Beauty Spot (The)

X:1 T:The Beauty Spot R:Reel Z:Adrian Scahill M:4/4 L:1/8 K:Ddor A2GB A2dB|c3G EFGB|A2GB A2dB|c3G EDEG|\ A2GB A2dB|c3G EFGB|A3c B3d|c3G EDD2||\ edd2 ed(3Bcd|edd2 egg2|edd2 edcB|ABcd edd2|\ e2dg ed(3Bcd|edd2 egg2|afge fded|ABcd edd2||



BEAUTY SPOT, THE (An Ball Seirce). AKA and see "Colonel Taylor's," "Johnny Gorman's." Irish, Reel. D Mixolydian (Breathnach, Feldman & O'Doherty): D Dorian (Mulvihill). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Breathnach, Mulvihill): AA'B (Feldman & O'Doherty). The tune was recorded by piper Bernard Delaney on cylinder recordings for Edison. Delaney was the brother-in-law of Captain Francis O'Neill, and O'Neill found him a job on the Chicago police force. O'Neill was critical of Delaney, however, not for his piping ability, which he respected, but for his miserliness with tunes which O'Neill feared would by lost when Delaney died. A version, called "Johnny Gorman's," honors a professional uilleann piper and fiddler from County Roscommon. Gorman, or Jack the Piper as he was known, was from Derrylahon, and became an itinerant musician who roamed the counties of Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon and Leitrim, playing and teaching until his tragic death outside Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim in 1917. Gorman was also an influence on the great Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman, who incorporated the piper's ornamentation into his own fiddle playing. The tune was recorded on a 78 RPM by Dublin piper William N. Andrews in 1930. See also the related "Last Night's Joy" and "Tailor's Thimble (3) (The)." Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ I), 1963; No. 135, p. 54. Feldman & O'Doherty (The Northern Fiddler), 1979; p. 105 (appears as "Untitled Reel"). Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 152, p. 41. Sources for notated versions in print: fiddler Tommy Potts (Ireland) [Breathnach]; L. Donnelly [Mulvihill]; fiddler Simon Doherty (County Donegal) [Feldman & O'Doherty]. Recorded sources: Piping Pig Productions PPPCD001, Jimmy O'Brien-Moran - "Seán Reid's Favourite" (1996).

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