Annotation:Lover's Ghost (The)

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LOVER'S GHOST, THE. Irish, Air (4/4 time). C Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "I learned both air and words at home when I was a boy. The subject is the visit of a young woman's ghost at night to her living lover: but she has to depart at cockcrow. The words are well suited to the sad air: words and air are now published for the first time. For Mr. A.P. Graves's adaptation see his Irish Song Book, p. 21. The air given there, however, is quite different than mine" (Joyce). Sean O Boyle (1976) remarks that "The Lover's Ghost," similar to "Barbara Allen," "The Ploughboy" and other songs, is an English or Scottish transplant to Ireland, where it was often sung to a native melody. Roud places Joyce's "Lover's Ghost" with the various "Willie O, Grey Cock" and other vaguely related ballads under Child 248, Roud 179, notes Malcolm Douglas [1].

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 408, p. 219.

Recorded sources: Compass Records 7 4446 2,Oisíin McAuley - "From the Hills of Donegal" (2007).

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