Annotation:Planxty (1)

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PLANXTY (Untitled) [1]. Irish, Planxty (3/4 time). E Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABB. The composition was credited to blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738) by Irish collector William Forde (c.1759–1850), who had the air from sculptor Patrick MacDowell. It does not appear elsewhere. "This tune consists of eight phrases, ending where I have placed the letters A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H. I believe this was Carolan's intention: and Forde was obviously of the same opinion. According to this view, each verse of a song composed to it should consist of four pairs of lines, of which the measure of each pair will be like this (but of course the rhymes might be alternate):--

'A Planxty by Carolan sometimes much oddity shows,
So quaintly and strangely it flows'" (Joyce).

Source for notated version: "Patrick MacDowell, the distinguished sculptor, born in Belfast in 1799, died in 1870" (Joyce).

Printed sources: Complete Collection of O’Carolan’s Irish Tunes, 1984; No. 172, pp. 119-120. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Muaic and Songs), 1909; No. 536, p. 287. O'Sullivan (Carolan: The Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper), 1958; No. 172, p. 197.

Recorded sources:

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