The Ballyhoura Mountains polka

This is the last of three polkas in our set we play in frankfurt.

A simple, but very fun polka. Sounds good after Dan Sullivan’s Shamrock Swing Band (transposed to D Mixolydian).

If you’ve been looking for a fun little tune, than this is it. Can be a march or a fiddle tune.

DANDY JIM FROM/OF CAROLINE [1]. AKA - "Dandy Jim." AKA and see "Chicken Foot and Sparrow-Grass" (Pa.), "Old Aunt Jenny." American, Reel or Breakdown. USA, southwestern Pa. G Major. Standard. AABB. Bayard (1981), Southern (1983) and others identify this tune as coming from the American minstrel tradition of the mid-19th century. Nathan Dan Emmett dates the stage tune to c. 1844 and says the words and perhaps the tune were composed by minstrel Dan Emmett. As with many minstrel tunes there is confusion as to whether Emmett wrote the music or simply adapted a found folk tune, but Bayard says the tune crops up "everywhere" in American music (including play-party songs) in many guises under a variety of titles. Bayard has also found the tune in the British Isles in Kerr’s collection (Vol. 1, pg. 29 as "American Air") and in Roche’s collection (Vol. 2, No. 297 as the second figure of the second tune in the quadrille "The Orange and the Green"). Source for notated version: Hiram Horner (Westmoreland/Fayette Counties, Pa., 1944) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 326, pgs. 291-192

Anyone have the Roche or Kerr version/s ?

"As with many minstrel tunes there is confusion as to whether Emmett wrote the music or simply adapted a found folk tune…"

If he didnt adapt a folk tune, then he did a great job of writing a tune that sounds like it came from Scotland or Ireland.

Discussion: Can Anyone Tell Me the Name of this Tune?
# Posted on July 23rd 2008 by Mix O’Lydian
~ /discussions/18521

X: 2
T: Ballyhoura Mountains, The
T: Terry "Cuz" Teahan’s
T: Teahan’s Favorite
T: Teahan’s Favourite
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: GMaj
|: BB AG | EG DG | BA/B/ AG | Bd e2 |
dB AG | EG DG | BA/B/ dB | AG G2 :|
|: g>f ed | Bd AG | g>f ed | Bd A2 |
g>f ed | Bd AG | BA/B/ dB | AG G2 :|

# Posted on July 23rd 2008 by Mix O’Lydian

I’ve made a quick check through collections, in print and online, and it appears more often in G than A, and has picked up a few other titles as well…

The Fiddler’s Companion ~ Andrew Kuntz
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/index.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/BAA_BAM.htm#BALLYHOURA_MOUNTAINS ~ in G

"An Pota Stóir: Ceol Seite Corca Duibne /
The Set Dance Music of West Kerry"
Page 33, tune #52 ~ gan ainm ~ in G ("Cuz Teahan’s")

"Irish Fiddle Solos" ~ Pete Cooper
Page 29 ~ in G

"Matt Cunningham’s Dance Music of Ireland"
Page 34 ~ 2 takes ~ in G and in A

"Mally Presents 100 Irish Polkas"
Page 17, tune #44 ~ "The Ballynahulla No. 1" ~ A

"110 Ireland’s Best Polkas & Slides"
Page 21, tune #45 ~ "The Ballynahulla No. 1" ~ A

"Johnny O’Leary of Sliabh Luachra"
Page 147 ~ "Mike Buckley’s Favourite" ~ A

"An Pota Stóir: Ceol Seite Corca Duibne /
The Set Dance Music of West Kerry", 1994
Feargal MacAmhlaoibh

Page 33, tune #52 ~ gan ainm ~ in G ("Cuz Teahan’s")

X: 3
T: Ballyhoura Mountains, The
T: Terry "Cuz" Teahan’s
T: Cuz Teahan’s
T: Teahan’s Favorite
T: Teahan’s Favourite
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: GMaj
|: B2 AG | EG D2 | B2 AG | A/B/c d2 |
B2 AG | EG D2 | B2 dB | AG G2 :|
|: ge ge | dB AG | ge ge | A/B/c d2 |
ge ge | dB AG | B2 dB | AG G2 :|

It’s very much like a polka I play called "Lucy Farr’s Polka"…


X:791
T:Lucy Farr’s I
S:Robert Fish Band
D:Robert Fish Band
Z:Nigel Gatherer
M:2/4
L:1/8
K:G
Bc/B/ AG | EG GA | Bc/B/ AG | Bd ed |
Bc/B/ AG | EG GA | BG/B/ dB | AG G2 :|
gd ed | Bd d2 | gd ed | Bd A2 |
gd ed | Bd ed | Bc/B/ AG/A/ | BG G2 :|]

# Added by jakki S - May 24th, 2004
https://thesession.org/tunes/3331

# Added by Heiko - April 6th, 2004
https://thesession.org/tunes/2772

S: Denis Doody

S: "Johnny O’Leary of Sliabh Luachra: Dance Music from the Cork-Kerry Border",
edited by Terry Moylan, The Lilliput Press, Dublin, 1994, page 147, tune #256

N: 30/8/1986 Gullane - "This tune was learned from Mike Buckley, a fiddle-player from Cnock na Gaoithe, who learned it from Pádraig O’Keeffe." ~ Johnny O’Leary

A tune that was a gan ainm for Johnny, I assume it was Terry Moylan who decided to give it the name "Mike Buckley’s Favourite", based on Johnny’s given source.

S: "Patrick Street: Made in Cork", track 7, the 2nd polka of three
https://thesession.org/recordings/644

From the playing of Adrian McAuliffe & Cathal Flood.

From Lucy Farr’s Heart and Home, track 22

See https://thesession.org/tunes/2772 for earlier postings of this tune

Thirteen years late, for Merry Highlander, here is the version in the Roche collection Vol 2 page 42, 2nd Figure of the Orange and Green (Quadrille)