Annotation:Spellan's Fiddle
X:1 T:Spellan’s Fiddle M:C| L:1/8 R:Hornpipe S:O’Neill’s Music of Ireland. 1850 Melodies, 1903, p. 300, no. 1616 Z:François-Emmanuel de Wasseige K:A c>d|e>ag>b a>fe>c|A>GA>B c>AE>D|C>EA>c d>cB>A|G>Be>g f>cd>B| A>ag>b a>fe>c|A>GA>B c>AE>D|C>EA>c (3Bgf (3edB|A2c2A2:| |:G>A|B>cB>A G>Be>f|g>ag>e B>eg>b|a>gf>a g>fe>g|f>b^d>b c>bB>b| B>cB>A G>Be>f|g>bg>e d>eg>b|a>f^d>B (3dcB (3AGF|(3EGB (3egb e'2:|]
SPELLAN'S FIDDLE (Fidil Ui Spealain). AKA - "Spillane's Fiddle." AKA and see “Cora Donn (An),” “Gahan's,” "Gillespie's," "Hornpipe (3)," “Jim Mullin's Hornpipe," "McCormick's." Irish, Hornpipe. G Major (O'Neill/Krassen): A Major (O’Malley, O'Neill/1850). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (O’Neill): AA’BB’ (O’Malley). According to a letter Francis O'Neill wrote to Alfred Percival Graves, all the 'Spellan' tunes in O'Neill's collection came from the music manuscripts of Chicago Police Sergeant James O'Neill, a musically literate fiddler originally from County Down. O'Neill identified Spellan as the leader of an orchestra in Dublin who later moved to Belfast. However, the provenance of "Spellan's Fiddle" is somewhat in question. Paul de Grae finds "Spellan's Fiddle" to be a "near-duplicate" of an untitled hornpipe in Köhler's Violin Repository, vol. 1 (1881, No. 53), furthermore:
It is also related to Howe's "Double Clog Dance" [EH 31 and 58] and "Norton's Best Hornpipe" [EH 32]; both of these tunes also appear in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883): "Double Clog Dance" as "Gray's Opera House [RMC 159] and "Norton's Best" Hornpipe three times, as "Norton's Favorite" [RMC 143], "Remembrance of Dublin" [RMC 156], and, slightly altered, "Amazon Hornpipe" [RMC 133].
"Star Hornpipe (The)" [MI 1654, DMI 875] and "Spring Garden (The)" [MI 1681, DMI 999] also appear to derive from one or both of these two tunes[1].
It would seem that, at the least, significant melodic material found in "Spellan's Fiddle" was in general circulation in the latter half of the 19th century. Fr. John Quinn concludes that O'Neill was copying the version found Köhler's, but (as a flute player) had missed out on "slur and cut" bowing.
Bronx fiddler and teacher Martin Mulvihill (1986) printed a version of the tune, misidentified under the title “Cora Donn (An)” ("An Comhra Donn" generally refers to another, musically unrelated, tune). The "McCormick's" and "Gillespie's" titles for "Spellan's Fiddle" stem from the 1937 Decca 78 RPM recording by fiddler Hugh Gillespie who played "Wily Old Bachelor (The)" and "Spellan's Fiddle" in a medley that was titled "McCormick's Hornpipe" on the recording label.
