Annotation:Dermot O'Dowd

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DERMOT O'DOWD (Diarmaid Ua Dubda). Irish, Slow Air (3/4 time). A Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (O'Neill/Krassen): AB (Johnson, O'Neill/1850). The melody has been attributed to harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738)--Francis O'Neill (1903), for one, included it in his section of Carolan compositions. However, according to authority Donal O'Sullivan (1958), the air is not a composition of the bard, and O'Sullivan questions several of the attributions to Carolan in O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1903). The melody originally was collected and printed by Edward Bunting in his Ancient Irish Music (1796 and again in 1809). The air also appeared in Crotch's Specimens of various styles of music referred to in a Course of Lectures read at Oxford and London, and adapted to keyed instruments by W. Crotch, Mus. Doc., Prof. Mus. Oxon. Crotch, who was Principal of the Royal Academy of Music (London) from 1823-1832 delivered lectures on various types of national music from 1800-1804 and 1820, and had them bound in three volumes, familiarly referred to as "Crotch's Specimens". The Irish tunes are contained in volume 1.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Clinton (Gems of Ireland: 200 Airs), 1841; No. 136, p. 69. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician's No. 5: Mostly Irish Airs), 2000; p. 1. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 233. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 653, p. 117.

Recorded sources: Fortuna 005, Patrick Bell - "Celtic Harp: The Music of Turlough O'Carolan" (1982).