Julia Delaney: A Song History
According to the Traditional Tune Archive, Captain Francis O'Neill gave this Irish reel the name of Julia Delaney, the sister of his wife Anna; Julia's husband was the uilleann piper Bernard "Barney" Delaney.[1] The same source says the Delaneys leaned on O'Neill for help over the years, including a police job he found for Barney in Chicago.[1] O'Neill printed the reel as No. 1401 in O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1903) and again as No. 643 in The Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907).[1][2]
Edgar Degas, Portrait of a Young Woman, oil on canvas, about 1885. A young woman of the 1880s, shown for the woman the reel is named after; it is not a portrait of her.
O'Neill's setting is in a major key, but in modern sessions it has mostly given way to a Dorian-mode version; the Traditional Tune Archive also notes a Dorian setting that P. W. Joyce printed in 1909 as "Glenloe."[1] irishtune.info lists it as a D Dorian reel, also called "Julia Delaney's," "Fahy's" and "Le Reel de la Sorcière."[2] The earliest recording in the sources consulted here is John McGreevy's, issued as "Lonesome Reel" on McGreevy & Cooley in 1974.[3] The Bothy Band made the Dorian version popular on their 1975 debut album, where Tommy Peoples opens it on solo fiddle.[1][2]
Later recordings came from Paddy Glackin in 1977, Kevin Burke on If the Cap Fits in 1978, and Eileen Ivers in the 1990s.[3] The Chieftains played it in a set on their 2002 album Down the Old Plank Road, with Paddy Moloney on whistle.[2] "Julia Delaney" is one of the 40 titles listed for Mark Gilston's Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 2, a book of Irish tunes with every piece arranged for solo mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning.[4]
Sources
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Julia Delaney (1)".
- irishtune.info: "Julia Delaney".
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Julia Delaney (2)".
- Mark Gilston: "Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 2".
- Image: Edgar Degas, Portrait of a Young Woman, oil on canvas, about 1885. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.