Annotation:Never was Piping so Gay

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NEVER WAS PIPING SO GAY. AKA and see "Blacksmith’s Anvil (The)." Irish, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BB (Feldman & O'Doherty): AA'BB' (Bégin, Reavy). Composed by fiddler-composer Ed Reavy (1898-1988), originally from County Cavan, Ireland, who spent much of his life working as a plumber in Corktown, near Philadelphia, Pa. Ed's son Joseph Reavy explains the title comes from the last line of Yeat's poem "The Host of the Air" uttered by O'Driscoll, who awoke from a dream in which he imagined his wife had died while he was peacefully playing cards. All that remained of the dream was the distant sound of a piper-

But he heard high up in the air
A piper piping away,
And never was piping so sad
And never was piping so gay.

The tune was probably composed in the 1950's, says Philippe Varlet. Paddy Fahy played a variant of the tune, and it is therefore sometimes called "Fahy's" or "Paddy Fahy's" (as, indeed, are all his tunes) and sometimes miss-attributed to him.

X: 1
T: Paddy Fahy's
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
F: http://thesession.org/tunes/648
K: Gmaj
|:G,2 B,D GBdB|c2 ag fgdc|B~G3 BcdB|cBAG FDCA,|
|(3G,G,G, B,D GBdB|c2 ag fgdc|B~G3 BcdB|1 cAFA G2 DB,:|2 cAFA G2 Bc|
|:dgfa gdBG|FGAB c2 Bc|Aaag a3g|fdad bdad|
|(3ggg fa gdBG|FGAB c2 Bc|d~g3 defd|1 cAFA G2 Bc:|2 cAFA G2 DB,|

Sources for notated versions: Francie and Mickey Byrne (County Donegal) [Feldman & O'Doherty]; Dawson Girdwood (Perth, Ottawa Valley, Ontario) [Bégin].

Printed sources: Bégin (Fiddle Music in the Ottawa Valley: Dawson Girdwood), 1985; No. 7, p. 21 (appears as "Ravey's Reel"). Feldman & O'Doherty (The Northern Fiddler), 1979; p. 171 (appears as 1st half of "Untitled Reel"--the 2nd half of the piece is another Reavy composition, "Maudebawn Chapel"). Reavy (The Collected Compositions of Ed Reavy), No. 3, p. 3.

Recorded sources: Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40481, Brian Conway - "First Through the Gate" (2002. Learned from New York fiddler Andy McGann). Stockton's Wing - "Light in the Western Sky" (appears as second reel of "Chicago Set").

See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]