Annotation:Little Bench of Rushes (1)

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LITTLE BENCH OF RUSHES [1] (An Beinsín Luacra). AKA and see "Bonny Bunch of Roses (2) (The)," "Life is All Chequered with Plasures and Woes," "Bark is on the Swelling Wave (The)." Irish, Air (4/4 time, "gracefully"). D Minor (O'Neill): D Dorian (Darley & McCall). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Darley & McCall note the air became popular in Ireland and was adapted in England to a Napoleonic ballad called "The Bonny Bunch of Roses, O!" Both titles are allegorical, with "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" being England and "The Little Bench of Rushes" standing for Ireland. O'Neill's setting is similar to uilleann piper O'Farrell's "Bunch of Rushes (2) (The)," printed a hundred years earlier, and is also similar to O'Neill's own "Bonny Bunch of Roses (2) (The)."

The tune is unrelated to the similarly-titled "Bunch of Green Rushes (2) (The)", which is a variant of the "Black Rogue (1)" family of jigs.

Source for notated version: a MS by Mr. A. Lowe (Fairview, Ireland), containing a number of airs played by piper Hugh O'Beirne (Co, Leitrim) in 1846 [Darley & McCall].

Printed sources: Darley & McCall (Darley & McCall Collection of Traditional Irish Music), 1914; No. 55, p. 24. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 136, p. 24.

Recorded sources:



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