Annotation:Bacah Buidhe (An)
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BACA(C)H BUIDHE, AN (Lame Yellow Beggar). AKA and see "Bacach Buidhe Na Léige" (The Yellow Beggar of the League), "Lame Yellow Beggar (The)," "Wild Geese (The)," "Johnny Armstrong," "Todlin Hame," "Meeting of the Waters (1) (The)." Irish, Air (4/4 time). B Flat Major (O'Sullivan/Bunting): G Major (Flood). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Flood): ABB (O'Sullivan/Bunting). The great Irish collector Edward Bunting's 1840 publication attributes composition of this melody to the famous Ulster harper Rory Dall O'Cahan in the year 1650. Though born in Ulster, O'Cahan performed primarily in Scotland, and this tune is "said to have been composed by him in reference to his own fallen fortunes, towards the end of his career." (See note for "annotation:Give Me Your Hand" for more information on O'Cahan.) Audiences heard the air in The Beggar's Wedding (1728), an opera by Charles Coffey of Dublin, and it was printed in the score in 1729. The title was reported by the Belfast Northern Star of July 15th, 1792, as having been a tune played by one of ten Irish harp masters at the last great convocation of ancient Irish harpers, the Belfast Harp Festival, held that week. Bunting, who was in attendance at the festival, claimed to have noted it from harper Charles Byrne in his manuscript, though he attributes harper Daniel Black in 1792 as the source in his 1840 published work. The melody may also be found in Neales' Celebrated Irish Tunes (Dublin, p. 26) and Holden's Old Established Tunes (p. 36), reports O'Sullivan (1983), and is a variant of the melody known variously in Scotland and America as "Johnny Armstrong," "Todlen Hame," "Rye Whiskey (1)," "Jack of Diamonds (3)," "Drunken Hiccups (1)," etc.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources:
Bunting (Ancient Music of Ireland), 1840; p. 18.
Flood (The Story of the Harp), 1905; p. 80.
Murphy (Irish Airs and Jiggs), 1809 or 1820; p. 22.
O'Sullivan/Bunting (Bunting's Ancient Music of Ireland), 1983; No. 20, pp. 34–35.
Recorded sources: