Fairy Queen: A Song History

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"Fairy Queen" is an Irish harp air tied to the blind harper Turlough Carolan (1670–1738), and it reached print in his lifetime: John and William Neal's Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes (1724) credits it to "Sigr Carrollini."[1][2] Donal O'Sullivan numbered it 195 in his 1958 study of Carolan's life and music.[1] Its authorship is not entirely settled. Edward Bunting first credited Carolan in 1796 but later wrote that the harper had adapted an older melody, apparently the air "Ciste no Stór," which Bunting printed in 1840 as "My Love and Treasure."[1][2] O'Sullivan, for his part, doubted the air was as old as Bunting believed.[1]

Photograph of a tall harp with a carved column

Harp, wood, various materials, ca. 1760. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.

The tune stayed in the harpers' repertoire after Carolan. Arthur O'Neill played it at the Granard harp competition of 1782, taking second prize, and again at the Belfast Harp Festival of 1792.[1] Bunting's 1796 setting is said to have been noted from O'Neill's playing.[2] The air runs on through later collections, from Mulholland's Ancient Irish Airs (1810) to Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1903).[1] Some early printings call it "Save Me from Death" or "Hide Me from Death," titles drawn from a line of its Irish song text.[1][2]

Linda Brockinton includes it in Simply Dulcimer, a book of fingerstyle dulcimer arrangements drawn mostly from Scottish and Irish music.[3]

Our book that contains the song "Fairy Queen"

Sources

  1. Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Fairy Queen (1)".
  2. Early Gaelic Harp Info (Simon Chadwick): "The Fairy Queen".
  3. Linda Brockinton: "Simply Dulcimer".
  4. Image: Harp, wood, various materials, ca. 1760. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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