Annotation:Irish Hautboy (The)
Tune properties and standard notation
IRISH HAUTBOY, THE (An Fioeog Éirinneac). AKA and see "Lisdoonvarna Reel," "Mary Donlevy," "Smuggler's Reel," "Tadhg a Run." Irish, Air (4/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. From the latter 18th century, at least. A hautboy is an oboe, but it is possible the title refers to the uilleann pipes, another double-reed instrument. A simplified form of the melody is contained in the Joseph Kershaw manuscript. Kershaw was a fiddler who lived in Slackcote, Saddleworth, North West England, in the 19th century, and his manuscript dates from around 1820 onwards. The tune appears to have been first published in London by Longman, Lukey and Broderip in 1776 in Bride's Favourite Collection of 200 Select Country Dances, Cotillons. It appears in a few other period publications, and in several musicians' manuscript collections on both sides of the Atlantic, including London musician Thomas Hammersley's c. 1790 copybook, the c. 1792 Scottish John Carter copybook, American fluter Henry Beck's manuscript (1786), and Shelburne, Nova Scotia, flute player (Ensign) Thomas Molyneaux's collection of 1788, among others.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Aird (Selections), vol. 1, 1782; No. 14. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 733. The Joseph Kershaw Manuscript, 1993; No. 12. Petrie-Stanford (Complete Collection), 1903-06; No. 1499 (appears as "Mary Donlevy"). O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 570, p. 100.
Recorded sources: