Annotation:Uair Bheag Roimh a' Lá
X:1 T:Uair Bheag Roimh a' Lá M:C L:1/8 S:Charles Byrne, harper, 1806 B:Bunting - General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music (1840, p. 48) K:Emin (3EGB|c2 dc cBcA|AGAB cB z2|EFGE A2 GE| E4 E2z2|| |:BcdB e2 ef|edcB cB z2|edcB cBAG|A2 GE E3 G/B/| c2 dc cBcA|AGAB cB z2|EFGE A2 GE|E4-E2:||
UAIR BEG/BHEAG ROIMH A’ LÁ (A Little Hour Before Day). Irish, Air (4/4 time). E Minor (O’Sullivan/Bunting): F Minor (Petrie): D Minor (Goodman). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Goodman, Petrie): ABB (O’Sullivan/Bunting). The tune was originally published in John and William Neale's 1787 collection. The words to the tune give advice for childbirth: O’Sullivan (1983) translates, “Doctor dear, give me advice, a little hour before day, What is the best way to bear a child, A little hour before day?” “Draw your knees together and clench your fists, And walk nine times round the hearth, Go hiher and thither through the house—that’s the advice, A little hour before day.” O’Neill (1910) asserts the tune is “unquestionably a version of ‘Seán Ó Duibir an Gleanna’/‘John O'Dwyer of the Glen (1)’.” Stanford-Petrie prints two tunes by this title (Nos. 1079 & 1080), according to O’Sullivan (1983) “more or less related to Bunting’s,” along with a third (No. 1472) called “A dhochtúir dhílis.” A variant in Roche goes by the title “Uair roimh breachadh an lea” (Farewell to Ardmore).
