SHANDON BELLS (Clogaide/Cluig Sean-Duin). AKA and see "Punch for the Ladies," "Ronayne's Jig." Irish (originally), Canadian, American; Double Jig. USA, New England. Canada; Ottawa Valley, Ontario, Prince Edward Island. D Major. Standard. AA'B (O'Neill/1850 & 1001): AABB (Miller & Perron, Perlman): AA'BB (O'Neill/Krassen & 1915): AA'BB' (Begin). The tune is named for a bell tower in the city of Cork. According to Francis O'Neill (in Irish Folk Music, pg. 87), "No double jig ever introduced in Chicago met with such immediate popularity among musicians and dancers as Shandon Bells." Sources for notated versions: Chicago fiddler Edward Cronin, originally from Limerick Junction, County Tipperary, who "learned it in his youth...but it was entirely unknown, it seems, except in that locality" [O'Neill]; Allan MacDonald (b. c. 1950, Bangor, North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]; Dawson Girdwood (Perth, Ottawa) [Begin]. Begin (Fiddle Music in the Ottawa Valley: Dawson Girdwood), 1985; No. 2, pg. 16. Miller & Perron (New England Fiddler's Repertoire), 1983; No. 28. O'Neill (1915 ed.), 1987; No. 156, pg. 88. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 27. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 814, pg. 152. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 1, pg. 17. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; pg. 125. Sannella, Balance and Swing (CDSS). Fretless 200a, Yankee Ingenuity--"Kitchen Junket" (1977). Green Linnet GLCD 1128, Brendan Mulvihill & Donna Long - "The Morning Dew" (1993). Rounder CD 7014, Anastasia DesRoches - "Fiddlers of Western Prince Edward Island" (1997). Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40126, Lamprey River Band - "Choose Your Partners!: Contra Dance & Square Dance Music of New Hampshire" (1999).
T:Shandon Bells
L:1/8
M:6/8
K:D
AFD DFA|ded cBA|BGE E2G|B2A Bcd|AFD DFA|ded cBA|Bcd ecA|d3 d2B:|
|:f2d dcd|f2a afd|cAA eAA|cAc efg|f2d dcd|faa afd|Bcd ecA|d2d d3:|
SLÁN LE MÁIGH (Farewell to the Maigue). AKA and see "The Bells of Shandon." Irish, Air (4/4 time). D Major. Standard. One part (Ó Canainn): AAB (Miller & Peron). The collector George Petrie remarks that the author of this song is "the clever but deplorably licentious Irish poet Andrew Magrath" and "one of the most distinguished of a class of men--usually hedge schoolmasters--who, for nearly a century by their writings, teachings and, too generally, reckless lives, exercised an influence over the minds and, as may be feared, even the moral feelings of the fine-hearted but excitable peasantry of Munster."
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A set of lyrics was written to the tune by Francis Sylvester Mahony (Father Prout), honoring the famous bells of St. Anne's in Shandon, Cork. The cleric wrote them while studying in the Jesuit College in Rome in 1804, no doubt remembering the eight bells, one of which bears the inscription We were all cast at Gloucester in England. Abel Rdhall, 1750. The church itself was built in 1726 on the site of an earlier church, destroyed during an attack on the city in 1690, and good views are to be found from the bell tower. Father Prout's song begins:
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With deep affection and recollection
I often think of those Shandon Bells
Whose sounds so wild would, in my days of childhood
Fling round my cradle their magic spells
On this I ponder where'er I wonder
And thus grow fonder sweet Cork of thee
With thy bells of Shandon that sound so grand on
The pleasant waters of the River Lee
WEDDERBURN HOUSE. Scottish, Reel. D Minor (Glen): D Mixolydian (Little). Standard. AAB (Glen): AABB' (Little). Composed by Abraham MacIntosh. Wedderburn Castle, a Scottish Georgian country mansion, is located in the south east Borders region near the town of Duns. Both the structure and lands have been held of the Home family from the 14th century to the present day, although the building has evolved from the original fortified tower. Mary Queen of Scots stayed there on her journey to survey the English defensive walls at Berwick-upon-Tweed.
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The story of the Home family is a tragic tale. The present-day Wedderburn House was commissioned by Patrick Home of Billie, whose mother, a rich widow, had been the victim of a gruesome murder in 1751 at her home in Linthill, Berwickshire, in the Borders region of Scotland. The crime's perpetrator really was the butler in this case, roused to the deed with the widow's discovery of her employee, one Norman Ross, in the act of stealing from her. He cut her throat and escaped by jumping out a window, but before the Mrs. expired she was able to ring a bell and raise an alarm. Mr. Ross broke his leg during the escape and was soon caught by the servants. He was subsequently tried and hanged for his crime. The widow was victimized yet one more time; her funeral cortege set out from Lintill for Bunkle church without her coffin, and the party had to return to the house for it.
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Patrick was sent to University on the Continent, at Leipzig, after which he moved to Berlin and frequented the court of Frederick the Great. There, he fell under the spell of Sophie de Brandt, a lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Prussia, and he determined to have her hand in marriage. Trusting that this would happen, he returned to Berwickshire and commenced building a magnificent classical home near the river Tweed, employing the finest architects and artisans he could find (the interior was designed by the famous Robert Adam). Upon its completion around 1760 Paxton House, as it was called, was reckoned the finest country house of the time. Unfortunately, Patrick's intentions to marry Sophie met with objections in her homeland, and Patrick was unable to be granted her hand in marriage.
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After some time he tried his hand in love again, and met another lady of quality whom he courted and this time did marry. Not wanting to reside in Paxton House, Patrick commissioned yet another fabulous mansion, again commissioning Robert and James Adam as designers. He wanted no part in the building, however, and left that to his nephew George Home, while he and his bride departed for a fashionable Grand Tour of the Continent. The tour took six years, with George supplying letters to update Patrick on the progress of his home. The high point of any Continental trip was Rome, and it was there that the couple befriended a Mr. Moore, also on a Grand Tour, but whose interest in architecture was not what Patrick's was. The new Mrs. Home was by this time not so keen on ruins either, and saw that other amusements were possible. When Patrick returned early from one of his outings he found his wife and Mr. Moore in bed together. The couple, still husband and wife, returned to Scotland.
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Wedderburn House, or Wedderburn Castle as it came to be called because of the crenelations just becoming popular in the mid-18th century, was justly willed to George Home, the builder. The last additions were made to the structure in the 1820's; a front porch and two-story stair hall, where guests ascend the grand sweeping steps to the reception rooms.
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