Annotation:Open the Door to Three (3)

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X:1 T:Open the door for three [3] M:9/8 L:1/8 R:Slip Jig B:Smollett Holden - Collection of Favourite Irish Airs (London, c. 1841, p. 23) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G D|G2G BGB AFA|G2G BGB c2d|efg dcB ABc|B2G cAF G2:| |:f|gdB gdB AFD|gfe def g2d|efg dcB ABc|BGB cAF G2:|]



OPEN THE DOOR FOR (TO) THREE [3] (Oscal an dorus do tri). AKA and see "Best of Three." Irish, Slip Jig (9/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (O'Neill): AABB (Goodman, Kennedy). A close variant of the melody of the same title printed in Edinburgh by Bremner and Gow, and still more distanced from the one-strain English version printed by Playford (for which see “Open the Door to Three (1)”). All three versions are recognizably cognate. The tune is derived from an old English melody used for a number of ballads and songs for the stage. See note for "annotation:Rant (The)" for more.


Additional notes
Source for notated version : - O'Neill later in life obtained this version of the tune from the manuscripts of Timothy Downing, a gentleman farmer of Tralibane, County Cork, who taught O'Neill the rudiments of the flute when the latter was a boy during the 1860's [O'Neill/Irish Folk Music]; The mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork uilleann piper and Church of Ireland cleric James Goodman (1828-1896) [Shields]--Goodman also entered a fragment of the tune (the first several bars) in a section of pipe tunes[1]

Printed sources : - Cotter (Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor), 1989; 59. Smollet Holden (Collection of Favourite Irish Airs), c. 1841; p. 23. Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune-Book: Slip Jigs and Waltzes), 1999; No. 56, p. 13. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 449, p. 88. Shields (Tunes of the Munster Pipers), 1998; No. 159, p. 68.






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  1. James Goodman music manuscript collection, Vol. 5, p. 27, No. 43 [1].