Annotation:Maid in the Cherry Tree (1) (The)
X:1 T:Maid in the Cherry Tree [1], The M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel S:O'Neill - Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907), No. 754 Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D cd|:eAAF G2 cd|eA (3AAA gefd|eAAF G2 Bc|dBgB BA A2:| ||e>a {b}(3aga baag|eaag (3efg dg|e>a {b}aga baaf|gedB BA A2| e>a {b}(3aga baag|eaaf g2 ga|bgaf gefd|edgB BA A2||
MAID IN THE CHERRY TREE [1], THE ("An Aindear Annsa Crann Siris," "An Aindir sa Crann-silin" or "An Gearrchaile sa gCrann Silíní). AKA and see "Gardener's Daughter (1) (The)," "Grand Gates of Annesbrook (The)," "Paddy Killoran's" Irish, Reel. A Mixolydian (O'Neill): A Dorian (Taylor). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (O'Neill): AABB (Taylor). O'Neill (1913) mentions this tune in connection with a sketch of uilleann piper and fiddler William F. Hanafin, born in 1875 in County Kerry, who emigrated to America in his adolescence, moving first to Massachusetts. Originally a fiddler, Hanafin though to buy a bag and chanter in Boston, and began to practice. One day, while practicing scales, he heard someone "in evident distress" in the next hotel room, and thought to investigate. When he inquired next door, he met a man who said he 'played a little' himself, and Hanafin handed him his instrument, which proved unsuitable as the other was left-handed. "Wait a minute till I come back," said the other. "I knew there was something coming by the way he fingered the old thing I had," O'Neill quotes Hanafin as writing, "There were eight or nine of us in the room. When the piper came back and harnessed on his own set of pipes, you may be sure we got the finest surprise of our lives. He started 'The Maid in the Cherry Tree.' I jumped up, and over the table in the centre of the room, and danced all around it, while the others stared in blank astonishment. His identity was a mystery to me, but I sat down beside him, and accompanied him on the fiddle for an hour. I heard Mike Hobbs, the bandmaster, talking about a great (Chicago) piper by the name of Patsy Touhey, and thinking this fellow might know him, I asked if he had ever met Touhey in his travels. When he modestly replied, 'I'm the man,' our surprise was hardly less than when he turned loose on his instrument." The tune is also printed by O'Neill as "Curragh Races (1)," and a version appears in Roche as "Humors of Old Knockaney (The)." See also the related "Paddy Lynn's Delight," and the Scottish tune "Highland Man that Kissed His Grannie (1)."
