Annotation:If I Had a Wife (2)
Tune properties and standard notation
IF I HAD A WIFE [2]. AKA and see "Mad Dancing," "Nellie Mahony's Slide (1)." Irish, Slide (12/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Source O'Leary maintained the Chieftains obtained this tune from himself and fiddler Denis Murphy as well as many others after being visited by Sean Keane and Paddy Moloney. The melody is associated with the rhyme:
If I had a wife, the plague of my life,
I'll tell you what I would do;
I'd buy her a boat and set her afloat,
And paddle my own canoe.
Source for notated version: accordion player Johnny O'Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border), recorded in 1985 at Kenmare [Moylan].
Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ II), 1976; No. 70. Ceol, vol 2, No. 4 (appears as "A Single"). Moylan (Johnny O'Leary), 1994; No. 128, p. 75. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, vol. 1), 1999; p. 26.
Recorded sources: