Annotation:O'Connell’s Welcome to Parliament (1)
Tune properties and standard notation
O'CONNELL'S WELCOME {TO PARLIAMENT} [1]. Irish, Jig; American, Jig or March. G Major (most versions): D Major (Bayard). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Bayard (1981) regards this piece as a major form of the Irish tune "Slan agus Beannacht le Buaidhreamh an tSaoghail" (Farewell to the Troubles of the World), usually played in the Dorian or Mixolydian mode. Also derived from the original tune, he thinks, is the jig "Maid on the Green (The)/"Maiden on the Green (The)." The first strain has some melodic contour similarities with the "Blackthorn Stick (1)" family of tunes, that includes "Maid on the Green." Howe (c. 1867) includes the tune in a section from the playing of Jimmy Norton, the “Boss Jig Player,” who was a mid-19th stage fiddler and entertainer, treading the footlights from an early age. The tune that usually goes by the “O’Connell” title in modern sessions is "O'Connell's Welcome to Parliament (2)," below, a different melody.
Source for notated version: Hiram Horner (fifer from Westmoreland and Fayette Counties, Pa., 1944, 1960; who plays it "as always heard from fifers and bagpipers") [Bayard].
Printed sources: Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 623, p. 548. Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 68. Howe (Diamond School for the Violin), 1861; p. 66. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 32 (appears as “Daniel O’Connell’s Welcome to Parliament). Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 99.
Recorded sources: Jonathan Edwards Memorial Foundation JEMF105, L.O. Weeks "New England Traditional Fiddling" (1978).