Annotation:Primrose Lasses
X:1 T:Primrose Lassy, The M:C L:1/8 R:Reel S:Rev. James Goodman music manuscript collection (vol. 2, p. 167) N:Canon Goodman was a uilleann piper and cleric who collected primarily N:in County Cork in the mid-19th century F:http://goodman.itma.ie/volume-two#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=170&z=-5155.8953%2C0%2C18487.7906%2C6432 F:at Trinity College Dublin / Irish Traditional Music Archive goodman.itma.ie Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G BcAB G2 GE|DEGA BA A2|BcAB G2 GE|DEGA BG G2| BcAB G2 E2|DEGA BA A2|dcBA GFED|DEGA BG G2:| |:Bdgd edgd|Bdgd eA A2|Bdgd edgd|BdAc BG G2| Bdgd edgd|Bdgd eA A2|bgaf gedc|BcAc BG G2:|]
PRIMROSE LASSES (Cailm a Muisean). AKA = "The Primrose Lass/Lassy" (Gearrchaile an tSabhaircín), "Primrose Girl (2) (The).” AKA and see "Brown Eyed Girl (The)," "Kilworth Lasses (The)," "Maids (The)," "St. Patrick's Night.” Irish, Canadian; Reel or Highland Fling. Canada, Cape Breton. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Dunlay & Greenberg, Dunlay & Reich): AAB (Kennedy): AABB (Breathnach, Cole, Mulvihill, O'Neill): AABB’ (Harker/Rafferty). Probably Irish in origin, and first appears in vol. 2 of the large music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper biography:James Goodman. Fiddler Joseph Tansey recorded the reel in under the title "St. Patrick's Night." The second strain could be substituted for that of "Boys of Portaferry (The)," although the first part is incompatible. The tune has long been popular in Inverness County, Cape Breton, and was recorded on a wire recording in 1949 from the playing of 'The Big Fiddler', John Alex MacDonald, aged 73. John Campbell recorded it and called it simply “A Mabou Reel" although it is usually known as "Primrose Lass/Lasses" on Cape Breton. The tune was used by the English guitarist and traditional singer Martin Carthy for his version of the song “Seven Drunken Nights” (recorded with Steeleye Span). Perhaps the earliest sound recording of the melody, however, was by Captain Francis O’Neill, on an early Edison cylinder machine, of the playing of Chicago fiddler John McFadden (originally from County Mayo). Philippe Varlet believes O’Neill acquired the machine after seeing it at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
