Bouncing Boy (The)

 BOUNCING BOY, THE. AKA and see "Leave My Way." Irish, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (O'Neill/1850): AAB (O'Neill/Krassen). Source for notated version: O'Reilly [O'Neill]. O'Neill perhaps references aged County Galway piper Martin O'Reilly, the first place winner of the annual Feis in 1901 and feted at the Belfast Harp Festival in 1903. His favorite pieces were "The Fox Chase" and "The Battle of Aughrim," writes O'Neill (Irish Minstrels and Musicians, 1913). O'Reilly had run a successful dance house in Galway city, a business that eventually collapsed due to emigration and changing taste, leaving him in the poorhouse but with his skills intact. He was the recipient of attention near the end of his life with the revival of interest in Irish traditional music, but when the wave subsided after a decade O'Reilly was once again resident of the Galway poorhouse, where he died. A half-tone picture (from a photograph) of O'Reilly was the frontispiece to O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland (1907), and was reproduced in Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913). Printed sources: O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 152. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 1506, p. 278.

X:1 T:Bouncing Boy, The M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel S:O'Neill - Music of Ireland (1903), No. 1506 Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G (3DEF | G2 BG A2 (3Bcd | edcA BEEF | G2 BG A2 (3Bcd | edcA BGGD | G2 BG A2 (3Bcd | edcA BEEF | G2 BG A2 (3Bcd | egfa g2 || z2 | g2 ge f2 fd | e2 fg af d2 | g2 ge f2 fd | efaf g2g2 | gabg fgaf | edeg fd d2 | g2 (fg) eAAB | dcAF G2 ||

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