Annotation:Keepsake (The)
KEEPSAKE, THE (An Cuimneacan). AKA and see "Kerry Girls (The)," "What's that to anyone whether or no?" Irish, Air (6/8 time, "gracefully"). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Chief O'Neill was sometimes stung by criticism of tunes admitted to his massive Music of Ireland (1903). In a 1906 letter to Alfred Percival Graves in 1906 (printed in "A Few Gossipy Notes" in the Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, London, he wrote:
Another tune "jumped on" was No. 575 ("The Keepsake"), I suppose on account of its name. It is a well-known Irish air, originally published in Smith's Irish Minstrel, Edinburgh, 1824, as "What's that to Anyone, whether or no?" Our setting is much superior to that."
