Annotation:Hunter's Purse (The)
X:1 T:Hunter's Purse, The M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel K:Ador (3Bcd|eAAB AGEF|GBAF {A}GED2|cBcd eged|(3Bcd ef {a}gedg| eAAB AGEF|GBAF GE D2|cBcd eged|1 (3cBA BG A2gf:|2 (3cBA BG AB^cd|| |:ea{b}ag agef|gbaf gedB|cBcd eged|(3Bcd ef {a}ge d2| ea{b}ag agef|gfaf gedB|cBcd (3efg ed|cABG A2cd:|
HUNTER'S PURSE, THE. AKA and see: "Bridie Morley's," "Old Bush (2) (The)," "Five Leaved Clover (2) (The)," "Five Leaf Clover (2)," "Hawthorn (1) (The)," "Haymaker Reel (2) (The)," "Heel of the Hunt (The)," "Indian on the Rock (The)," "My Love is but a Lassie Yet (3)," "Old Head of Kinsale," "Reel (145)," "Sceach (An)," "The Thornbush [2]." Irish, Reel. A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Mixolydian versions also are played. A version of this tune is in the music manuscript collection of the Gunn family (County Fermanagh, 1865), under the title "Hetty's Wishes." County Sligo fiddler Paddy Killoran recorded the tune on 78RPM, under the title "Hunter's Purse," the name by which it is usually called nowadays, although other titles have predated it. John Glatt writes in his biography The Chieftains (1997) that band leader and piper Paddy Moloney hired the services of a lilter, Pat Kilduff, especially for their recording of "The Hunter's Purse" on their album "Chieftains 3." The recording studio was in London, however, and Kilduff had never ventured from Athone, County West Meath, where he was born. The first night the nervous man was put up in a hotel in Dublin, and Pat was told to stay put-which he did, only wandering to the hotel bar for a pint of stout...where he chanced to meet the famous Belfast fiddler Seán Maguire. The two ended up staying up all night lilting and playing music, and when he was collected by Moloney in the morning Pat was hardly in shape for his very first plane ride. Kilduff endured the flight but rushed for the bathroom as soon as the plane landed, having been too frightened to relieve himself on the plane. While in London 'the boys' (the more 'worldly' members of the band) showed the lilter 'the sights', including pornographic book shops in Soho. "It was a terrible shock and such madness. We knocked great fun out of it," said Moloney (Glatt, p. 82).
See the cognate "My Love is but a Lassie Yet (3)" contained in vol. 2 (p. 150) of the large mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper biography:James Goodman. Fr. John Quinn also finds cognate versions in P.W. Joyce's Ancient Irish Music as untitled reel No. 62 (see "Reel (145)") and in Boston music publisher Elias Howe's 1000 Jigs and Reels as "Old Head of Kinsale." The reel is similar to, but probably not cognate with, "Paddy Kelly's Reel (3)."
