Cucharin's Cross: A Song History
"Cucharin's Cross" is a familiar tune in mountain dulcimer circles: Stephen Seifert includes it in Join the Jam, his book of 75 tunes widely played at dulcimer jams.[1] The title is spelled more than one way, and one dulcimer arrangement calls it "Cucharan's Cross."[2] The dulcimer sources consulted here name no composer, do not explain the title, and do not say how the tune reached American players.
Alexander H. Wyant, View in County Kerry, oil on canvas, about 1875. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0).
There is one strong clue. The tune appears to be an Irish march known as "Crucaharan Cross": the pickup and first bar of that dulcimer arrangement in D match the opening of a published transcription of "Crucaharan Cross" in G, once it is transposed down a fourth.[2][3] The Irish band De Danann recorded "Crucaharan Cross," paired with "The Banks of the Quay," on Selected Jigs Reels & Songs, issued by Decca in 1977 and in the United States by Shanachie in 1978.[4] According to the album's sleeve notes, the two tunes belong to the Wren tradition of Dingle, County Kerry; band member Charlie Piggott's grandfather, Charlie Flannery, gathered them early in the twentieth century, and when the notes were written local fife and whistle players still performed them there on St. Stephen's Day.[5]
Beyond that, the trail goes cold. No source consulted here records who first composed the tune, what its title means, or how the Kerry march became a dulcimer jam tune with a reshaped name. Until better evidence turns up, its American story remains a mystery.
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