Annotation:John Jones
Tune properties and standard notation
JOHN JONES. Irish, Planxty (3/4 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Composed by blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738). The subject of the composition has not been identified conclusively, although it is perhaps a Captain Jomes of Tirreagh, who, as told by Mulloy MacDermott:
...was in love with a young lady whom he dreaded to demand as his bride lest he should be refused by her parents. When he revealed his mind to Carolan, he composed this song in a strain of a lover deeply affected, an who could not survive without the objecto of his affections, and sung it in a mournful strain before the young lady, which fortunately for Captain Jones had the desired effect.
However, Edward Bunting recorded in his notebook the opinion of harper Denis Hempson (who was in his 40's when Carolan died, and, O'Sullivan believes, must have known him well) who thought that Jones was a tailor who had made Carolan a suit of clothes and did not charge him for it. Hempson thought that Carolan wrote the song in gratitude.
Source for notated version: Denis Hempson the harper, via Edward Bunting's manuscripts [O'Sullivan].
Printed sources: Complete Collection of Carolan's Irish Tunes, 1984; No. 63, p. 57. O'Sullivan (Carolan: The Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper), 1958; No. 63, p. 135.
Recorded sources: