New York Folklore: Volume 2, No. 1-2—Narratives Associated with Irish Fiddle Tunes

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NEW YORK FOLKLORE
Vol. 2, No. 1-2, Spring-Summer, 1976

NARRATIVES ASSOCIATED WITH IRISH FIDDLE TUNES: SOME CONTEXTUAL CONSIDERATIONS
by Michael Stoner

D. Sharkey wrote to Ceol in 1964 inquiring what connection exists between the title of a reel and the tune itself. “Drowsy Maggie” suggested to him an old woman sleeping by the fire. “Roaring Mary” was a musical portrait of a garrulous, quarrelsome old maid. He suggested “Chicken Reel” as a prime example of onomatopoeia.

Sharkey is perhaps right; there might be a relationship between tunes and their titles, if one ignores that fact that all these tunes have variant titles in other parts of Ireland. Indeed, I myself have speculated about the relationship of tunes to their titles. Were the colorful titles of traditional Irish fiddle tunes the serendipitous creation of some wry, long-forgotten genius or do the titles have a cognitive reason for their existence? Are there narratives in existence to account for the creation of the tunes, and are these narratives remembered and told by traditional Irish musicians? In what contexts are they told? These are some questions I set out to answer in my research and fieldwork with traditional Irish musicians in the United States, which has become concentrated in Rochester, New York.....

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