Annotation:Miss Mahon's Hornpipe
X:1 T:Miss Mahon's T:McMahon's T:Seán Ryan's Hornpipe (2) N:The title for the tune was commonly "Miss Mahon's" in the 1950's and 60's, but N:became "McMahon's" thorough a mondegreen or printer's error. R:Hornpipe Z:Transcribed by Lesl Harker. "What Lesl thinks Mike Rafferty played." M:4/4 L:1/8 K:G (3GFE|:DGBG cABG|DG (3Bcd gzga|bg~g2 dedB|cBAG (3FED BG| DGBG cABG|Dz (3Bcd g~g2a|bg~g2 dedB|1 cAFA Gz (3GFE:|2 cAFA G4|| ||:bg~g2 agef|g~g2d ed (3Bcd|eB~B2 egfd|edcB AGEz| DGBG cABG|DG (3Bcd gzga|bg~g2 dedB|1 cAFA Gzga:|2 cAFA G4||
MISS MAHON'S (HORNPIPE). AKA and see "Paddy O'Brien's Hornpipe (3)," "Seán Ryan's Hornpipe (2)," "Trip to Vermont (The)." AKA - "McMahon's Hornpipe," "James McMahon's Hornpipe." Irish Hornpipe (whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BB'. The tune was composed to County Tipperary fiddler Seán Ryan, who did not have a title for it. It was printed in Brian Ryan's collection of the compositions of his father, The Hidden Ireland, and in Eamon Jordan's Whistle and Sing under the title "McMahon's Hornpipe", however, this name for the tune is probably a miss-hearing or a printer's error. Seán's tune was commonly known as "Miss Mahon's" in the 1950's and 1960's[1], and it is likely that the name 'Miss Mahon's' morphed into "McMahon's" erroneously. Cyril Maguire's collection The Hidden Fermanagh (2003) compounds the confusion of titles with a composer miss-attribution. There the hornpipe is credited to a specific 'McMahon', County Fermanagh flute player James McMahon (and thus appears as "James McMahon's Hornpipe"), although there is no evidence for this attribution.
Seán Ryan himself recorded the hornpipe with Peter Carberry in 1961 on their LP "Traditional Music from Ireland, vol. 2", where it is listed as "Seán Ryan's." Bulmer & Sharpley Music from Ireland, vol. 1 (1974) also gives the title as "Seán Ryan's," probably in association with the Avoca recording. Collector and field recordist Peter Kennedy recorded a version in the field in 1958 played by accordion player Jimmy Hogan, with the title on the recording appearing as "Paddy O'Brien's," presumably Hogan's source for the hornpipe. O'Brien was a first cousin to Seán Ryan, and would have had easy and early access to his compositions.
The "Trip to Vermont" title comes from a 1974 album by Seamus Cooley and fiddler Johnny McGreevey, but seems an idiosyncratic occurrence.
- ↑ Information regarding the confusion of attribution and title comes from a personal communication by Fr. John Quinn, Jan., 2021.