Annotation:Keepsake (The)

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KEEPSAKE, THE (An Cuimneacan). AKA and see "What's that to anyone whether or no?" Irish, Air (6/8 time, "gracefully"). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Chief O'Neill was sometimes stung by criticism of tunes admitted to his massive Music of Ireland (1903). In a 1906 letter to Alfred Percival Graves in 1906 (printed in "A Few Gossipy Notes" in the Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, London, he wrote:

Another tune "jumped on" was No. 575 ("The Keepsake"), I suppose on account of its name. It is a well-known Irish air, originally published in Smith's Irish Minstrel, Edinburgh, 1824, as "What's that to Anyone, whether or no?" Our setting is much superior to that."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 575, p. 101.

Recorded sources:

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