Annotation:Maid of Athens
X:1 T:Maid of Athens M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel S:White's Unique Collection (1896), No. 73 Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D FAAF GFED | FAAc dABG | FAAF GFGB | AFdF E2D2 | FAAF GFED | FAAc dBAG | FAAF GFGB | AFdF E2D2 :| |: fddf geeg | fded (cA) A2 | fddf geeg | fdec d2d2 | fddf geeg | fded (cA)A2 | FAAF GFGB | AFdF E2D2 :|]
MAID OF ATHENS. AKA and see "Heathery Cruach (2)," "Hornless Cow (1) (The)," "Maid (The)," "Maid that Dare Not Tell (The)." American (originally Irish), Reel. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. New York musician, writer and researcher Don Meade finds the tune a "primitive version of (the Irish reel) 'Dowd's No. 9', and was recorded by Donegal melodeon player Tom Doherty as 'Maid I Daren't Tell (The)'." "Maid of Athens," notes Don, is a poem by Lord Byron:
Maid of Athens, ere we part,
Give, oh, give back my heart!
An untitled reel in Book 2 of County Leitrim musician Stephen Grier's c. 1883 music manuscript collection is cognate in the first strain and similar in the second (see "Reel (61)").
