Welsh Journals

An Irish/Welsh Tune Family PHYLLIS KINNEY The influence of Irish tunes on Welsh traditional music in the nineteenth century is noticeable, though not nearly so strong as the Irish influence on English tunes. Early issues of Cylchgrawn Cymdeithas Alawon Gwerin Cymru (Journal of the Welsh Folk-Song Society) [CCAGC] included Welsh songs with tunes derived from 'Kate Kearney' and 'The Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow', as well as other tunes which were described as being 'distinctly Irish'. But none of these could compete in popularity with the tune generally called 'St Patrick's Day in the Morning'. Twenty-one different variants of this tune have been noted in Wales since the early years of the last century, and these are shown on pages 118-9 below. The variants can be divided into three groups: (i) three instrumental tunes in a running 6/8 jig rhythm (2, 3, 4); (ii) fifteen tunes in song-style and suitable for use with words, two of which are based on only half of the Irish melody (5-19); and (iii) three hymns (20, 21, 22). Although Edward Bunting noted the Irish tune in 1792, he did not publish it until 1840, by which time it was already popular in Wales. Six of the Welsh versions pre-date the Bunting publication: one from a harp manuscript which is very close to Bunting's version (2); three tunes from folk-song collections made between 1817 and 1825 (11, 12, 13); and two hymns which were noted before 1829 (20, 21). The third hymn (22) was published in 1840, at about the same time that Bunting published 'St Patrick's Day'. Three of the Welsh variants (14, 15, 19) were published in Wales in the mid-1840s and one (10) was sung to ballad words probably written in the 1840s. The other two harp variants (2, 3) date from the 1850s, about a quarter of a century later than variant 1, but both are closely related to the Bunting tune. Two tunes (16, 17) come from a manuscript sent in to an eisteddfod competition in 1858. One (9) was published in Alawon Fy Ngwlad (The Lays of my Land) in