Annotation:McDonnell's Hornpipe
X:1 T:McDonnell's Hornpipe M:C| L:1/8 R:Hornpipe S:O'Farrell - Pocket Companion, vol. IV (1810) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D AG | FA D2 D3d | ce A2 A3g | fgab (gfed) | efed cBAG | FA D2 D3 d | ce A2 A3g | fgab fedc | d4 d2 :| |: A | d3e dAFA | BG(FG) BG(FG) | egba gfed | c2A2A2 GF | G2b2b3c' | F2a2a3b | gfed fedc | d2d2d2 :| |: e | f3g fdBd | gfge fdBc | dBfe dcB^A | B2F2F2 de | f3g fdBd | gfge fdBc | dBfe dcB^A |1 B B>B B2B2 :|2 Bdce dBAG :|
McDONNELL'S HORNPIPE. Irish, Hornpipe. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC'. Seán Donnelly, in his article "A Piping MP: Joseph Myles McDonnell (1796-1872), Doo Castle, Ballaghadereen, County Mayo" [The Seán Reid Society Journal, vol. 1, March, 1999], notes that ‘McDonnell the gentleman piper,’ was recorded as having performed on stage in County Cork in the 1770's. He believes it is the same 'McDonnell the piper' from whom Edward Bunting collected tunes from in the 1790's and further believes that O'Farrell's tunes "McDonnell's Rant" and "McDonnell's Hornpipe" were named in his honor. "Like Denis Courtney, John Murphy and O’Farrell himself, McDonnell was to be found playing in London in the 1790s, where they all enjoyed the patronage of the Highland Society of London, and McDonnell and Murphy also visited Edinburgh to give recitals in the late 1790s." McDonnell's given name was James.
Fr. John Quinn has found that the first and third strains of "McDonnell's Hornpipe" can be found as the two-part "Fitzmaurice's Hornpipe" in uilleann piper Richard Fitzmaurice's c. 1807 collection, New Collection of Irish Tunes, printed in Edinburgh c. 1807. The strains are cognate but not identical. Fitzmaurice did not state that he was the author of tunes in his collection, and at times has changed tune titles for his own purposes (e.g. "John Drury (2)" becomes "Miss Elphinstone's Compliments to Lady Fingall"), so the hornpipe that bears his name in the collection may have simply been a tune for which he had no title, nor remembered the middle part.
