| TYPE | 3 - Complex Melody |
| TOPIC | Love |
| TUNE STRUCTURE | abba (4 bars) |
| VERSE STRUCTURE | 4v 8l |
| TIME SIGNATURE |
C
|
| KEY SIGNATURE | ♭♭♭ |
| TONAL CENTRE | E- |
| INCIPIT | GAGFFFGB♭,CGFF |
| GENRE | Ballad |
| TEXT SOURCE | 'The Belfast Mountains' (Multiple Broadsheet Printings 1790-1853) Bodleian Library Harding B 16(19c) |
| TUNE SOURCE | George Petrie, The Compete Collection of Irish Music, ed. C. Stanford (London: Boosey, 1902), no.558 |
| FIRST LINE | Twas on the Belfast mountains |
| NOTATED INCIPIT |
|
| There were numerous ballad sheets of 'The Belfast Mountains' printed between 1790 and 1853, according to the Bodleian Library's Ballad index. At least two distinct sets of words exist for the love song given as the example here, while another set of words, written later in the nineteenth century by P.J. McColl, has the same first line (although the McCall song is about Henry Joy McCracken). The tune is found in Petrie's Complete Collection of Irish Music, which although not published until the early twentieth century, states that the tune was collected in 1859, allowing for its placement in this database. |
