Miss Honoria Tomkins Galwey (31 May 1830 – 7 January 1925), an almost forgotten North of Ireland collector of Irish traditional music, edited the varied collection presented here: Old Irish Croonauns and Other Tunes, published in London and New York by Boosey & Co in 1910 and containing 72 dance tunes and song melodies (with some song texts). Many items are Irish and all were ‘written down exactly as I heard them’. Source-notes are included, and the collection was deservedly well regarded in its own time.
Born to Ven. Charles Galwey, a musical Cork-born Church of Ireland Archdeacon of Derry, and Honoria Knox of Prehen, Co Derry, Miss Galwey lived also from childhood in Inishowen, Co Donegal, where her father was rector of Moville, and much of the music she ‘re-collected and collected’ came from the oral tradition of both counties. Although she collected from a range of lilters, whistlers, singers, fiddle, concertina and jews-harp players, and from manuscript, an important source was uilleann piper Tom Gordon of Moville, Co Donegal. A singer and a seemingly self-taught pianist who had played with traditional musicians, she was still playing within a few weeks of her death in Derry. Through her musical interests, she was linked to a turn-of-the-century network of Irish cultural activity in Britain and Ireland: that of the poets Alfred Perceval Graves and Moira O’Neill, the arrangers Charles Wood, R. Arthur Oulton and Arthur Somervell, the composer Charles Villiers Stanford, the singer Plunkett Greene, and the folklorist and founder of the Gaelic League Douglas Hyde – several of these also the children of Church of Ireland clergymen. She made her collections available to the Irish Folk Song Society, founded in London by Graves and others in 1904.
Honoria Galway first appeared in print late in life, as the contributor of seven melodies (also presented here) and some traditional verses to the 1897 Boosey volume Irish Folk-Songs, a collection of mostly original song-lyrics written by A.P. Graves and set to traditional melodies by Charles Wood. Subsequently three of her collaborations were published as sheet music before Old Irish Croonauns first appeared in 1910, to be followed by a later Boosey Co reprint and an American facsimile reprint in 1975, and a later item of sheet music. She was a source of the song ‘Over Here’ (‘Oh, the praties they are small’), which was rewritten by Graves to relate to the Great Famine, and the song ‘Molly Brannigan’ also owes its popularity to her. Following her father, she always held that the famous ‘Londonderry Air’ belonged as much to Donegal as to Derry.
Also reproduced here from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive are a 19 September 1908 postcard from A.P. Graves (1846–1931) to Miss Galwey and a 22 September 1908 letter from her to Rev. Leslie Creery Stevenson (1878–1961), a hymnwriter and a Church of Ireland curate at the time on Rathlin Island, Co Antrim.
ITMA would welcome donations of or the opportunity to copy four known sheet-music items related to airs collected by Honoria Galway: ‘The Blackbird’ (words by Moira O’Neill, music arranged by Arthur Somervell), ‘Molly Brannigan’ (old words, music arranged by Sir C. Villiers Stanford), ‘Slumber Song’ (words by Moira O’Neill, music arranged by R. Arthur Oulton), Two Irish Airs (music arranged by Mary Tomlinson): 1 ‘The Rock on the Shore’ (words by B.F. Stuart), 2 ‘Little Blue Pigeon’ (words by E. Field). All are believed to have been published by Boosey & Co in London.
Nicholas Carolan & Maeve Gebruers, 1 December 2014
Old Irish croonauns and other tunes / Miss Honoria Galwey
Miss Honoria Galwey in Graves’ Irish Folk-Songs
Postcard from Alfred Perceval Graves to Miss Honoria Galwey
Letter to [Rev. Leslie Creery Stevenson] from Miss Honoria Galwey
Patrick Weston Joyce’s publication of Irish traditional music and song, and his writings on music, song and dance, had a strong influence on the thinking and practice of his contemporaries and of succeeding generations. Some published indications of this influence are presented in facsimile here:
Detail from the cover of An ceóltóirín / Pádraig Ó Murchadha (n.d.)
1. Dedication by Alfred Perceval Graves to his The Irish Song Book (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1894; reproduced from 12th ed., 1914). Graves had drawn extensively for his melodies on Joyce’s collections and acknowledges this: ‘I heartily owe it to my old friend, Dr. Joyce, who has generously give me the free use of airs and words in his published and unpublished collections, besides looking over my musical proofs’ (p. xvi). Graves had earlier drawn on Joyce’s music for his Songs of Old Ireland with arrangments by C. Villiers Stanford (London: Boosey & Co, 1882).
2. Francis O’Neill, ‘Chapter XVI. Dr. P.W. Joyce’s Estimate of the Total Number of Irish Airs Questioned’. Like his older contemporary Joyce, O’Neill was a traditional musician, and a collector and publisher of Irish traditional music, who came from a musical family in rural Ireland (in west Cork in his case). He also rose to a prominent position (chief of police in Chicago) by native ability and hard work. O’Neill had a fellow-feeling for Joyce and a regard for his work which was tempered by competitiveness.
3. ‘An Leipreachán’, a translation into Irish of Joyce’s original song-lyric ‘The Leprehaun’ from his Ancient Irish Music of 1873, pp. 100−101. The translation, by a Séamus Ó Duirinne, was published in An Ceoltóirín, a school songbook edited by Pádraig Ó Murchadha (Dublin: Brún agus Ó Nualláin, n.d. but 20th century).
4. When Patrick Weston Joyce died on 7 January 1914, his position as an important figure in Irish life was recognised by the many obituaries that appeared in the national press. In the nature of things, most were brief and impersonal, and carried the same basic information on his life in general. Two more personal Joyce obituaries closer to the concerns of this traditional music site are presented here in facsimile, both written by colleagues of his in the Irish Folk Song Society: A.P. Graves & C.M. Fox, ‘Obituary’, Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, vol. 14 (April 1914), pp. 38−42
The Irish song book : with original airs / edited with an introduction and notes by Alfred Perceval Graves
'Dr PW Joyce's estimate of the total number of Irish airs questioned' in Irish folk music : a fascinating hobby / Capt. Francis O'Neill
'An Leipreachán' in An Ceóltóirín / Pádraig Ó Murchadha
'PW Joyce obituaries' in Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, vol. 14 / A. P. Graves ; Charlotte M. Fox
An extract of The flannel jacket from Petrie’s Ancient Music of Ireland (1882)
More of these tunes appear in an incomplete Petrie volume of 1882; in Francis Hoffmann’s Ancient Music of Ireland from the Petrie Collection Arranged for the Pianoforte; and in Charles V. Stanford’s The Complete Petrie Collection of Ancient Irish Music. PW Joyce also contributed the words and melodies of two songs to the 1897 Boosey volume Irish Folk-Songs, a collection of mostly original song-lyrics written by A.P. Graves and set to traditional melodies by Charles Wood.
The Irish song book : with original airs / edited with an introduction and notes by Alfred Perceval Graves
Irish folk songs / the words by Alfred Perceval Graves ; the airs arranged by Charles Wood
Tunes from P. W. Joyce in The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland: Arranged for Piano-forte. Vol. 1 / edited by George Petrie
Cailín a tighe mhoir — B’fearr liomsa ainnir gan gúna — Cá rabháis anois a cailín bhig — The hunt — The pipe on the hob — Do chuirfinn-si féin mo leanabh a chodhladh — An bean óg uasal — A chúl álainn deas — A Munster jig — The winter it is past — Ding dong didilium, buail seo, séid seo — The nobleman’s wedding — Péarla an chúil chraobhaigh — As a sailor and a soldier were walking one day
Tunes from PW Joyce in Music of Ireland / Collected, Edited, and Harmonized for the Pianoforte by the Late George Petrie
An cumhaín leatsa an oidhche úd — Ceapach Dáinig — The green bushes — Aon is dó na píopaireachta — The flannel jacket — An ceó draoidheachta
Tunes from PW Joyce in The Complete Collection of Irish Music / as Noted by George Petrie (1789-1866); Edited, from the Original Manuscripts by Charles Villiers Stanford
The scalded poor boy — Where were you all the day my own pretty boy — I’ll make for my bridegroom a grassy green pillow — ’Twas on a summer’s evening — Last night I dreamt of my own true love — I am a poor maiden, my fortune proved bad — Come all you maids where’er you be — The Shanavest and Corovoth — When you go to a battle — Come all y’ United Irishmen, and listen unto me — Come all United Irishmen and listen unto me — Then up comes the captain & boatswain — The far away wedding — Oh love it is a killing thing — I once loved a boy — Once I was invited to a nobleman’s wedding — An old man he courted me — Ne’er wed an old man — How do you like her for your wife — The old astrologer — The first day of spring — The summer is come and the grass is green — The funny taylor — The croppy boy — Johnny Doyle — When first into this town I came — [Irish version of “My ain kind dearie”] — The Gorey caravan — As I roved out one morning — One evening of late as I roved out in state — One evening fair as I roved out — As I went a walking one morning in spring — As through the woods I chanced to roam — In comes great Buonaparte with forty thousand men — Along with my love I’ll go — Along with my love I’ll go — Willy Leonard — As a sailor and a soldier — Dobbin’s flow’ry vale — Crabs in the skillet — I’m a poor stranger that’s far from my own — My name is bold Kelly — It is to fair England I’m willing to go — Each night when I slumber — The hunt Reel — Munster reel — Boil the breakfast early — The job of journey work — The peeler’s jacket — Munster reel — Munster reel — The silver mines — Reel [Untitled] – Reel – Hornpipe — Good night, good night, and joy be with you — The lovely lad — Tea in the morning — The croosting cap — Munster jig — Munster jig — Munster jig — Munster jig — Old Cork jig – Jig — Round the world for sport — The girl I love Jig — [Jig] – Jig – Jig – Jig — Time of day — Ancient Munster march and jig — The housekeeper — A lullaby — Nurse tune — A caoine — Hymn tune — Mo chailín donn deas a’s mise ag ól — Mo stóirín ó Mhuscraídhe — Baint áirnídhe faoi dhuilleabhar na gcraobh — Ag an mBaile Núadh atá an bhruingeall mhodhamhail mná — Mo ghrádh bán am’ threígean a’s céile dá luadh leis — Corraidh do chosa a Sheáinín — Is í mo leanbh (caoíne) — An cailín ruadh — Séid, a bhean bhoicht! agus bí súgach — Easter snow — Ceis Corran Síos i measg na gcoillte — “Saion” na séad — An gamhain geal bán — Grádh mo chléibh — Bé ’n Eírinn í — Ceó druídheachta — A chuisle geal mo chroídhe — Órán an uig — An cnoicín fraoigh — Cois taoíbh leas’ an ghaortha — Mo chailín rúadh — Péarla an chúil chraobhaigh — An táilliúr aérach — Pilib an cheó — Cois tiar lais an gaortha — Tá ’na lá — Tá ’na lá — Aon ’s do na píobaireachta — Capa Dánig — Slán agus beannacht le buadharthaibh an tsaoghail –Cruimíneach crom — Dá mbéinn-si agus mo ghrádh bán — Súiste buídhe — Air mo ghabháil tré Bhaile-Átha-Clíath dam — Mór Chlúana — An seanduine crom — Bean dubh ó’n slíabh — Bean dubh ó’n slíabh — Mo chreach a’s mo dhíachais
