Annotation:Black Eyed Susan (1)
BLACK EYED SUSAN [1] (Suban na sul dub). Irish, Slow Air (6/8 or 3/4 time). G Minor (O'Neill, 1st Setting): C Minor/Dorian (O'Neill, 2nd Setting): D Dorian (Darley & McCall). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Darley & McCall): AB (O'Neill). The County Cork collector William Forde (c. 1759-1850) noted:-- (Source Hugh) "O'Beirne swears that this is Irish." There is some similarity, however, to a song called "Black-Eyed Susan" by the English stage composer Leveridge, which goes:
- ↑ P.W. Joyce concluded that O'Beirne had been a fiddler in his Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909, p. 296). However, William Forde, the only collector who had direct contact with O'Beirne, wrote in a letter to John Windele of Cork, dated Sept. 21, 1846, that he had obtained over 150 airs from a piper, Huge Beirne. Forde was seeking to supplement his collection with music from Connaught and the north, and was glad to make the musician's acquaintance, staying on in Ballinamore longer than he originally planned. He also found O'Beirne in poor health in the time of Great Famine, writing "Stirabout and bad potatoes were working fatally on a sinking frame," and aided the piper by improving his diet ("but a mutton chop twice a day has changed Hugh's face wonderfully").