Annotation:Cummilum
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CUMMILUM. AKA - "Cumilum." AKA and see "Cammolan," "Cudgel (The)," "Riding a Mile (1)," "Drops of Brandy (1)," "Fairest Put on Awhile," "I Don't Care," "Irishman's Cudgel (The)," "Is Cuma Liom," "Lummdon," "New Drops of Brandy," "Virgin Queen." Irish, Scottish, Jig (Slip Jig). A Major (Kerr): D Major (O'Farrell). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Kerr): AABBCCDDEEFF (O'Farrell). The title is an Englished version of the Gaelic "Is Cuma Liom." The tune, as "Cummilum," appears in Samuel Lee's Jackson's Celebrated Irish Tunes (p. 1), first published in Dublin c. 1775, republished in 1790. It is attributed to the renowned 18th century gentleman composer Walker 'Piper' Jackson, of the townland of Lisduan, parish of Ballingarry, Aughrim, County Limerick. The melody predates Jackson, but Alfred Moffat (Minstrelsy of Ireland, 1897) believes Jackson may have given it the Irish name "Cummilum." Breathnach (1996) states that, along with "Mad Moll," "Drops of Brandy (1)," "Yellow Stockings" and others it belongs to a cycle of tunes originating in the 17th century or earlier, and appears in Playford's Dancing Master as "Mad Moll." R.D. Cannon, in his article "English Bagpipe Music" (Folk Music Journal, 1972) suggests the progenitor of the very large tune family is the Scots "Up with Aley." Other variants include "Drops of Whiskey," "Faraway Wedding (The)," "Jerry Houlihan," "Follow Her over the Border," "Honeymoon (The)," "Kitten (The)," "Hey My Nanny/Hey My Nancy," "Brose and Butter," "Cudgel (The)," and "Dusty Miller (The)." See also Northumbrian piper John Peackock's c. 1805 "New Drops of Brandy" and Carl Hardebeck's "Hoppity Hoppity." Thomas Moore employed the melody for his song "Fairest Put up Awhile." The name "Hey My Kitten" for the tune comes from Dean Swift's nursery song.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Campbell (10th Book of New and Favorite Country Dances), 1795; p. 22 (as "Cammolan"). Holden (Collection of Old Established Irish Slow & Quick Tunes), 1805; p. 10. Huntington (William Litten's Fiddle Tunes), 1977, p. 31. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 3), c. 1880; No. 234, p. 26. O'Farrell (National Irish Music for the Union Pipes), 1804; p. 42.
Recorded sources: