Annotation:Irish Lamentation (1)
Tune properties and standard notation
IRISH LAMENTATION. AKA and see "Limerick Lamentation," "King James' March to Limerick." Irish, Scottish, English; Slow Air, Waltz or Country Dance Tune (3/4 time). G Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Peter Barnes dates the melody to c. 1735 where it was used for a longways dance; he thinks "it's triple time measures were probably once danced with a six-count minuet step." The dating may be based on dance use, however, the melody as an air is quite a bit older in both Irish and Scottish tradition (see notes for "Limerick Lamentation" and "Lochaber No More,"). The melody appears earliest under the "Irish Lamentation" title in John Walsh's Third Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master (London, 1735, reprinted in 1749), followed by printings in Daniel Wright's Wright's Compleat Collection of celebrated country Dances (published by John Johnson in London in 1740), and John Simpson's Compleat Tutor for the Flute (London, 1745). The tune appears in a few American musicians' manuscripts dating from the end of the 18th century, including Allen Wilkes (1790), Justin Hitchcock (Deerfield, Mass., 1800), and Gurden Trumbull (Stonington, Conn., 1801).
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986. Matthiesen (Waltz Book II), 1995; p. 25.
Recorded sources: Flying Fish FF90564, Bare Necessities - "Take a Dance" (1991).