Annotation:Katy Darling

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KATY DARLING. American, Air (4/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. A popular song anonymously written around 1851, purportedly set to an Irish air. The first stanza (called "simple and artless" some forty years later) goes:

Oh they tell me thou art dead, Katy darling,
That thy smile I may nevermore behold!
Did they tell thee I was false, Katy darling,
Or my love for thee had e'er grown cold?
Oh, they know not the loving of the hearts of Erin's sons Then a love like to thine, Katy darling,
Is the goal to the race the he runs.
Oh hear me, sweet Katy,
For the wild flowers greet me, Katy darling,
And the lovebirds are singing on each tree;
Wilt thou nevermore hear me, Katy darling,
Behold, love, I'm waiting for thee.

The song was sung in countless parlors and minstrel shows.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: O'Flannagan (The Hibernia Collection), Boston, 1860; p. 16.

Recorded sources:

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