Annotation:Drunken Sailor (1)

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X:2 T:Drunken Sailor [1] M:2/4 L:1/8 B:O'Flannagan - Hibernia Collection (Boston, 1860) N:This is one of Elias Howe's publications Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G D|GG/G/ GG|BdBG|AA/A/ AA|FAFD| GG/G/ GG|BdBG|eg f/g/a/f/|g3|| e|gg/a/ bg|fa fd|ee/f/ gf/e/|dgdB| c/B/c/d/ ed/c/|Bdgf|eg f/g/a/f/|g2z:||

DRUNKEN SAILOR [1], THE. AKA and see "Goodman's Quadrilles Figure 2," "Quick Step South Fencibles." English, Country Dance Tune (2/4 time); American, Dance Tune. USA, Michigan, southwestern Pa. D Major (Raven): G Major (Ford, Sweet). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (O'Flannagan): AABB (Ford, Raven): AABBCC (Sweet). The tune has been used for numerous songs, play-party tunes, and ditties, including "Ten Little Indians" and "The Monkey's Wedding." Bayard (1981) thought that the tune was a simplified version of the Irish hornpipe called "Groves (The)" (O'Neill's Music of Ireland, Nos. 1598 & 1703), which in turn seemed to him to have been based on a "simple, fundamental strain" of the Scottish "Johnny Cope (1)." Ralph Sweet, in his collection for the fife, tacked on as a third part to the usual two parts of the tune the first part of the nautical melody known as "Earl-ie in the Morning." Fuld, in The Book of World Famous Music, traced the tune to manuscript collections of around 1800 and in print to the mid-1820's. However, origins have been further clarified by Fr. John Quinn who identifies the tune as "Quick Step South Fencibles" published in Glasgow by James Aird.

The tune appears as the second figure of a set of untitled quadrilles entered into the large mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper Canon James Goodman (see "Goodman's Quadrilles Figure 2."

Additional notes
Source for notated version : - George Strosnider (elderly fidder from Greene County, Pa., 1930's), Thomas Patterson (Elizabeth, Pa., 1930's), Frank King (Westmoreland County, Pa., 1960).

Printed sources : - Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 223, pp. 179–180. Ford (Traditional Music of America), 1940; p. 74. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 201. Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune-Book, vol. 2), 1954; p. 22. O'Flannagan (Hibernia Collection), 1860; p. 14. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 144. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964/1981; p. 52. White's Excelsior Collection, 1898; p. 78.

Recorded sources : - Edison 51548 (78 RPM), 1923, John Baltzell (appears as 1st tune of "Drunken Sailor Medley" {Baltzell was a native of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, as was minstrel Dan Emmett (d. 1904). Emmett returned to the town in 1888, poor, and later taught Baltzell to play the fiddle}); Albert Boldt, of Harbor Beach, Michigan, in Karl Byarski Collection, University of Michigan-Flint [1];

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