Annotation:Spellan the Fiddler
X:1 T:Spellan the Fiddler R:hornpipe B:O'Neill's Music of Ireland. 1850 Melodies, 1903, p. 322, no. 1731 Z:François-Emmanuel de Wasseige L:1/8 M:C| K:G ((3DEF)|G>DB>G d>Bg>d|b>g (3ded c>BA>G|.F(d^cd) .A(dcd)|d>ce>d c>AF>D| G>DB>G d>Bg>d|b>g (3ded c>BA>G|f>ec>A e>dB>G|(3FGA (3DEF G2:| |:g2|b>gd>B G>Bd>g|a>fc>A F>Ac>f|a>gb>a c'>ba>g|f>ed>c B>AG>F| G>DB>G d>Bg>d|b>g (3ded c>BA>G|f>ec>A e>dB>G|(3FGA (3DEF G2:|]
SPELLAN THE FIDDLER (Ua Spealain an fidileir/beidleadoir). Irish, Hornpipe (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. This and the other ‘Spellan’ tunes (“Spellan's Delight,” “Spellan's Fancy,” “Spellan's Fiddle,” “Spellan’s Inspiration”) were obtained from a music manuscript in the possession of Sergeant James O’Neill, the musically literate fiddler from County Down who was Captain Francis O’Neill’s collaborator on Music of Ireland (1903). Spellan, according to Brendan Breathnach (Ennis, 1977), was a leader of an orchestra in Dublin who later moved to Belfast, though Breathnach suggests Spellan may not indeed have composed “Spellan the Fiddler.” Caoimhin Mac Aoidh states that O’Neill’s source was one Spillan, a fiddler from Kerry, who had a penchant for composing. See also the related “Tailor's Twist.”
