Annotation:Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow (1)
X:1 T:Pretty Maid Milking the Cow [1], The M:3/8 L:1/8 R:Air Q:”Andantino” B:William Forde – 300 National Melodies of the British Isles (c. 1841, p. 6, No. 16) B: https://www.itma.ie/digital-library/text/300-national-melodies-of-the-british-isles.-vol.-3-100.-irish-airs N:William Forde (c.1795–1850) was a musician, music collector and scholar from County Cork Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Bb G/>A/|(Bd)B|(Ac)A|(G^F) G>A|(Bd)B|(Ac)A|G2 G/>A/| (Bd)B|(Ac)A|(G^F) (d/>c/|B>AG)|(DG)>^F|G2||G/>A/| (B>cd/e/)|(fcB)|(A<F) G/>A/|(B/A/B/c/d/e/)|(fd^f)|!fermata!g2 (g| =f/d/c/B/)|(A<F) !fermata!d/>c/|B>AG (D<G)^F|G2||
PRETTY GIRL MILKIN' HER COW [1] (An Cailin Deas Cruidte na m-Bo). AKA - "Pretty Maid Milking the Cow (1)." AKA and see "Pretty Maid Milking Her Cow (1)," "Valley lay smiling before me (The)," "I Would I Were But That Sweet Linnet," "Flower of all maidens (The)." Irish, Slow Air (3/4 time). A Dorian (Bruce & Emmett, O’Neill): G Minor (Kerr). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (O’Neill): AABB (Bruce & Emmett, Kerr). As can be seen by the alternate titles above, this popular and large Irish tune family is the vehicle for numerous folk songs, and can be heard in slip jig and even reel form in dance tune settings (see, for example, a polka version of the tune under "Pretty Maid Milking Her Cow (1)."). Norman Cazden (et al, 1982) collected the melody in the Catskill Mountains (New York) as "The Green Mossy Bands by the Lea," and discusses it extensively in his compendium Folk Songs of the Catskills. Other songs sometimes sung to it, he finds, are the lumber-camp favorite "Erin's Green Shores," "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine." In Pennsylvania, it has been collected as "The Pretty Girl Milking Her Goat." Cazden also notes that the melody was used for "Llanarmon" (a Welsh hymn), a Newfoundland song called "The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle," an 1888 London music hall song written by Lady Dufferin entitled "Terence's Farewell," and many others. Thomas Moore set his text "The valley lay smiling before me" to it. The air was played as a Retreat in the Union army during the American Civil War (retreat does not mean a withdraw in face of the enemy, but rather a camp call signaling the end of the day’s assigned duties with the coming of dusk).
See also versions under title "Pretty Maid Milking the Cow (1)."
