Annotation:Walsh's Hornpipe

Back to Walsh's Hornpipe

X:1 T:Walsh's Hornpipe B:Ceol Rince na hE/ireann II, Breanda/n Breathnach S:Denis Murphy, fiddle, Gneeveguilla, November 1970 R:hornpipe M:4/4 L:1/8 K:A E2|(3ABc EF Acec|(3def Bd de {e}f2|{a}fece aecA|BecA {d}BA F2| (3ABc EF Acec|(3def Bc de {e}f2|{a}fece aecA|BecB A2:| |:(3ABc|aece {fg}fece|aece {fg}fece|Aece aecA|BecA {d}BA F2| (3ABc EF Acec|(3def Bc de {e}f2|{a}fece aecB|(3ABc Bc A2:||

WALSH'S HORNPIPE (Cornuphiopa an Bhreathnaigh). AKA – “Willy Walshe’s Hornpipe.” Irish, Hornpipe. A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The first strain appears to be related to the “Friendly Visit (The)” tune family, while the second strain may be borrowed, notes Paul de Grae. “The second part of "Walsh’s" is rather like the tune equivalent of a “floating verse” in certain songs, and one might speculate that somewhere along the line, the second part of the original tune was forgotten and replaced with what we have now. A similar phrase turns up as the second part of O'Neill's "McCarthy's Hornpipe" (DMI 831), a.k.a. William Bradbury Ryan's "Blanchard's Hornpipe (1)" (RMC 120)” [Irtrad 2.16.12]. Cork accordion player Jackie Daly says the tune was a great favourite of Sliabh Luachra fiddler Denis Murphy's and came from the playing of Phillip Walsh, a traveling fiddle player from Maol Mountain (Sliabh Maol, now called Baraveha or Knockfeha, where the Brown Flesk River rises) in the Sliabh Luachra region of Cork/Kerry.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: - fiddler Denis Murphy, 1970 (Co. Kerry, Ireland) [Breathnach]; accordion player Johnny O’Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border) [Moylan].

Printed sources : - Breathnach (CRÉ II), 1976; No. 312, p. 159. Cotter (Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor), 1989; 83. Cranitch (Irish Fiddle Book), 1996; No. 90, p. 161. Moylan (Johnny O’Leary of Sliabh Luachra), 1994; No. 119, p. 69.

Recorded sources: -Gael-Linn CEF092, Julia and Billy Clifford - “Ceol as Sliabh Luachra.” Gael-Linn CEF132, Johnny O’Leary - “An Calmfhear/The Trooper” (1989). Globestyle Irish CDORBD 085, Jackie Daly - “The Rushy Mountain” (1994. Reissue of Topic recordings). Park Records PRKCD90, Kathryn Tickell - Strange but True" (2006). Topic 12T358, “Jackie Daly.” Kevin Burke & Micháel O’Domhnaill – “Promenade” (the order of the parts is reversed from the abc’s below). “Kevin Burke in Concert.”

See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Hear the tune played by Theresa Larkin & Noel McQuaid on youtube.com [3]

Back to Walsh's Hornpipe