Annotation:Three Little Drummers (1)

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X: 1 T: THREE LITTLE DRUMMERS' [1] -- JIG B: Ryan's Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes R: jig M: 6/8 L: 1/8 Z: Contributed 20010527161414 by John Chambers jc:trillian.mit.edu F:http://www.john-chambers.us/~jc/music/book/ryan-cole/Tunes/ThreeLittleDrummersJig.abc K: Amix uA \ | eAA eAA | BAG Bcd | eAA eAA | def g2f| eAA eAA | BAG Bcd | eaf g2f | eAA A2 :| |: ue \ | eaa {b}a^ga | e=gg {a}gfg | eaa eaa | def gdB | eaa {b}a^ga | e=gg g2e | def gdc | BAA A2 :|

THREE LITTLE DRUMMERS [1], THE (Na tri drumadoiride beag). AKA and see "Billy's Awake," "Cock in the Heath (1)," “Geese in the Bog (2),” “Ha'penny Bit (1),” "Humors of Duagh," “Jolly Old Wife (The),” "New Custom House (3) (The)," "Shimmey (The)," "Spirits of Whisky (2)," "Tenpenny Bit (1) (The)," “Up Sligo.” Irish, Double Jig (6/8 time). Ireland, County Leitrim. A Minor (Stanford/Petrie): A Mixolydian (Cole, Mulvihill): A Dorian (O'Neill, Stanford/Petrie): E Dorian (Moylan). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Stanford/Petrie). AABB (Cole, Moylan, Mulvihill, O'Neill/Krassen): AABBCC (O'Neill/1850, 1001 & 1915). Bayard (1981) identifies this as one more member of the of the myriad "Welcome Home" tune family. See Bayard's (1944) note for "annotation:Red Brick House in Georgia Town" for more on this tune family and related tunes. Petrie (1855) identifies the tune as “a county of Leitrim jig.” O’Neill (Irish Folk Music, 1910) remarked that “Highland pipers seldom play any other Irish jig for dancers but this, and it is to be found in most of their books of bagpipe music.” The famous uilleann pipe virtuoso Patsy Tuohey recorded the tune on an Ediphone cylinder around 1907.

"Humors of Listivain" and "Nuptial Knot (The)" are a similar-sounding tunes, not cognate but working in the same melodic vein, although Samuel Bayard grouped them in the same tune family. See also the first part of “Matt Teahan’s Delight,” notes Paul de Grae.

A distanced version of "Three Little Drummers [1]" is known as "Shimmey (The)" by musicians on the island of Newfoundland.

Additional notes
Source for notated version : - Francis O’Neill remembered hearing two parts of the tune as a boy in County Cork, the third (which is the second strain of the unnamed version in Stanford/Petrie) he learned in Chicago [O’Neill]; accordion player Johnny O’Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border), recorded at Na Píobairí Uilleann, October, 1984; O’Leary said: “‘Tis Din Tarrant played it, Doody’s uncle. ‘Tis him I heard playing it first above in Knocknagree” [Moylan]; “From P. Carew’s MS” (Stanford/Petrie).

Printed sources : - Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 46 (appears as "Quadrille"). Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 67. Giblin (Collection of Traditional Irish Dance Music), 1928; 76. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880; p. 36 (as “Tenpenny Bit”). Moylan (Johnny O’Leary of Sliabh Luachra), 1994; No. 138, p. 81. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 26, p. 124. O'Neill (O’Neill’s Irish Music), 1915; No. 143, p. 82. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 47. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 969, p. 180. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 189, p. 45. Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, 1883; pp. 92 & 97. Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection of Petrie's Irish Music), 1905; Nos. 110, 953 & 954, pp. 28 & 243.

Recorded sources : - Flying Fish FF 246, The Red Clay Ramblers "Hard Times" (1981). Leader LED 2060, John J. Kimmel - "Early Recordings Of Irish Traditional Dance Music" (1977). Tara 1008, John & James Kelly - "Irish Traditional Fiddle Music" (1974). Victor 18286b (78 RPM), Tom Ennis (1917. One of "Irish Jigs"). Yazoo 7008, Patsy Tuohey (et al) – “Wheels of the World.”

See also listing at :
Alan Snyder’s Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]
Alan Ng’s Irishtune.info [2]

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