Annotation:Paddy Whack (1)

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X:1 T:Paddy Wack [1] M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig S:William Clark of Lincoln music manuscript collection (c. 1770, No. 34) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G V:1 clef=treble name="1." [V:1] D|GBd geg|fdc BAG|GBd geg|fdd d3{ef}| geg fdB|cec dBG|GBd cAc|BGG G2:| |:c|BdB cec|dBG A2G|Bcd efg|fdd d3 {ef}| geg fdB|cec dBG|GBd cAc|BGG G3:|]

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PADDY WHACK [1] (Paidin an Bualadoir). AKA – “Paddy Wack,” “Paddy O’Whack.” AKA and see “Little Peggy's (2),” "Pig under the pot (The)," “Tommy Reck’s,” "When history's muse," "While History's Muse," "Whoop(e)! do(e) me ne(e) harm good man," "Green Joke (The)," "Harp that in Darkness." Irish, Scottish, English, American; Double Jig and Quick March. USA; New York, southwestern Pa. England, Shropshire. G Major (Ashman, Ford, Kerr, Mulhollan, O'Neill, Peacock, Phillips, Raven, Ross): D Major (Bayard): A Major (Cole, Miller & Perron, White). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Bayard, Peacock, Raven): AABB (most versions): AABB' (O'Neill/1001). This popular tune has been often published from the later 18th century on in both fiddle and fife collections; some later publications have called it "Paddy O'Whack." The title is from a song by the same name, the chorus of which goes:

Di du mack whack,
And where are ye from?
The town of Ballyhack
Where seven praties weight a ton.

Several other songs have been set to the air, including “Villikins and His Dinah” and the American “Sweet Betsy from Pike.” Thomas Moore penned a lyric to the tune called "When/While History's Muse." County Cork cleric, uilleann piper and collector James Goodman entered the tune into his mid-19th century music manuscript collection (vol. 3, p. 73) as "Pig under the Pot", perhaps an air instead of a jig. He also entered a five-part setting of the tune in Book 4 (p. 155) of his collection as "Paddy Whack."

John Glen (1891) finds the earliest Scottish printing of it in Robert Ross's 1780 collection (p. 7). It appears in English collections before that date, however: Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the Most Celebrated Country Dances (c. 1756), Longman, Lukey and Broderip’s Bride’s Favourite Collection of 200 Select Country Dances, Cotillions (London, 1776), Straight and Skillern’s Two Hundred and Four Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1 (London, 1775), and Charles and Samuel Thompson’s Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3 (London, 1773). After appearing in these country dance volumes, “Paddy Whack” was often printed in instrumental tutors such as Longman and Broderip’s Entire New and Compleat Instructions for the Fife (London, c. 1780), Thomas Skillern’s Compleat Instructions for the Fife (London, c. 1780), Charles and Samuel Thompson’s Compleat Tutor for the Fife (London, c. 1770 and1786), Thompson’s Compleat Tutor for the Hautboy (London, 1790), Wilson’s Pocket Preceptor for the Fife (London, 1805), Northumbrian piper Peacock’s Favorite Collection of Tunes with Variations (Newcastle, 1805), and Clementi’s Entire New and Compleat Instructions for the Fife (London, c 1815), and, in America, Joshua Cushing’s Fifer’s Companion No. 1 (Salem, Mass., 1805), David Hazeltine’s Instructor in Martial Music (Exeter, N.H., c. 1810), and Gilford’s Gentleman’s Pocket Companion for the Flute or Violin (New York, c. 1802).

It is similarly well-represented in musicians’ manuscript collections of the period. In England, “Paddy Whack” appears in numerous musicians' manuscripts, particularly from the north of the country, including the William Clarke copybook (Lincoln, c. 1770), John Rook collection (Waverton, Cumbria, 1840), Joseph Kershaw copybook (Saddleworth, c. 1820's-30's), John Moore collection (Tyneside, 1841), Rev. R. Harrison collection (Temple Sowerby, Cumbria, c. 1815), and others. It was entered in the mid-19th century music manuscript of William Winter, a shoemaker and violin player who lived in West Bagborough in Somerset, southwest England.

American musicians’ commonplace books containing the jig include that of the Bellamy band (Hamden, Conn., 1799), flute player Micah Hawkins (1794), fluter William Williams (Pautuxit, R.I., 1775), fluter George Willis (1795), fluter R.B. Washburn (1816), flute player Ralph Pomeroy (New Haven and Hartford, Conn., 1790), clarinet player J. Williams (Salem, N.Y., 1799), Abel Shattuck (Colrain, Mass., begun 1801), woodwind player Silas Dickinson (Amherst, Mass., 1800), fluter Joseph Cabot (Cambridge & Salem, Mass., 1784), flutist Elias Boynton (Pepperell, Mass., 1799), fifer Ebenezer Bevens (Middletown, Conn., 1825), flute player Henry Beck (1786), John Beach (Gloucester, Mass., 1801), and Sarah Brown Hereshoff (1790). It retained its popularity in traditional music circles and was cited as having commonly been played at Orange County, New York, country dances in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn, New York Folklore Quarterly).

Perhaps the earliest recording is from 1905 by violinist Charles D’Alamaine, born in 1871 in England, who died in 1943. D’Alamaine immigrated to the United States in 1888, and by 1890 had established himself as “instructor on violin” in Evanston, Illinois; by 1910 he had removed to Yonkers, and in 1920 was a chiropractor in New York City (info. from Paul Gifford).

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