Annotation:Peace of the Valley (The)

Back to Peace of the Valley (The)

PEACE OF THE VALLEY, THE (Suaimneas na gleanna). Irish, Air (4/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. A composition by classically-trained composer, singer and violinist Michael Balfe [1] (1808-1870), a friend of Irish violinist R.M. Levey (who published two influential collections of Irish traditional music).

Francis O’Neill was criticized by some in the traditional circle for his inclusion of several of Balfe’s compositions in his Music of Ireland, on the grounds that “Balfe’s music...was not Irish at all, even if he was.” O'Neill found several of his compositions in Cock and Co.'s Encyclopedia of Melody (for which he bid energetically at an auction in Chicago), arranged by Irish collector William Forde, and, admiring them, included them in his Music of Ireland.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 497, p. 87.

Recorded sources: