Dever The Dancer: A Song History
“Dever the Dancer” is an Irish slip jig in 9/8 time whose first part sits in E Dorian.[1][2] It carries Irish-language titles as well as English ones, and over the years it has picked up a long string of other names, among them “The Humours of Whiskey,” “The Peeler’s Return,” “The Bridge of Athlone” and “Paschal’s.”[1][2]
Claude Laurent, Transverse Flute in D-flat, glass, brass, 1813. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.
The earliest printing found in the sources consulted here is O’Neill’s Music of Ireland of 1903, where it is No. 1147; O’Neill printed it again as No. 431 in The Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems in 1907.[1][2] The Traditional Tune Archive notes that O’Neill credited the setting to “Gillan,” probably John Gillan, a Chicago enthusiast of Irish music and a friend of the collector.[2] Breandán Breathnach later included it in the second volume of Ceol Rince na hÉireann.[1]
Flute player John McKenna and banjo player Michael Gaffney, both from County Leitrim, recorded it for Decca in 1934, where it was issued as “Denver the Dancer.”[2] Later versions include Na Filí’s, as “Paschal’s,” around 1971; the Chieftains’, within a set on their album 4, around 1973; and Dervish’s, in the “Packie Duignan” set on At the End of the Day.[1][2] Mark Gilston includes it in Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 2, a collection arranged for solo mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning.[3]
Sources
- Irishtune.info: "Dever the Dancer".
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Dever the Dancer".
- Mark Gilston: "Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 2".
- Image: Claude Laurent, Transverse Flute in D-flat, glass, brass, 1813. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.