Annotation:Merry Maiden (The)

Back to Merry Maiden (The)

MERRY MAIDEN, THE (An Aindear Meidreac). Irish, Double Jig. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The 'A' part is shared with "Wandering Minstrel (The)" and "Dandy Scholar (The)." Curiosly, O'Neill prints the jig twice, as "Willy Walsh's Jig" and as "Merry Maiden", both sourced to "O'Reilly."

Source for notated version: "O'Reilly" [O'Neill]. O'Neill perhaps refers to Marin O'Reilly, "The Blind Piper of Galway" whom he devotes a sketch to in Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913, pp. 239-240). A photograph of O'Reilly (taken by O'Neill's friend, Father Fielding) was inserted as a frontispiece in O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland (1907). O'Reilly had a moment of fame at the turn of the 20th century, when he played at the Belfast Harp Festival in 1903, but died in the poorhouse in Gort a few years later.

Printed sources: McDermott (Allan's Irish Fiddler), c. 1920's; No. 7, p. 3. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 63. O'Neill (Music of Ireland), 1903; Nos. 823 & 1063. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 267, p. 59. Roche (Collection of Irish Traditional Music, vol. 3), 1927; No. 104, p. 32.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]