Belfast Mountain

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 Theme code Index    6655 1166
 Also known as    
 Composer/Core Source    
 Region    Ireland
 Genre/Style    Irish
 Meter/Rhythm    Air/Lament/Listening Piece
 Key/Tonic of    E
 Accidental    3 flats
 Mode    Ionian (Major)
 Time signature    4/4
 History    IRELAND(Ulster)
 Structure    One part
 Editor/Compiler    Biography:Charles Villiers Stanford
 Book/Manuscript title    Book:Complete Collection of Petrie's Irish Airs
 Tune and/or Page number    No. 588, p. 141
 Year of publication/Date of MS    1905
 Artist    
 Title of recording    
 Record label/Catalogue nr.    
 Year recorded    
 Media    
 Score   ()   


BELFAST MOUNTAIN. Irish, Air (4/4 time). E Flat Major. Standard tuning. One part. The name Belfast means 'crossing place by a sandbank'. A variant of the air is claimed by one authority as a Sussex song, however it is a variant of the popular air "Banks of the Claudy." "Belfast Mountain", written by P.J. MacColl (who wrote "Boulavogue"), commemorates a Presbyterian-born leader of the Society of United Irishmen in Ulster during the 1798 rebellion, Henry Joy McCracken (1767-1798).

It was on Belfast Mountain I heard a maid complain,
And she vexed the sweet June evening with her heartbroken strain;
Crying, 'Woe is me, life's anguish is more than I can dream,
Since Henry Joy McCracken died on the gallows tree.

Source for notated version: "From Mr. P. MacDowell R.A., March, 1859" [Stanford/Petrie].

Printed source: Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 558, p. 141.

X:1
T:Belfast Mountain
M:C
L:1/8
S:Stanford/Petrie (1905), No. 558
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:Eb
ed | c>d cB B2 Bc | E3F {G}c3z | B2 (Bc) G2 (FA) | G2F2E3G | B2G2B2 (cd) | 
(e<g) f=e (f2 {d}g>)f | e2d2 cd (3BGB | c6 z z/ G/ | B2G2B2 cd|e<g f=e f2 g>f | 
e2d2 cd(3BGB|c6 (e>d)|(c>d) (cB) {G}B2(Bc)|E3F c3 z/d/|B3c G2 (FA)|G2 (FE) E3 ||