| TYPE | 3 - Complex Melody |
| TOPIC | Love |
| TUNE STRUCTURE | aa'bc |
| VERSE STRUCTURE | 12v 4l |
| TIME SIGNATURE |
68
|
| TONAL CENTRE | C |
| INCIPIT | GGGAC'D'D'C'D'E'F'F' |
| GENRE | Ballad |
| TEXT SOURCE | 'The County of Tyrone' (Multiple Balladsheet Printings 1840-1866) Bodleian Library 2806 c.15(252) |
| TUNE SOURCE | Bunting Notebooks. Special Collections, QUB Library. MS 4.12 no.53 |
| FIRST LINE | I am a young weaver and will do my endeavour |
| NOTATED INCIPIT |
|
| The melody contained in Bunting MS4.12 was published in Bunting's 1840 volume of Irish airs. The manuscript version has a verse written above the ornate version of the tune, which was collected from J. McCracken Esq. in 1800. The ballad sheet was widely published in England and was amongst the most popular songs of the nineteenth century. However, the earliest printed setting post-dates the transcription of the tune by some fifty years, a sign of its continued popularity throughout the early nineteenth century. It is also historically significant for its content (the protagonist being a weaver in the height of the linen boom in the north of Ireland). It is thus included here as an example which represents a wider body of song featuring cotton or linen weavers. |
