Bealltaine

X:1 T:Bealltaine T:May Day M:C L:1/8 R:Hornpipe S:Joyce - Ancient Irish Music (1873) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G D | GABG ABcA | defd dcBA | BcBG ABAG | FGAB cAGF | GABG ABcA | defd dcBA | B2d2 cAGF | DGGA G2 :: (3def | g2 eg f2 ed | g2 eg f2 ed | defg abag | f2 dd dedc | B2 BG AF D2 | BdBG ABcA | defd cAGF | DGGA G2 :||



BEALLTAINE (May Day). AKA and see "Butchers of Bristol [2]," "Five Miles From Town [2]" (Pa.), "Geary's Hornpipe," "Mullingar Races [2]," "May Day [2]," "Rover through the Bogs," "Taylor's (Hornpipe)." Irish, Hornpipe. G Major. Standard tuning. AABB. One Pennsylvania version of this tune is called "Five Miles Out of Town" ("Five Miles From Town") though there are other tunes by this name as the title is a "floater." Bealltaine (pronounced 'Beltina') is was a major holiday of the Celtic peoples, and in the agrarian culture signalled the time when the cattle were driven from the low pastures to the higher ones to graze. Source for notated version: learned by Joyce from his father, presumably as a boy in the 1840's in Limerick; though he also heard it in 1853 among the minoers at the head of Glenmalure, county Wicklow, "where I found it was well known and a favourite dancing tune" [Joyce]. Printed sources: Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; pg. 30. Joyce (Ancient Irish Music), 1873/1890; No. 32, pg. 34.

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