Annotation:Dumb Dumb Dumb

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DUMB, DUMB, DUMB. Irish, Air (4/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "This song was a favourite in the south of Ireland; and I picked up the air and words by merely hearing the people all round me sing it. I give it here from memory. The song was also known in England; and the English version will be found in Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, p. 120. Our version is shorter and rather more concentrated: and there are other considerable differences. The air is a variant of the 'Cruiskeen Lawn', but in the major. The English version is also sung to a variant of the same air, but there the minor mode is retained" (Joyce). See also Cazden's (et al, 1982) note for his Catskill Mountain (New York) collected song "The Wife Who Was Dumb" for more on this tune family and text. English versions, set in minor mode, are called "Paul's Steeple" and "I Am the Duke of Norfolk."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 389, pp. 196-197.

Recorded sources:

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