Annotation:Vive La!
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VIVE LA! (THE FRENCH ARE COMING). Irish, March (2/4 time, "with spirit"). D Major (Roche): C Major (Stanford/Petrie). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Stanford/Petrie): AAB (Roche). The tune is a march version of the air usually known as "Loch Erroch Side," "I'm O'er Young to Marry Yet (3)," "Over the Hills to Glory," "Lass o' Gowrie (1) (The)," or "Lakes of Sligo (The)." The title refers to the hoped-for intervention of French troops on the side of the Irish in the rebellion of 1798.
Vive la! the French are coming!
Vive la! they're all in view;
Vive la! the Saxon's running--
What shall our poor yeomen do?
The tune is very close to the melody used for Davis's 19th century historical song "Clare's Dragoons." However, the tune has been used for centuries for various songs. Robert Burns set songs to two of the earlier forms of the melody, "A Song. -On Miss P- K-" (AKA "Loch Eroch Side") in 1784/5 and "I'm o'er Young to Marry Yet" in 1788. A song sheet at the Bodleian Library was issued (by "Haly Printer south Main street Cork, 18--") with the "Vive la" air set to a song called "The Irishman" James Connolly penned a song called "Human Freedom" set to the "Clare's Dragoons" version of the air.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 996, p. 254. Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 3), 1927; No. 46, p. 13.
Recorded sources:
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