Wednesday 16 September 2020
Tune of the Day: Paddy Will You Now
Traditional Irish air
This air is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922). O'Neill remarks:
The above setting differs not materially from that in Clinton's 200 Irish Melodies for Flute, Dublin 1840. Under the same name a much simpler version appears in Haverty's 300 Irish Airs, New York 1858, having but the exceptional number of 13 bars altogether. To the editor this strain was known in boyhood days as “Tow Row Row”, both names being taken from the first line of the song “Tow Row Row, Paddy, will you now”, which song by the way cannot be found in any Irish collection at present available.