Annotation:Maggie Brown's Favorite
X:3 T:Miss Margret Brown's Favorite M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig B:Gow - Third Collection of Niel Gow's Reels, p. 29 (1792) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G g|dBG TG>AB|E2E TE2c|AFD DEF|G2G TG2g| dBG B>cd|E2E TE2c|AFD DEF|TG3 G2:|| g/a/|bgb afd|efg {f/g/a/}g>fe|DBg dBG|AFD D2g/a/| bgb afd|efg {a}gfe|(fa).f (ge).^c|d2d Tce=f| (ec).e (dB).d|(ca).c (Bg).B|(Ac)e dBG|FAF DEF| G>AB EFG|ABc def|(gd)B (cA).F|TG3 G2||
MAGGIE BROWN'S FAVORITE. AKA - "Maggie Brown," "Margrett Brown's Favorite," "Margaret Brown's Favorite," "Miss Brown's," "Miss Brown's Fancy (2)," "Miss Margaret Brown (Now Lady Camden)," "Peggy Browne," "Planxty Browne," "Planxty Maggie Brown." Scottish, Irish, English, Canadian, American; Single Jig or Set Dance (6/8 time). USA, New England. Canada, Cape Breton. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Cole, Gow, S. Johnson, Miller & Perron, Raven, Silberberg, Sweet): ABB (Harker/Rafferty): AABB (Brody, Allan's): AA'AA"B (Phillips): ABC (Kerr). The tune appears to have been composed by Edinburgh bandleader, fiddler-composer and music publisher wikipedia:Nathaniel_Gow, included with his name in the Gow publications Third Collection of Niel Gow's Reels, 3rd ed. (originally 1792) and Beauties of Niel Gow (1819). It was included under the title "Miss Margret Brown's Favorite" in the former and updated (to refer to her new status) "Miss Margaret Brown. Now Lady Camden" in the latter. No publications of the "Maggie Brown" tune have been found that predate Nathaniel Gow's (1792).
It is sometimes attributed to the blind Irish harper wikipedia:Turlough_O'Carolan (1670-1738), probably due to its appearance in O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1903) under the title "Planxty Browne." Donal O'Sullivan, in his definitive work on Carolan (The Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper, 1958), inserted the melody as an untitled air (No. 180) in a section of unidentified tunes, but was of the opinion that there was no evidence that it was a genuine work of that bard. "I have failed to trace [the tune] to [it's] source," he says, "whether printed or manuscript. [It's] style resembles that of Carolan, and accordingly it is not improbable that [it] was composed by him. But [O'Neill's "Planxty Browne"] title [is] almost certainly not authentic" [O'Sullivan, 1958, p. 288).
O'Neill may have based his attribution to Carolan on the fact that one Miss Margaret Brown, a real person, was the object the harper's affection for some time. Unfortunately for Carolan, his Maggie Brown married Theobald, Sixth Viscount Mayo, in July, 1702, who incidentally became a great patron of Carolan. The melody has been employed (at least once) for the Scottish song "Twa Bonnie Maidens," which is about Bonnie Prince Charlie's flight to the Isle of Skye after his defeat, disguised as a woman. However, the usual tune for the song is another Carolan air, "George Brabazon (2)."
