, p. 26. O'Malley (Luke O'Malley's Collection of Irish Music, vol. 1), 1976; No. 46, p. 23. Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 444, p. 112. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, Book Two), 1999; p. 26.
Recorded sources: Claddagh 4CC 39, "The Pipering of Willie Clancy vol. 2" (1983). Philo 1051, Boys of the Lough - "Good Friends, Good Music" (1977). "The Chieftains #1." Shanachie 79093, Paddy Glackin & Robbie Hannan - "The Whirlwind" (1995).). Regal Zonophone MR2577 (78 RPM), Frank O'Higgins (1938)
See also listings at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Hear various artists' recordings at the Comhaltas Archive [3]
Hear Paddy Canny & Peter Loughlin play the tune at the Comhaltas Archive [4]
Hear fiddler Frank O'Higgins' 1938 recording at the Comhaltas Archive [5]