Molly St George waltz

Tip of the whistle (Molly St. George)
trad, Paddy Moloney
As played by The Chiftains on Chieftains 4
Attributed to O´Carolan by James Hardiman and to Thomas Conellan by Edward Bunting. This beautiful air was probably in existence before their time. It was sung in Coffe´s “The Beggar´s Wedding” (1792). When Panny Moloney recorded this tune for “The Chieftains 4” he could not remember the name and called it “Tip of the whistle”. The tunes real name is actually Molly St. George.

So why don’t you call it “Molly St. George” , with “Tip Of The Whistle” as an alternative title. Wouldn’t that be more logical ?

Ditto!? 😏

Well, it´s a difficult case. Paddy Moloneys version of this tune is so diffrent from the original, that it´s almost lika a new tune. And, there are perhaps a lot of you out there that have only heard Mr. Moloney´s rendition and only know the tune by the name Tip of the whistle. Or people that would like to play the tune close to his rendition.

This has been submitted again. I’ve added some comments under the other submission. Maybe they could be combined and one of the duplicates deleted ?

On popular demand - here is the original version of Tip of the whistle (Molly St. George). As everyone can se it differ quite considerable from Paddy Molony´s rendition.

X:1
T:Molly St. George
C:trad
Q:“Larghetto”
R:Slow air
L:1/8
M:3/4
K:G

de/f/ | g2f2e2 | d2 e>d c>B | c2B2 A>G | E4 B>d |
e2g>e d>B | A2B/c/d D2 | G2 B2 A>G | G4 :|| D2 |
G2 A2 B2 | c2B2A>G | c2d2 e>f | g4 ef/g/ |
a2b>a g>f | e2g>f e>d | c2d>c B>d | A4AB |
c2 d2 e>f | g4 f>e | d2 B2 A>G | E4B>d |
e2g>e d>B | A2 B/c/d DD | G2B2A>G | G4 ||

This tune is not “The Tip Of The Whistle” it’s an ancient tune called Molly St George.

THIS IS NOT A REEL, IT’S AN AIR. This is the first time I’ve ever put up a tune so I hope it’s good…..
This is an ancient air played by Kieran Fahy on “Haunting Slow Airs From Ireland”.

Nice one Madelyn. But it’s already in the database: https://thesession.org/tunes/6698

The tunes that are already up were written in 3/4 time. I’m not sure, but I don’t think Kieran Fahy played it as a waltz. I tried to add it to that one, but you can’t change the time signature when you add another tune setting. 🙂

When I tried to write it as a waltz, there were a lot of notes tied over barlines, so it was just easier to write it in 4/4.

This past Saturday we took the tour of Malahide Castle and found this tune on the wall in one of the rooms. We took a picture. Knew we’d heard it somewhere, and sure enough, it’s in the first Bunting collection as Molly St. George. However, it is also in O’Neill’s collection as The Bride of Malahide, a reference to Maud Plunkett (“single, married and widowed all in one day”), whose tomb is in Malahide Abbey. So it appears the alternate title “The Bride of Malahide” would also be appropriate here.

This is the same as https://thesession.org/tunes/6698, Madelyn.
You’ve incorrectly transcribed it in 4/4 when it should be, with your note lengths, in 3/2. If you halve all the note lengths you’ll have it in 3/4 (if you move the bar lines).

I would agree that Molly St. George is an air. It could be played as a waltz, but I don’t think that does it justice. A regular tempo is not, IMHO, as good as a more “ rubato“ expression of this great tune.

Here’s my modest take:

https://youtu.be/jWXN6wjFPCY

play video

I was introduced to Molly St George at one of the last sessions I attended, before Covid-19 put an end to life as we knew it. But I’ve nevertheless got to know her quite well.

It is lovely, Donald K : my 3/4 Irish stepson Garry has an Irish Jack Russell called Molly. A sweetheart.

Thanks Donald,
I’ve enjoyed playing along with the video. Good practice for playing this lovely tune at the Zoom session and maybe at a real life get-together one day.