Annotation:Castlehyde

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 CASTLEHYDE. Irish, Air (3/4 time). C Major (Joyce). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "A collection of Irish Folk Songs would be incomplete without this celebrated composition. The words have been published already more than once: but there is no need for me to copy from anyone, inasmuch as I remember the song--every word--from my boyhood days, by hearing people sing it; for it was a general favorite. The song is commonly regarded as a type of the absurd English songs composed by some of the Irish peasant bards who knew English only imperfectly; and it certainly contains several ludicrous expressions. But passing by there, and looking on the song as a whole, it is well conceived and very spirited. The poet had a true conception of what a song should be, but had to express it imperfectly in what was to him a foreign language. Of all this every reader can judge for himself, as I give the song entire...In 'The Irish Minstrel' by R.A. Smith, the air given for this song is the same as 'The Groves of Blarney' (Moore's 'The Last Rose of Summer'); and another air for it is given in Stanford-Petrie (No. 831), which is a version of my 'An Gadaighe Grana', given above (p. 11). I find by an entry in the Forde MS. that it was also sometimes sung to 'Youghal Harbour'. But in Limerick and Cork it was universally sung to the air I give here from memory--and not hitherto printed--which indeed I could hardly help learning, as it was constantly sung by the people all around me" (Joyce). Source for notated version: Printed sources: Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Song), 1909; No. 395, pp. 203-204. Recorded sources:

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