Annotation:Irish Girl (3) (The)
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IRISH GIRL [3], THE. AKA and see "As I Roved Out One Morning (2)." Irish, Air (4/4 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "This beautiful air, and the accompanying words, I have known since my childhood. I have copies of the song on broadsheets, varying a good deal, and much corrupted. The versions I give here of air and words are from my own memory, as sung by the old people of Limerick whin I was a child. More than half a century ago I gave this air to Dr. Pertie: and it is included in the Stanford-Petrie collection of Irish music, with my name acknowledged. But the words, as I give them here, have hitherto never been published though I have seen very corrupt versions in print" (Joyce). This melody served as the vehicle for many a folksong in the English speaking world, and versions have been collected in Canada, America and Australia. Cazden (et al, 1982) notes that several lumbercamp ditties were sung to it, including "Peter Emberley," some versions of "The Jam at Gerry's Rock," "The Farmer's Son and the Shanty Boy," and his Catskill Mountain (New York) collected "Adieu to Prince Edward's Isle." Phillips Barry identifies the tune strain for another Irish song in Petrie's collection, #498, "Maid of Timahoe (The)."
As I walked out one evening down by a river side,
While gazing all around me an Irish girl I spied;
A rosy red was on her cheeks, and coal-black was her hair;
And costly were the robes of gold this Irish girl did wear.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 382, p. 190.
Recorded sources:
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