Annotation:Donegal Mazurka (1)
Tune properties and standard notation
DONEGAL MAZURKA [1]. AKA and see "Charlie Lennon's," "The Irish Mazurka," "Old Donegal Mazurka." Irish, Mazurka (Waltz). Ireland, County Donegal. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Carlin): AA'BB (Phillips). The melody (as "The Irish Mazurka", a generic title supplied by the record company for an untitled mazurka) was recorded in May, 1937, in New York on a 78 RPM disc by Donegal fiddler Hugh Gillespie (1906-1986). It was Gillespie's first recording session (although he had been in the United States since 1928), and he was accompanied by a guitarist named Mark Callahan for the session as he preferred the guitar to the usual piano accompaniment of the era's Irish recordings. He was in demand as a sideman, and played duets with Michael Coleman on the radio, and sometimes joined Packie Dolan's band as well as his cousin, Jim Gillespie's, group. Jim Gillespie was an accordion player, and the band played regularly in a Polish neighborhood, where the audience liked to hear mazurkas and the varsovienne. Hugh was born in Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, in 1906, and returned to Ireland late in life, dying on the farm he purchased in County Donegal.
Source for notated version: Donegal fiddler John Doherty (Phillips).
Printed sources: Carlin (Master Collection), 1984; p. 165, No. 295. Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook), 1989; p. 15.
Recorded sources: Comhaltas Ceoltoiri 10, John Doherty. Green Linnet GLCD 3066, Hugh Gillespie - "Classic Recordings of Irish Traditional Fiddle Music" (1992. Reissue recording)