Annotation:Humors of Glynn (1)
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HUMORS OF GLYNN/GLIN [1] (Sugra/Plearaca na Gleanna). AKA and see "Cullen Jig (The)," "Good Morrow to Your Night-Cap (1)," "Humor of Glen," "Humors of Glen (2)," "Jackson's Hornpipe (1)," "Pádraig O’Keeffe’s Jig (1)," "Sligo Rambler (2)," "Tho' Lexlip is Proud," "Thomas Leixlip the Proud," "Virgin Wife and Widow (A)." Irish, Air (6/8 time, "cheerfully"). B Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Mitchell, O'Farrell, O'Neill): AABB (Tolman): AABCCDDEEF (Roche). This air was supposedly composed by the blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738), according to Irish musicologist Grattan Flood (whose attributions are much too often suspect), with words by Pierce Power, of Glynn, County Waterford. Edward Daly (Poets and Poetry of Munster) and Francis O'Neill (1913), however, credit composition of the entire piece to Power, who is identified as a "gentleman piper" from Glynn, and who composed the piece in the first quarter of the 18th century. Glynn, explains O'Neill, was at one time a small romantic country village that straddled the border between Counties Waterford and Tipperary on either side of the Suir, not far from Clonmel. It was anciently the seat of the influential Power(s) family. The song was an especial favorite with the Scots national poet Robert Burns, who used the air for his song "Their groves of sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon." "Humors of Glen" appears in R.A. Smith's The Irish Minstrel (Edinburgh, 1825) and McGoun's Repository of Scots and Irish Airs (Glasgow, 1803); in the latter publication it is published with eight sets of variations. Flood (1906) notes that O'Keefe, previous to this, had also set this air to a song he called "Tho' [Though] Leixlip is proud" (corrupted by O'Neill into "Thomas Leixlip the Proud"). Under the Leixlip title it appeared in William Sheild's opera Poor Soldier (1783).
The melody exists in both air and jig versions: famous early 20th century piper Patsy Tuohey recorded the tune set as a jig under the title "The Sligo Rambler," while Miltown Mabay piper Willie Clancy played it as an elaborate set piece. "Humors of Glynn" is known as a piping "piece," a showcase tune for the uilleann piper (see also "Nora Criona/Wise Nora"). O'Neill (1913) records it was played by piper Peter Cunningham (who lived in the 19th century in County Kildare) on his deathbed, and Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin says the tune is associated with the West Clare piper Garret Barry (1847-1899). Cork piper Daniel O'Leary, known as the Duhallow Piper, famously played the tune, which at one hearing so impressed a correspondent for the Dublin Penny Journal of October 1834, that he declared O'Leary's rendering in his estimation the ne plus ultra of bagpipe music (Breathnach, 1997).
Source for notated version: piper Willie Clancy (1918-1973, Miltown Malbay, west Clare) [Mitchell].
Printed sources: Ceol, vol. IV, No. 22. P.M. Haverty (One Hundred Irish Airs vol. 1), 1858; No. 40, p. 17. Mitchell (Dance Music of Willie Clancy), 1993; No. 54, p. 61. O'Farrell (Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes), c. 1805-1810; No. 1, p. 12 (appears as "Humours of Glen"). O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 176, p. 31. Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 1), 1912; No. 36, p. 18. Tolman (Nelson Music Collection), 1969; p. 6 (appears as "Humours of Glen").
Recorded sources: Jerry O'Sullivan - "O'Sullivan meets O'Farrell" (2005). Drumlin Records BMNCD2, Brian McNamara - "Fort of the Jewels" (2004). The McNamara Family - "Letrim's Hidden Treasure" (1998. A version from the Stephen Greir manuscript, Leitrim).
See also listings at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [2]