Irishman's Heart To The Ladies: A Song History
"An Irishman's Heart to the Ladies" is a double jig in A major, and the Traditional Tune Archive finds it in Irish, Canadian and American fiddling, the last in New England, New York and Pennsylvania.[1] Francis O'Neill printed it as "Sweet Biddy Daly" in Music of Ireland (1903, No. 1084) and again in The Dance Music of Ireland (1907, No. 278), and irishtune.info files it under that name.[2][3] It has gathered many other titles, among them "A Health to the Ladies," "To the Ladies," "Buttermilk Mary," "Over the Callows" and "The Queenstown Jig."[1][3]
Jacob Binck, A Dancing Couple of Peasants, engraving, 1500s. A dancing couple, shown for the tune's use as a dance jig; it has no connection to the tune.
Under the "Irishman's Heart" name the tune shows up early in American print: the oldest source on the archive's list is Elias Howe's 1000 Jigs and Reels of about 1867, followed by Ryan's Mammoth Collection in 1883.[1] A Howe printing credits the tune to Jimmy Norton, billed as "the Boss Jig Player," a onetime child prodigy and fiddler who made his career on the variety stage; Paul Wells traced him in Boston directories, often at the same business address as Howe himself.[1] Lettie Osborn reported in the New York Folklore Quarterly that it was a common country-dance tune in Orange County, New York, in the 1930s, and later collectors took it down from fiddlers in Pennsylvania, the Ottawa Valley and Prince Edward Island.[1] Irish players kept it too: the Sliabh Luachra accordionist Johnny O'Leary's setting is No. 326 in Terry Moylan's 1994 book of his music.[2][3]
On record, irishtune.info lists the tune from the accordion player John J. Kimmel in 1918 and from James Morrison (about 1922) and John McKenna (1925), and Kevin Burke recorded it as "Health to the Ladies" on Up Close in 1984.[1][3] One caution about the name: the 1890s manuscript of the London dancing master Patrick Reidy uses "Irishman's Heart to the Ladies" for a different tune altogether, a slip jig version of "Drops of Brandy."[1] A tune under the title "Irishman's Heart To The Ladies" is listed in Mark Gilston's Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 2, a 52-page book of solo mountain dulcimer arrangements in DAD tuning and the later of the two volumes in which he gathered Irish melodies.[4]
Sources
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Irishman's Heart to the Ladies (An)".
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Sweet Biddy Daly".
- irishtune.info: "Sweet Biddy Daly".
- Mark Gilston: "Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 2".
- Image: Jacob Binck, A Dancing Couple of Peasants, engraving, 1500s. The Cleveland Museum of Art.