Annotation:Come All Ye Fair Maidens

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X:1 T:Come, All Ye Fair Maidens M:6/8 L:1/8 B:Joyce - Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G D|G>AG GAB|AGE E2D|G>AG GBd|edB A2B/A/| G>AG GBd|edB c2 B/c/\AGE EcB|AGA B2 G/E/|DB,D E2||



COME ALL YE FAIR MAIDENS. Irish, Air (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. O'Neill (1913) points out this is an example of the class of tunes facetiously termed "Come, all ye..." on account of the comparatively large number of songs which began with those words in British Isles tradition.

Come all ye fair maidens, take warning by me,
And never look up to the top of a tree;
For the leaves they will wither and the roots they will die;
And my love has forsak'n me, and sorry am I,
My dear, and sorry am I. (Joyce)


Additional notes
Source for notated version : - "Ned Goggin the professional fiddler of Glenosheen Co. Limerick (1844 to 1850)" [Joyce]. Goggin was P.W. Joyce's neighbor at the time, "the professional fiddle player of Glenosheen in the County Limerick from the time of my childhood to the present day" [approx. 1830's-1870][1].

Printed sources : - Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 167, p. 84.






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  1. P.W. Joyce, Ancient Irish Music (1873), comment with reel No. 51, p. 51.