Annotation:Terence's Farewell
X:1 T:Terence's Farewell O:Ireland M:3/4 L:1/8 R:Air B:Howe – Musician’s Omnibus No. 3 (1865, p. 220) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Gmin G>A|.B.d z z2B|.A.c z B2A|GF !fermata!D2 G>A|B2d3B|A2c3A|G4 G>A| B2d3B|.A.c z2zA|G2F2D2|B3A G2|D2G2^F2|!fermata!G4A2| B3 cde|f2d2B2|[DA][DF]z2 G>A|B3 (cde)|f2 z2 df|!fermata!g4 g2| f3e d2|c2d2B2|A2!fermata!F2 G>A|B3A G2|D2G2z^F|!fermata![G6g6]||
TERENCE'S FAREWELL. AKA - "Terence's Farewell to Kathleen." AKA and see "Pretty Maid Milking the Cow (2)." Irish, Air (3/4 time). G Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. Boston music publisher Elias Howe printed the tune in his “Irish Airs” section of his Musician's Omnibus No. 3 (1865) with the name "Terence's Farewell," although the melody is a traditional air called "Pretty Maid Milking the Cow (2)". The title "Terence's Farewell" is from a song set to melody by Lady Dufferin (1807-67) called "Terence's Farewell to Kathleen." Lady Dufferin was Helen Selina Blackwood (née Sheridan, a granddaughter of playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan). Although Irish, Helen was raised primarily in London and South Africa. She married Captain William Blackwood (1826-1902) who succeeded to the Clandeboye Estate in County Down in 1839. He went to Skibbereen to assist in the Famine relief effort there in 1847. "Terence's Farewell to Kathleen" begins:
Oh my Kathleen you're going to leave me,
All alone by myself in this place;
But I'm sure that you'll never deceive me,
Oh no if there's love in that face.
Though England's a beautiful country,
Full of elegant boys and what then;
You'll never forget your poor Terence,
You'll come back to old Ireland again.
Lady Dufferin's works were published in A Selection of the Songs of Lady Dufferin (1895), which also included her "Lament of the Irish Emigrant" and "The Bay of Dublin".
