Crodh laoigh nam bodach
CRODH LAOIGH NAM BODACH (The Old Man's Calf). AKA and see "Plundering the Lowlands." Scottish, Air (3/4 time). D Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Martin): AB (Heymann). The air is found in a music manuscript of the early 19th century by the Maclean-Clephane sisters at Torloisk on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. It was taken from the "playing of {Echlin?} O'Kain by Mr. {Patrick} Macdonald." Heymann (1988) states that the travelling Irish harper Echlin O'Cathain was known to have spent time in Scotland. O'Cathain was born in 1729 and became a student of Cornelius Lyons, a famous harper. Besides Denis Hempson, he was the only surviving harper by the end of the 18th century to cultivate long fingernails in the ancient manner. Captain Simon Fraser prints a version of the melody in his Airs and Melodies (1815), and noted that the tune may have come from just south of Loch Ness, and was said to have commemorated a Highland cattle raid into the Lowlands.
Printed sources: Heymann (Secrets of the Gaelic Harp), 1988; p. 91. Martin (Traditional Scottish Fiddling), 2002; p. 64.
REPLACE THIS LINE WITH THE ABC CODE OF THIS TUNE
© 1996-2010 Andrew Kuntz. All Rights Reserved.
Engraver Valerio M. Pelliccioni