Annotation:Pat Fagan

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PAT FAGAN. English, Jig. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The piece sounds like a popular or music hall air of the time. The title may refer to a popular comic song by London singer and songwriter John Labern (c. 1815-c. 1880), published in 1843 called "Paddy's Museum" or "Paddy's Curiosity Shop." The first line sometimes is given as "Have you heard of Pat Fagan's Museum?," however, most published versions go:

According to Richard Anthony Baker in his British Music Hall: An Illustrated History (p. 15), Labern:

...wrote songs at one time considered obscene. Two collections, Labern's Comic Song Book and Labern's Original Comic Song Book were issued by a publisher of pornography, John Duncomb, of Holburn Hill. As a singer, Labern appeared at the Vauxhall Gardens and the Cyder Cellars. As a writer, he produced several songs for several of music hall's early entertainers, including W.G. Ross, J.W. Sharp and Sam Cowell...Labern's style eventually went out of favour. By 1873, he was running a shop near Tottenham Court Road selling newspapers and snuff.

Source for notated version: a c. 1847 music manuscript by Ellis Knowles, a musician from Radcliffe, Lancashire, England [Doyle].

Printed sources: Doyle (Plain Brown Tune Book), 1997; p. 16.

Recorded sources:

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