Daniel Of The Sun jig

This tune and “Thady You Gander” are similar and probably have the same origin, but I think they are different enough to be posted here separately.

I got this particular version from the recording of Finlay MacDonald. It comes from Duncan Johnstone, another Scottish piper. Some Irish settings like the one from O’Neill’s are available at JC’s, but in my opinion this one is simpler and the best.

I’ve never heard this jig played in Ireland, but is it common anywhere in the country?

Yes, it is played in Ireland, but you wouldn’t hear it often. The late Micho Russell used to play a jig with the same title, though memory cannot recall whether this is the same tune. I suspect it is.

This one one would be more familiar to me as “Leg of the Duck” - I think it may have been recorded by box player, Joe Burke.

T:Donall Na Greine
M:6/8
L:1/8
S:Paul McGrattan - Keelwest
R:jig
Z:G.M.P
K:G
D|~G3 AGA|B/c/dg dBA|BcB B2A|BcB B2A|
DGG AGA|Bdg dBG|ABA A2D|ABA A2:|:d|
g2g faf|fge dBA|BcB B2A|BcB B2d|
1~g3 faf|fge dBG|ABA A2D|ABA A2:|
2g2g aga|bge dBG|ABA A2D|ABA2|

D Major ~ November 5th 2002 ~ submitted by abwilson
https://thesession.org/tunes/1109

I heard this tune has lyrics. Does anybody know?

Key signature: G Major
Submitted on January 29th 2003 by Dow.
https://thesession.org/tunes/1388

Oh yeah, forgot to say ‘slainte’, Dow gives one set of lyrics courtesy of Norbeck…

This distinct variation was submitted by JackB on August 2nd 2007. It might remain, then again it might not.
X: 1
T: Domhnall Na Graine
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
|:fed cde | fed cAG | cAA A2G | cAA A2G |
fed cde | fed cAd | cAF G3 | cAF G3 :|
|:G3 AGA | cAA BGG | cAA A2G | cAA A2G |
G3 AGA | cAA BGd | cAF G3 | cAF G3 :|
|:a2f g2e | fed cAG | cAA A2G | cAA A2G |
a2f g2e | fed cAd | cAF G2A | cAF G3 :|

https://thesession.org/tunes/7571

I read an interesting story about the origins of this tune.

A man was very ill, and he wasn’t getting any better. One night, he stumbled out of his house in total frustration. He came upon a man in the street who asked why he was so unhappy. He told the stranger that he was ill and couldn’t recover. The stranger told him he had a tune. If the ill man would learn the tune from him, mastering it by morning his sickness would be gone. The stranger lilted the tune so that he could learn it. The sick man spent the rest of the night burning it into his memory. In the morning, he felt well enough to pick up his fiddle and play it. His sickness had gone.

Seems to be popular around the SE of Ireland anyway - I’ve heard this played often and known as The Leg of the Duck

Scratch that last comment - just listened again and it’s different - I know the above one as well and they’re kinda the same but not.

As a side note (interesting with the posted origins story above), in Irish Dónall na Gréine (Daniel of the Sun) means a happy-go lucky person or a foolish person…not to be confused with Dónall na Gealaí or ‘the man in the moon’

Source: The Fertile Rock by Chris Droney
Transcription: Gian Marco Pietrasanta

This G major setting is in the Comhaltas Foinn Seisiún Book 3, in a set between Mug of Brown Ale and Munster Buttermilk, and under the name ‘Leg of the Duck’.

My friend the late Packie Manus Byrne of Ardara, Donegal, taught me this tune many years ago. He called it Buckasheen Landy (a polite word for randy). He learnt it from his father’s lilting.

Probably a jig from Kerry….

Daniel of the Sun
https://thesession.org/tunes/1317

Found in an old Tunebook under the name of: Donal na Gréine

In Levey’s second collection as “Sunny Dan”,

I’ve played this tune for years, and have known it as Wee Murdie. It appears in the 1903-1908 David Glen Edinburgh Collection as “Thaddy You Gander”. In Glen, the last two bars in each part resolve to the low A rather than the B. I’ve always played it with the low A, which makes more sense to me. Nice old simple tune.

Anton and Sully version

Version *3 posted by hettie is from the collection by Canon Séamus Goodman (1828-1896) which can be viewed online at ITMA https://www.itma.ie/digital-library/score/goodman-vol-1-292