Annotation:Love is a Tormenting Pain

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LOVE IS A TORMENTING PAIN ("An Cuac Deas" or "Is Galar Craidhte an Gradh"). Irish, Air (3/4 time, "tenderly"). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The Irish collector Edward Bunting states in his 1840 collection that the tune was a composition from the year 1670 of the harper-composer William Connellan, whose more famous brother was the musician Thomas Connellan, although Bunting's own MS notes seem to suggest it was originally called the "Golden Hero." The Stanford-Petrie collection (1905) contains a tune entitled "Mo chreach is mo dhith is claoidhte an galar an gradh" (No. 1573), a version of this melody. O'Neill's version seems taken directly from Bunting, although he inexplicably credits himself (or his collaborator James O'Neill) for the version in Music of Ireland (1903).

Source for notated version: the Irish collector Edward Bunting noted the tune from harper Denis Hempson at Magilligan in 1796.

Printed sources: O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 172, p. 30. O'Sullivan/Bunting, 1983; No. 60, p. 93 (from Bunting's 1840 collection).

Recorded sources:

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