The Groves Of Blackpool slip jig

“Old Irish Folk Music and Songs” P.W. Joyce, 1909
http://www.archive.org/details/oldirishfolkmusi00royauoft
http://www.archive.org/stream/oldirishfolkmusi00royauoft#page/n5/mode/2up

484. The Groves of Blackpool
Dr. Petrie has given two versions of “The Groves of Blackpool in his ”Ancient Music of Ireland", one of which (at p. 110) was given him by me; and it is repeated in Stanford-Petrie (No. 573). But I gave Petrie no name for the air; as I knew none.

The air I now give here is different from those two, though in the same measure; and as a melody it seems to me better than either. Observe I take it as a differnt tune, not a mere variant. Seeing the double source (FirzGerald and Forde) from which this comes, I am disposed to believe that it is the true air of “The Groves of Blackpool”.

~ P.W. Joyce

& his transcription of this, without repeats ~

X: 2
T: Groves of Blackpool
S: P.W. Joyce’s Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, 1909, page 268, tune #484
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
R: air, slip jig
K: CMaj
c |\
GAF EFD CDE | GEC DEG A2 c |\
GAF EFD CDE | GEC DEG A2 ||
B |\
cBc dcB AGE | cBc dcB A2 c/d/ |\
ece dcB A<cA | GEC DEG A2 |]

X: 3
T: Groves of Blackpool, The
S: P.W. Joyce’s Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, 1909, page 268, tune #484
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
R: air, slip jig
K: Dmaj
|: d |\
ABG FGE DEF | AFD EFA B2 d |\
ABG FGE DEF | AFD EFA B2 :|
|: c |\
dcd edc BAF | dcd edc B2 d/e/ |\
fdf edc B<dB | AFD EFA B2 :|

~ with repetitions added…

Is it known? Dublin? I think there’s a Blackpool in Limerick and Cork… Also, I take it that the tune is normally heard in D today?

I get a better chuckle imagining it’s the one in Lancashire, but any ol’ black pool will do… 😉

Illustrated by W.H. Bartlett, 1841
http://www.libraryireland.com/SceneryIreland/I-6.php

“If a stranger pass from the south to the opposite side of the river, and should seek out the celebrated ”groves of Blackpool," he will be disappointed to find the sylvan retreat that his imagination has pictured, transformed into a poor suburb, consisting of straggling cabins, without a single tree to lend its shade to the once umbrageous haunt of the muses, and the

“Birth-place of sweet song,”

where the lyrics of many a street-minstrel were first warbled to admiring crowds."

Courtesy of Library Ireland
http://www.libraryireland.com/

on the North side of the river…