Annotation:Beauty Spot (The)
X:1 T:The Beauty Spot R:Reel Z:Adrian Scahill M:4/4 L:1/8 K:Ddor A2GB A2dB|c3G EFGB|A2GB A2dB|c3G EDEG| A2GB A2dB|c3G EFGB|A3c B3d|c3G EDD2|| edd2 ed(3Bcd|edd2 egg2|edd2 edcB|ABcd edd2| e2dg ed(3Bcd|edd2 egg2|afge fded|ABcd edd2||
BEAUTY SPOT, THE (An Ball Seirce). AKA and see "Back of the Change (1) (The)," "Colonel Taylor's," "Johnny Gorman's (1)." Irish, Reel. D Mixolydian (Breathnach, Feldman & O'Doherty): D Dorian (Mulvihill). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Breathnach, Mulvihill): AA'B (Feldman & O'Doherty). The tune was recorded by piper Bernard Delaney on cylinder recordings for Edison. Delaney was the brother-in-law of Captain Francis O'Neill, and O'Neill found him a job on the Chicago police force. O'Neill was critical of Delaney, however, not for his piping ability, which he respected, but for his miserliness with tunes which O'Neill feared would by lost when Delaney died. Perhaps Delaney withheld this reel, as it was not included in any of O'Neill's published collections.
A version, called "Johnny Gorman's (1)," honors a professional uilleann piper and fiddler from County Roscommon. Gorman, or Jack the Piper as he was known, was from Derrylahon, and became an itinerant musician who roamed the counties of Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon and Leitrim, playing and teaching until his tragic death outside Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim in 1917. Gorman was also an influence on the great Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman, who incorporated the piper's ornamentation into his own fiddle playing. The tune was recorded on a 78 RPM by Dublin piper William N. Andrews in 1930. A somewhat distanced cognate of the reel entitled "Back of the Change (1) (The)" can be found i Book 1 (p. 39) of the large mid-19th century music manuscript of Canon James Goodman. See also the related "Last Night's Joy" and "Tailor's Thimble (5) (The)."
