Her Golden Hair Was Curling Down hornpipe

This is from one of our favourite box albums, “John Brosnan: The Cook in the Kitchen”. I have an old cassette that has travelled with me, in our old vans and buses. Now we have only a CD player in our car. I’ll have to chase up the CD now. The cassette is well worn and suffers as you might expect from repeated playing in all kinds of weather, from sub zero to sub Saharan… If you haven’t heard this lovely box player, do your damnedest to chase this recording up and add it to your collection…

Yes, some peculiar take on it is here under ‘strathspey’ and called a ‘highland fling’. Well, it’s neither. Also, that transcript is missing things, including a whole beat:

“Her Golden Hair Hung Down In Ringlets” ~ strathspey / highland fling
Key signature: D Major
Submitted on April 26th 2006 by Unseen122.
https://thesession.org/tunes/5710

My thanks again to ‘button’, Jack, for whipping me into shape and getting me to add the slimline version… Personally I still prefer full fat Jersey milk in my espresso… 😉

X: 2
T: Her Golden Hair Was Curling Down
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: D Major
|: Ac |\
dfed BAFA | dfed B2 de | fAAf edBd | e2 ed e2 Ac |
d2 fd BAFA | dfed B2 de | fAAf edBc | d2 dc d2- :|
|: dB |\
A2 de fgfe | dcdB A3 F | GFGA BcdB |e2 ed e2 Ac |
d2 fd BAFA | dfed B2 de | fAAf edBc | d2 d2 d2- :|

X: 3
T: Her Golden Hair Was Curling Down
T: By The Old Fairy Fort
S: “Jackie Daly: Domnach is Dalach / Many’s a Wild Night”
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: D Major
|: (3ABc |\
d>fe>d B>AF>A | d>fe>d (3B2d/d/ d>e | f>AA>f e>d (3Bcd | e2 e>f e2 (3ABc |
d>fe>d B>AF>A | d>fe>d (3B2d/d/ d>e | f>AA>f e>dB>c | d2 d>c d2 :|
|: (3dcB |\
A2 d>e f>gf>e | d>ed>B A3 F | G>FG>A Bc (3dcB |e2 e>f e2 (3ABc |
d>fe>d B>AF>A | d>fe>d B2 d>e | f>AA>f e>dB>c | d2 d>c d2 :|

This is a fling setting of “And Her Golden Hair Was Curling Down Her Back,” a music hall hit of the 1890s composed by the Irishman Felix McGlennon. Monroe Rosenfeld copyrighted a schottische arrangement for piano. It was a slightly bawdy number about a shy village girl who went to London and came back “with a naughty little twinkle in her eye.”

Here’s a corrected transcription of Connie O’Connell’s setting:

X: 1
T: Her Golden Hair Hung Down In Ringlets
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
S: Connie O’Connell - Ceol Cill Na Martra
K: Dmaj
(3ABc|dfed BAFA|dfed B2de|fAdf edBd|e2df eBBA|
~d3A BAFA|dfed B2de|faaf edBA|d2dc d2:|
|:dB|ABde ~f3e|dedB ADFA|G3A Bcdf|e2df eBBA|
~d3A BAFA|dfed B2de|faaf edBA|d2dc d2:|

S: Jackie Daly & “Patrick Street: Street Life”
https://thesession.org/recordings/414
track 6, the first tune in a set of two

I have amended bar 1 of line 4 in version 4 above. This is basically how it is played on Connie O’Connell’s album ‘Ceol Cill na Martra’ where it follows the ‘Forgotten fling’ on track 1. He calls it ‘Her golden hair was curling down in ringlets’.

Apologies. I should have said Connie O’Connell calls it ‘Her golden hair hung down in ringlets’.

A hornpipe with no name given to one his pupils by Padraig O’Keeffe. A copy of the manuscript is in Dan Herlihy’s book published in 2003, page 40 tune 2.

POK gave this tune to at least two other pupils, and the settings are both slightly different in the turn. In particular they have e’s substituted for the c’s in bar 4, which brings them into line with most current versions.
https://www.itma.ie/digital-library/score/padraig-okeeffe-ms-bk-3-56 and
https://www.itma.ie/digital-library/score/padraig_okeeffe_oconnell_ms_052
The latter pupil was rewarded with a name: Golden Hair.