Wednesday 5 February 2020
Tune of the Day: Rocking the Cradle
Traditional Irish air
Tune collector Francis O'Neill found that this song and air had been almost entirely forgotten in Ireland. The version he printed in his Music of Ireland (1903) was taken from an American publication of c. 1850, though he found a “fair version” in Smith's Irish Minstrel (Edinburgh, 1825). Paul de Grae remarks that O'Neill's “American” setting is likely drawn from J.T. Surenne's 1854 song setting called “I sat in the vale”, for which “Rocking the Cradle” is the indicated air.