My granddaughter is studying music very seriously. We play together sometimes on visits, she on the clarinet and me on whistle or recorder. I just discovered the O’Carolan tune “Miss MacMurray” (that’s our surname except spelled Mc) and wanted to learn it to play for her. I downloaded the following ABC file from a site listing all O’Carolan’s tunes (neat site!) but the tune sounds wrong somehow. Anyone have source material for this tune or know the tune and can tell me if the ABCs are correct?
X:090occ
T:Miss MacMurray
C:Turlough O’Carolan (1670 - 1738)
C:ALLEGHRETTO
B:Complete Works Of Turlough O’Carolan (PB - no pub - no date - fleamarket find)
Z:to Noteworthy and MIDI by Chris Gilb; Translation to ABC and GIF copy by Vince Brennan
N:Transposed from Bb
I:abc2nwc
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:D
B|Bef g2f|efg B2A|GAB B2A|GAB d2B|
Bef g2g|gab a2g|gfe dgb|agf g2||
g/2a/2|bag agf|gfe efg|GAB d2B|Bef g2g|
B2A GAB|dcd Bef|g2b B2e|efd e2|]
I don’t know the tune but the ABC seems OK. The Old Music project have copied their tunes from areputable source so it should be OK.
FWIW, (bit of trivia that may at least interest someone) Catríona Rowsome has just published a book in which she has re-united all Carolan tunes/songs with their words. All arranged for irish harp:
The Complete Carolan Songs & Airs, arranged for the Irish Harp ISBN 978-1-85720-212-0
The abc version you list is from the book by Donal O’Sullivan entitled, "Carolan, the life times and music of an Irish harper (1958 - reissued in 2005 by Ossian). It’s pretty much the standard work on the topic of Carolan’s music. Also an interesting read of what was known (as of 1958) of his life.
ABC is fine. You probably are reacting to the phrase lengths. The A section is 2 4 bar phrases as we would expect. The B section is a bit different. I think that may be what sounds “wrong” to you.
You know, my comments above are the second stupid remark I’ve made on a site in the past 2 days. Perhaps I should start thinking of checking in before midnight and stop posting by 1 AM
Steve is right. mea culpa. (got to keep up with all the catholic news here)
Last night I played the tune through in the original two flats and the transcribed two sharps. The transcription is accurate.
It’s amazing how the flavor of a tune can change on the traverso when the key is transposed. If I can get the time, I’ll record it in both keys this weekend.
Last summer I went to a Carolan festival in Vermont. Turns out that most of the folks there come from a Carolan-as-contra-dance-music background. From their perspective, “Miss MacMurray” should be played as a jig (it’s in 6/8 time after all) and a pretty rapid one at that. I’d always considered Carolan’s tunes as airs (as noted above many, if not most, originally came with words) so it was a bit of a culture shock for me. I’ll go back this year with a bit more of an open mind.
And Walrii, according to O’Sullivan, his source for the tune was the Bunting Manuscript where it is listed as “Miss McMurry”—somewhat closer to your family surname. O’Sullivan goes on to note that, “Bars 3 and 4 of the second part are not in the original, but the structure of the tune requires an insertion of this kind at that point.” So both you and Chuck may have been channeling your inner Carolan in questioning the sound and shape of the tune.
O’Sullivan goes on to note that, “Nothing is known of the subject [Ms. McMurry], and the words afford no clue to her location or identity.” The Bunting Manuscript did not attribute the tune to Carolan but the words were attributed to him.
All of which may serve to get this note moved to the ITM Forum…
