Annotation:Father Fielding's Favorite
FATHER FIELDING'S FAVORITE (Roga an {t-}Atar Fielding/Fitceallaig). AKA and see "Ella Rosenberg," "I'll Tell My Mammy," "Italian Monfrina," "John Byrne's," "Katie's Donkey," "Pander Dance," "Pandian Air (1)," "Soldier's Joy (Jig)." Irish, Double Jig (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Harker/Rafferty, O'Neill): AA'BB' (Connolly & Martin). Named in honor of Fr. James K. Fielding of Kilkenny, a friend of compiler Captain Francis O'Neill's in Chicago, who, like O'Neill, played the flute and was interested in preserving traditional Irish music. Fielding was also a Gaelic League activist and believed in 'Ireland for the Irish.' The original title of the tune was "Ella Rosenberg," found in Mooney's History of Ireland--this title is the name of a melodrama in two acts by James Kenney, written in 1807 and produced at the Theatre Royal on London's Drury Lane. O'Neill (1910) says that Fielding was so taken by the tune, and promoted it so enthusiastically, that it became known as "Father Fielding's Favorite." O'Neill says: "His Reverence induced the good sisters of the parish to teach it to their most promising music pupils, while he cheerfully accompanied them on the flute." The title "Katie's Donkey" comes from flute player Mike Rafferty, who identified it as an old Ballinakill (County Galway) tune, but who couldn't find a title for it and so named it after a woman who owned a donkey near Loughrea (Harker, 2005). Fiddler Seán Maguire (accompanied by pianist Eileen Lane) recorded the melody on a 78 RPM in the late 1950's.
