Annotation:Murphy's Hornpipe (2)

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Chicago's Irish Music Club, c. 1903. Adam Tobin is seated, extreme right.

MURPHY'S HORNPIPE [2] (Crannciuil Uí Murcada). AKA and see "Coronation Hornpipe (1)," "Dingle Hornpipe (The)," "Kerry Hornpipe (2) (The)." Irish, Hornpipe. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A nearly identical version of the hornpipe was printed earlier in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883) under the title "Coronation Hornpipe (1)," which vaguely suggests an English provenance for the tune. O'Neill was thoroughly familiar with the Boston-based Elias Howe company publication and harvested a number of tunes from Ryan's Mammoth and other Howe publications, not infrequently changing the name to emphasize an Irish connection. It is not known whether the 'Murphy's' title originated with source Adam Tobin or with O'Neill himself. See also the related "Cooney's Hornpipe," generally similar in the first strain but corresponding more closely in the second strain.

Additional notes
Source for notated version : - set dance music recorded at Na Píobairí Uilleann, late 1980's [Taylor]. "Tobin" [O'Neill]--O'Neill makes but brief mention of Adam Tobin, a Chicago piper and fiddler originally from Kilkenny, in Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913, p. 286), but has more to say in Irish Folk Music, A Fascinating Hobby (1910):

One of our best Chicago Irish pipers, Adam Tobin, is equally fluent on the flute and fiddle, and being of an accommodating disposition, is correspondingly popular. A young lady of his acquaintance had a date with her sweetheart one evening, but the latter being persona non grata with her father, how to circumvent the old gentleman’s watchfulness and keep him ignorant of her absence, was no simple problem.

The proverbial resourcefulness of her sex did not fail on this occasion, for she hit on a plan which required but Tobin’s kindly cooperation to prove successful. Her father was a great lover of Irish pipe music and enjoyed any discussion relating to that or kindred subjects - so she confided her difficulty to the sympathetic Adam and arranged for him to drop in early in the evening, and of course engross her father's attention until she returned from the theatre.

Everything worked out splendidly except that she did not show up at the appointed time. Tobin, however, posessed the loyalty and fortitude of Casabianca and continued playing and arguing until he collapsed from pure exhaustion long after midnight.

But what happened to the fair lady? Nothing much, only that when she got home, she stole quietly in and upstairs to her dormitory unobserved; her mind being so absorbed between the fear of detection and the delights of the evening, that she never thought of the gallant Tobin and his heroic sacrifice.

Printed sources : - McNulty (Dance Music of Ireland), 1965; p. 25. Miller & Perron (Irish Traditional Fiddle Music vol. 1), 1977; No. 40. Miller & Perron (Irish Traditional Fiddle Music), 2nd Edition, 2006; p. 120. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 2, p. 87. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 179. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 1624, p. 301. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 856, p. 148. Prior (Fionn Seisiún 2), 2003; p. 30. Taylor (Through the Half-Door), 1992; No. 66, p. 47. Taylor (Music for the Sets: Blue Book); p. 22.

Recorded sources : - Soodlum (tape), David McNevin - "50 Solos for Tenor Banjo." NPU 007, Seamus Meehan, Dermot McLaughlin, and Madonna Horran - "Face the Hob." Shaskeen - "Shaskeen Live."

See also listing at :
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]

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