Annotation:Port Gordon (2)

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PORT GORDON [2]. AKA - "Lesson for the Harp (A)." Irish, March (4/4 time). D Minor (O’Farrell, Oswald): G Minor (Howe): E Minor (O'Sullivan). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (O’Farrell): AAB (Howe): AABB (O'Sullivan): AABBCCDD (Oswald). O’Neill (1922) remarks that in Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy vol.1, ‘Port Gordon’ is listed as one of Carolan's compositions, and it is also attributed to him in "O'Farrell's Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes (c. 1805, reprinted by O'Neill). However it is annotated by Belfast collector Edward Bunting [1] (1773-1843) as "Scottish Highland original, adapted to the Harp by Carolan." Bunting includes ‘Port Gordon [2]’ among the compositions of Rory Dall O'Cahan, a famous harper of the Western Highlands. The fact is that Carolan exercised his talents in retouching his predecessor's composition according to his own personal fancy. Bunting printed the air in his 1809 General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland as "A Lesson for the Harp," although his setting has come under criticism as having 'modernized' and distorted the original.

"Purth Clarseach" is a harp air recorded by the Irish collector Edward Bunting, and is a version of “Port Gordon.” Purth Clarseach = 'harp tune.'

Source for notated version: copied from O’Farrell’s Pocket Companion (1804-1810) [O’Neill]: "James O'Neill's inherited manuscripts” [O'Neill, MOI, 1903).

Printed sources: Howe (Musician’s Omnibus No. 3), 1865; p. 220. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 94. O’Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. 1), c. 1805; pp. 50-51. O’Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922; No. 62. O'Sullivan (Carolan: The Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper), 1958; p. 350 (appendix to the 2001 edition). Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book 8), 1760; p. 25.

Recorded sources: