Londonderry Air: A Song History

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The tune now called the "Londonderry Air" first appeared in print in 1855, in the first volume of George Petrie's The Ancient Music of Ireland. Petrie had it from Jane Ross of Limavady in County Londonderry, who sent it to him from Newtownlimavady with only the comment that it was very old; he printed it without a title, as an air whose name was unknown.[1][2][3] The Traditional Tune Archive records that she heard it from a street musician, while the Journal of Music presents the account of a violinist playing near her house as tradition. Later writers have proposed names for the player, among them a fiddler called McCurry, but the same article points out that these identifications rest only on remembered family tradition.[1][2] Ross had died by the time the air was first described as the "Londonderry Air," in 1894.[2]

Photochrom view over the city of Londonderry and the River Foyle, about 1890-1900

Londonderry, County Derry, Ireland. Photochrom print, Detroit Publishing Co., about 1890–1900. Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication. Jane Ross, who sent the air to Petrie, lived at Limavady in the same county.

Its origins remain debated. The Tune Archive notes an occasional attribution to the harper Rory Dall O'Cahan that appears to lack substantiation, and the Traditional Ballad Index observes that no trace of the tune earlier than Petrie's printing seems to exist.[1][4] Writing in 1935, the composer Havergal Brian pointed out that the air emerged fully developed, with no known variants, and fitted no Irish metre; in his view it was of no great age.[3] Virginia Blankenhorn allows that it may echo older melodies but finds its overall character closer to the sentimental romanticism fashionable among the nineteenth-century middle class.[1]

The English lawyer and songwriter Frederic Weatherly had originally written the words of "Danny Boy" for another melody. One account cited by the Traditional Ballad Index dates them to 1910, though the Index itself also gives 1913, so sources differ.[4][2] The words were set to this air by 1913, the year the song was published in London.[2][5]

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Sources

  1. Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Derry Air".
  2. Journal of Music (Brendan Drummond): "A Long Drive from Limavady".
  3. Havergal Brian Society: "The Londonderry Air" (Havergal Brian, Musical Opinion, 1935).
  4. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air)".
  5. IMSLP: "Danny Boy (Weatherly, Frederic Edward)".