Woman Of The House: A Song History

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"The Woman of the House" is an Irish reel in G major, also known as "The Lady of the House," "The Mistress of the House," and, in Irish, "Bean an Tí."[1] According to the Traditional Tune Archive, the woman of the title is the hostess of a house party.[2] Other tunes share the name, among them a musically unrelated one played by Donegal fiddlers, so this page follows the G-major reel that the Archive lists as its first "Woman of the House."[2]

Color lithograph of a fireplace with a chair beside it and fruit and dishes on the hearth

Édouard Vuillard, The Hearth, color lithograph, 1899. A French interior rather than an Irish one, shown for its subject; it has no connection to the tune.

One of the oldest written versions, set in D, is in the manuscript collection compiled around 1883 by Stephen Grier, a fiddler from Gortletteragh, Co. Leitrim, who spelled the Irish title phonetically.[2] Francis O'Neill learned the tune from James O'Brien, a Co. Mayo piper who visited Chicago in 1876, and printed it in The Music of Ireland (1903, No. 1300) and The Dance Music of Ireland (1907, No. 565).[2] The Archive reports the view of the researcher Paul de Grae that O'Neill's setting is an intermediate stage in the reel's development, between a setting printed by P. W. Joyce (the Archive points to his "The Cows Are a-Milking") and the form most musicians play now.[2][3] Breathnach printed the familiar version as No. 86 in the first volume of Ceol Rince na hÉireann.[1]

Irish musicians in New York recorded the reel often in the 78 rpm era, among them Peter J. Conlon in 1923, the Leitrim flute player John McKenna in 1924 (as "Lady of the House"), and the Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman in 1927.[1][2] Packie Dolan's Melody Boys recorded it for Victor in New York on September 5, 1928, also under the title "The Lady of the House."[4] The Archive confirms that the McKenna and Dolan "Lady of the House" records are this reel, and it calls the tune "one of the most frequently recorded reels" in Irish music.[2][3] Aaron O'Rourke includes it in DAD tuning in Irish Session Tunes, Volume 1, a Fingers Of Steel collection of 36 jigs, reels, and polkas commonly played at Irish sessions, arranged for the mountain dulcimer.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Woman Of The House"

Sources

  1. irishtune.info (Alan Ng): "Woman of the House".
  2. Traditional Tune Archive: "Woman of the House (1)".
  3. Traditional Tune Archive: "Woman of the House (2)".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-46985. The lady of the house / Packie Dolan's Melody Boys".
  5. Fingers Of Steel: "Aaron O'Rourke, Irish Session Tunes, Volume 1".
  6. Image: Édouard Vuillard, The Hearth, color lithograph, 1899. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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