Annotation:Pretty Red Girl (1) (The)

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PRETTY RED {HAIRED} GIRL [1], THE (An Cailín Deas Ruadh). AKA and see "Blackthorn Stick (6) (The)." Irish, Air (3/4 time). D Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. A variant under the title "An Bata Druín" (The Blackthorn Stick) can be found in the [Martin] "Freeman Collection" (Journal of the Folk Song Society, volume 6, No. 10), though it is not the jig "The Blackthorn Stick" as found in O'Neill's. Another variant in the Freeman Collection is "Loch Léin." A similarly metered and structured melody is "Red Haired Man's Wife (1) (The)," which, although reminiscent of "The Pretty Red Haired Girl" in phrases, seems to be a different tune. Belfast collector Edward Bunting (1773–1843) may have either mistook the tune or deliberately altered it from the traditional source.

Source for notated version: the index to the Irish collector Edward Bunting's 1840 collection gives that the piece was obtained from "Thomas Broadwood Esq...Munster 1815."

Printed sources: Bunting (Ancient Music of Ireland), 1840; No. 89, p. 56. O'Sullivan/Bunting (Bunting's Ancient Music of Ireland), 1983; No. 89, pp. 133–134.

Recorded sources:

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