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X:1
T:Humors of Winter, The
C:Mahoney
M:6/8
L:1/8
R:Jig
S:O'Neill - Music of Ireland (1903), No. 922
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:G
F | GAG GBd | gfe dBG | cde dfg | abg fed |
GAG GBd | gfe dBG | cde dgB | dcA G2 :|
|: B | BcB Bef | gfe e^de | fdB fdB | ge^d eBG |
BcB Bef | gfe e^de | fgf Bgf | e3 d2 :|
HUMORS OF WINTER, THE. AKA - "Sugra na geimread." AKA and see "Sleeping on a Doorstep." Irish, Double Jig (6/8 time). G Major ('A' part) & E Minor ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune, substantially the same save for some slight differences in the second strain, was printed in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883) under the title "Sleeping on a Doorstep" and was attributed in that publication to one 'Conn. Regan'.
Additional notes
Source for notated version : - "Mahoney" [O'Neill]. Paul de Grae credits the source as 'Patrick Mahoney'[1]. A 'Mahony' is credited as the source for one other tune in the O'Neill collections, "Jack Loughlin," and perhaps refers to the same person (despite the difference in spelling). No individual with a surname by either spelling appears in the membership of Chicago's Irish Music Club.
Chief O'Neill was known to have peppered the Chicago police force with native Irish emigre musicians needing steady employment. While no connection with O'Neill's informant has been established, there was a Patrolman Patrick P. Mahoney who was a Chicago policeman at the beginning of the 20th century, prior to O'Neill's retirement as Chief. Unfortunately, Patrolman Maloney was found to be complicit in a jewelry theft at Bernard Hagamann's South Side store on Aug. 30, 1901, in which $9,000 worth of precious stones were reported missing. Mahoney supposedly supplied the two safecrackers with the tools to break into the safe. When the details of the robbery were published in the newspapers, Mahoney loudly boasted he would bring those responsible to justice, based on the testimony of an 'informant', who, being tipped off, promptly fled to Missouri. This aroused suspicions and the informant plus the safecrackers were located and arrested, only to give up Mahoney himself. However, the brains behind the heist was none other than Mahoney's superior, Captain Patrick Lavin. Mahoney took the fall and did not give up Lavin, in return for which Mahoney's family was taken care of in a lavish manner (leading to a second investigation in 1905). It all came out in the end[2].
Alternatively, the O'Neill's 'Mahoney' may refer to the accomplished West Clare flute player (and Chicago police patrolman) whose name was Patrick "Big Pat" O'Mahony, a man of prodigious physique, of whom O'Neill said: “…the 'swing' of his execution was perfect, but instead of 'beating time' with his foot on the floor like most musicians he was never so much at ease as when seated in a chair tilted back against a wall, while both feet swung rhythmically like a double pendulum":
Unlike many performers on the flute, whose “puffing” was so distressing and unpleasant,
“Big Pat’s” tones were clear and full, for his wind was inexhaustible. From his playing,
I memorized the double jigs “Out in the Ocean,” “The Fisherman’s Widow,” “The Cliffs
of Moher,” and several others. Among the reels learned from him were: “Big Pat’s Reel,”
“Happy Days of Youth,” “Miss Wallace,” “Little Kate Kearney,” and “Lady Mary Ramsey,”
or “The Queen’s Shilling”; also “The Thunder Hornpipe” and “Bantry Bay.”[3]
Printed sources : - O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 42. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 922, p. 172.
Back to Humors of Winter (The)
- ↑ Paul de Grae, "Notes on Sources of Tunes in the O'Neill Collections", 2017 [1].
- ↑ See Richard C. Lindberg, To Serve and Collect: Chicago Politics and Police Corruption, 1991, pp. 74-75.
- ↑ [O'Neill, Irish Folk Music, 1910, 18-19.
