Annotation:Night at the Fair (A)

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NIGHT AT THE FAIR, A (Oidce Ag An Aonac). AKA and see "Night of the Fair." Irish, Jig. Ireland, Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Source Johnny O'Leary (Co. Kerry) pairs this jig with the slide "Bill the Weaver's," according to editor Moylan. O'Leary himself though the tune to be "about two hundred years old," and identified it as one of the five or six jigs unique to 'Bill the Weaver' (Bill Murphy, father of Denis Murphy, called 'the Weaver' because his parents were both weavers. It may be that there was a Munster provenance for the tune, however, a nearly identical version to that printed by O'Neill appears in William Bradbury Ryan's Ryan's Mammoth Collection (Boston, 1883), where the composition is attributed to "H. Carey."

Francis O'Neill was Chief of Police in the city of Chicago during the still-famous Chicago World's Fair (1893), and it is hard not to think he had that event in mind when he included the tune.

Source for notated version: Bill the Weaver, via accordion player Johnny O'Leary (Sliabh Luachra, Kerry), recorded at Na Piobairi Uilleann, February, 1981 [Moylan].

Printed sources: Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 69. Moylan (Johnny O'Leary of Sliabh Luachra), 1994; No. 28, pp. 17-18. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 23. O'Neill (Music of Ireland), 1903; No. 788, p. 147. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 63, p. 27. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 99.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]



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