Gentle Maiden: A Song History

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"The Gentle Maiden" first appears in print, in the sources consulted here, in Edward Bunting's The Ancient Music of Ireland (1840), where it is No. 148 under the Irish title "As fada annso me," translated "Long am I here," with "The gentle Maiden" as its English alternative[1]. Bunting obtained the melody in 1839 from a Miss Murphy of Dublin, and O'Sullivan, in his 1983 edition of Bunting's work, took a note in Bunting's manuscripts as a sign that it originally had Irish words[2]. Bunting ranked it in his second, ancient class of airs, called it "undoubtedly pure Irish," and went further, claiming that the air of "My Lodging Is on the Cold Ground" had been taken from it; none of the other sources consulted here takes up that claim[1]. The tune turns up again in P. M. Haverty's One Hundred Irish Airs (1858) and in Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1903)[2].

Anders Zorn etching of a dark-haired young woman in shadow, looking toward the viewer

Anders Zorn, An Irish Girl, etching, 1894. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the tune.

A song set to the air uses English words by Harold Boulton, with a piano arrangement by Arthur Somervell, from the collection Songs of the Four Nations[3][4]; the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library of the English Folk Dance and Song Society holds a third edition of that book, published by J. B. Cramer in London in 1893[5]. The tenor Frank Mullings recorded "The Gentle Maiden" for Columbia in London around 1916, with Somervell named as composer in a credit the discography marks as unverified[6], and John McCormack recorded the Boulton–Somervell song with Gerald Moore at the piano on August 9, 1940[3][7]. The composer William Alwyn also included the tune in his Seven Irish Tunes for string quartet in 1923[2].

Among instrumentalists it is played both as a slow air in 6/8 and as a waltz in 3/4; North American players, particularly in contra-dance and Cape Breton circles, mostly treat it as a waltz, and it also belongs to the Northumbrian pipe repertoire, where Billy Pigg was among those who recorded it[2]. The Traditional Tune Archive also calls it a staple of the hammered dulcimer repertoire, adding wryly that not everyone is pleased about that[2].

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Sources

  1. Internet Archive: "The Ancient Music of Ireland, Arranged for the Piano Forte" by Edward Bunting (1840).
  2. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Gentle Maiden (The)".
  3. John McCormack Society of Ireland: "Complete Recordings of John McCormack: Alphabetical Listing G".
  4. North East of Scotland Music School Library: "The gentle maiden" (Boulton / Somervell).
  5. Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (EFDSS), catalog record: "Songs of the Four Nations".
  6. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia matrix 65536. The gentle maiden / Frank Mullings".
  7. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Gramophone (Ireland) IR-1043".