Langstrom's Pony: A Song History
"Langstrom's Pony" is an Irish double jig, usually in A Mixolydian though also played in G, and the Traditional Tune Archive counts it among the oldest jigs played without a break in the Irish repertoire, while noting that several sources suggest it may be Scottish.[1][2] Its titles have shifted a good deal over the centuries: irishtune.info gathers forms such as "Langstern Pony," "Lastrum Pone" and the Irish "Capaillín Langstern," and the Archive cites Matt Seattle's tracing of the names "Lang Strumpony" and "Lass Trumponey" to older Scottish collections.[1][2] The Archive links the tune to "Lastrum Pone" in John and William Neal's Dublin country-dance collection of 1726, but its separate page on that 1726 melody concludes the two differ too much to be the same tune, so sources differ on how far back today's jig can be traced.[1][3]
Georges Seurat, Foal (Le Poulain), Conté crayon on laid paper, 1882–83. A young horse, shown for the pony of the title; it has no connection to the tune.
Firmer ground comes with the pipers: the Archive says a more developed Irish setting has long been a favorite of uilleann players, and it places the jig in O'Farrell's Pocket Companion early in the nineteenth century and in the mid-1800s manuscript collection of County Cork piper James Goodman.[1] Later printings include Levey's First Collection of the Dance Music of Ireland (1858), Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883), Francis O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland, and Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann II (1976), which took its setting from Seamus Ennis.[1][2] On record, irishtune.info's earliest entry is a 1924 recording by melodeon player Peter J. Conlon, followed by Willie Clancy, the Chieftains on Bonaparte's Retreat (1976) and Dé Danann on Mist Covered Mountain (1980); Paul de Grae thinks the Dé Danann recording is probably why the tune now usually goes by "Langstrom's Pony" and is played in three parts.[1][2]
Dulcimer players can find it in Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 2, the collection Mark Gilston put together to showcase some of the finest Irish melodies, each one set for unaccompanied mountain dulcimer tuned DAD.[4]
Sources
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Langstrom's Pony (3)".
- irishtune.info (Alan Ng): "Langstern Pony".
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Langstrom's Pony (1)".
- Mark Gilston: "Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 2".
- Image: Georges Seurat, Foal (Le Poulain), Conté crayon on laid paper, 1882–83. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.