Annotation:Mountain High (The)
X:1 T:Mountains High, The M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Slow and with expression." B:Joyce - Ancient Irish Music (1873, No. 20) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Bb V:1 f|[Df][Fd] [Ge][E/c/][D/B/]|[EG/<c [DB]>[EG]|[DF]>[EG] [DB][E/c/][F/d/]|[G3e3] g|[Df][Fd] [Ge][E/c/][D/B/]| [EG]<c [DB]>[EG]|[DF]>[EG] [DB]B|[D3F3B3]||F|[DFB][DFB] [D/F/B/]>c/d/e/|f2 [EGg]f/e/| [Fd][Ec] [DB]c/d/|[E3G3e3](g|[Df][Fd] [G/e/])[F/d/][E/c/][D/B/]|[EG]<c [DB]>[EG]|[DF]>[EG] [DB]B|[D3F3B3]|| V:2 clef = bass z2|B,4-|B,4-|B,4-|B,3z|B,4| B,4-|B,4-|B,3||z|B,B, B,z|[B,DF][B,DF] B,z| B,B, B,z|B,2 zz|B,4-|B,4-|B,4-|[B,,3B,3]||
MOUNTAIN(S) HIGH (An Sliab Ard). AKA and see "Two Miles Below Fermoy." Irish, Slow Air (2/4 time). B Flat Major (Joyce): G Major (O'Neill, Petrie). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Petrie notes: "A tune of Bonds glen" and "Parish of Camber." Joyce explains that Pomeroy, cited in the lyric, is in the county Tyrone, but that he heard the song sung by others whose version was "two miles below Fermoy" (County Cork).
As I roved out one evening two miles below Pomeroy,
I met a farmer's daughter all on the mountains high,
I said, "my pretty fair maid your beauty shines so clear,
Upon these lonely mountains, I'm gald to meet you here.
See also O'Neill's related "Mountains of Pomeroy (The)." Paul de Grae finds settings among Petrie's collections as "Reyanrdine" and "Reynard on the mountain high" and in O'Neill's Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922) as the hornpipe "Reynardine."
