Annotation:O'Donnell Abu (1)

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O'DONNELL ABU. AKA - "O'Donal Abhu/Aboo." AKA and see "O'Donnell's March (1)," "Our Land Shall be Free," "Proudly the Note of the Trumpet is Sounding." Irish, March (4/4 or 2/4 time). G Major (Miller & Perron, O'Neill, Sweet): D Major (Mulvihill, Roche). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Miller & Perron, Mulvihill, O'Neill): AA'B (Sweet): AABB (Roche). This Irish march is at least as old as the late 16th century. It probably commemorates "Red Hugh" O'Donnell who was one of the leaders of the Irish forces in the wars with the Tudor English at that time. The tune is commonly played in New England for the dance "British Sorrow." Clearly an ancient tune, O'Neill gives source credit for his version in his Music of Ireland (1903) to fiddler and collaborator James O'Neill, however, in his Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913) he lists it as one of the "splendid martial airs" of Irish traditional music. "Proudly the Note of the Trumpet is Sounding" is the name of an c. 1843 song by Michael Joseph McCann, set to the air.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Miller & Perron (New England Fiddlers Repertoire), 1983; No. 59. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 10, p. 105. O'Neill (O'Neill's Irish Music), 1915; No. 105, p. 59. Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 2), 1912; No. 331, p. 57. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1965/1981; p. 74.

Recorded sources: Alcazar Dance Series FR 204, Rodney Miller - "New England Chestnuts 2" (1981).