Annotation:Fox Chase (3) (The)

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 FOX CHASE [3], THE (Seilg An Madradin Ruad). AKA and see "Fox Hunt," "Irish Fox Hunt," "Modhereen Rua." Irish, March (4/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABCDEFGHIJJKKLMNNOOPPQQ. A programatic piece replete with 'horns' and the 'cry of the hounds', 'death of the fox', and winds up with "Foxhunter's Jig (1) (The)." Some sections are variously in 3/4, 6/8 and 9/8 time. This "Fox Chase" was composed around 1800 by celebrated blind Co. Tipperary piper Edward Keating Hyland (1780-1845) in 1799, who once received a set of expensive pipes from King George IV of England (who heard the piper while visiting Dublin in 1821) as a mark of recognition for his performance, according to Irish antiquarian Gratten Flood. It is the model for the Scottish "Hunting of the Fox," but Hyland based his piece on an older (though short, eight-bar) song called "Maidrin Ruadh (An)" (Modhereeen Rua), which is based on a dialogue between a farmer and a fox which he had detected "with the goods" on him in the form of "a fine fat goose." Hyland's version, the first full version, appears in O'Farrell's Pocket Companion of the Irish or Union Pipes (vol. 1, book 2, c. 1806) {appears under the title "The Irish Fox Hunt"}. O'Neill (1913) also prints two MS versions of the tune, one from Henry Hudson, c. 1841, and the other from Prof. P.H. Griffith of Dublin--the latter being a Tipperary version. Knowles (1995) finds parts of "The Fox Chase" in an anonymous 18th century English manuscript, in which it is entitled "Foxhunter Hornpipe (The)," and calls it "certainly the oldest known version" of the tune. "The Fox Chase" is the tune by which every piper seems to have been judged, at least in the 19th century, when it was ubiquitous among pipers. O'Neill mentions piper after piper in his Irish Minstrels and Musicians who considered the tune the heart of their repertoire. He also relates the tale of Kerry uilleann piper Dick Stephenson (c. 1840's-1897), who for many years was paired with a banjo player named John Dunne and a fiddler by then name of Thompson. It seems the trio played a date in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, and Stephenson got a bonus for playing "The Fox Chase" while his partners sat out, not being able to follow Stephenson's variations. "Dunne remarked he wouldn't hunt a fox that cold night for any consideration. A rejoinder from Stephenson to the effect that 'maybe he couldn't' was the spark that fired the flames of jealousy, and a round of fisticuffs put an end to years of friendship and companionship, although the Dunnes and Stephensons and Thompsons were all intermarried." Another 19th century champion piper, Robert Thompson of Cork, distinguished himself particularly in O'Neill's eyes as having an aversion to the humming of the drones and to playing "The Fox Chase." O'Neill obtained Stephenson's variations from piper Pat Touhey ("which fills fifteen staffs"), and he thought them to be so excellent the none equalled them (Irish Folk Music, p. 38). "The Fox Hunt" was famously played by the incomparable uilleann piper from County Kerry, James Gandsey (1769-1857), who concertized well into his seventies (Breathnach, 1997). Donal Hickey (Stone Mad for Music, 1999), also says the "The Fox Chase" was associated with James Gandsey, 'the Killarney Minstrel', who died in 1857 at the age of 90. Gandsey survives in folk memory in the Sliabh Luachra region and some facts are clearly remembered. The son of a soldier in Ross Castle and a native Killarney mother, Gandsey was almost completely blinded in infancy by smallpox. He became known as Lord Headley's Piper and contributed several tunes to the regional repertoire, including as well "Jackson's Morning Brush" and "Madame Bonaparte." He is buried in Muckross Abbey, Killarney, where a plaque has been erected in his memory.  Source for notated version: originally from Mrs. Kenny of Dublin, via John L. Wayland of the Cork Pipers' Club via Chicago piper 'Patsy' Tuohey [O'Neill].  Printed sources: O'Neill (O’Neill’s Irish Music), 1915 ; No. 125, pp. 70-72. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 1850, p. 349. O'Neill (Irish Minstrels and Musicians), 1913; p. 128.  Recorded sources: Island ILPS 9501, "The Chieftains Live" (1977).

See also listing at: Alan Ng's Irishtune.info

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