Annotation:Cremonia

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CREMONIA. Irish, Air (3/4 time). A Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Composed by blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738). The title is somewhat curious. Donal O'Sullivan (1958), considered the authority on O'Carolan, found Gaelic titles for the tune as "Croide Eamha" (Heart of Emania) and "Croide Muna" (Heart of Munster), although he concluded that these were probably not the titles that O'Carolan himself employed or meant. Other titles he found, "Creamonea," "Craymuna," and "Cray Muna," were not explained, and "are corrupt and meaningless." Several writers have suggested that O'Carolan meant to reference the village of Cremona, Italy, home of several Italian master violin makers, supporting this theory with the long-recognized influence of Italian Baroque stylings in the harper's later melodies. However, the Irish collector George Petrie is the only source that ascribes the tune to Carolan, finds O'Sullivan. "Cremonea" appears in Neal's Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes (Dublin, 1724), and in Daniel Wright's Aria di Camera (London, 1725, 1730).

Printed sources:

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Complete Collection of Carolan's Irish Tunes, 1985; No. 192, p. 132. John & William Neal (Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes), 1724; p. 11. O'Sullivan (Carolan: The Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper), 1958; No. 192, p. 210.

Recorded sources:

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