Notes and errata on the tune "Granuaile", and another 18th century "Granuaile" song.

x1: Cook's Selection should be Cooke's Selection, a book in the British Library which contains "Granuaile", but which I have not seen.
X4: The Henry Beck MS is in the library of Congress.
X5: Although Bunting's key signature is Gm all E's are natural, so it, too, is really G dorian.

There are two fouled up versions of the tune in the Complete Petrie Collection. "Poor old Granua Weal", #790, starts ok and ends ok, but is in 4/4 time and rather fouled up between the ends. "Graine Mael", #1455, is in F, but should be Fm or F dorian.

I discovered that one has to be carefull with ABC's if you want to display them in HTML. I had used left and right angle brackets in my original notation of X3, only to find that an HTML browser hides a left angle bracket followed by a right angle bracket, and everything in between. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out why about half of my tune had disappeared.

Other 18th century songs to the tune.

Commodore Gale, Tune - Granny wale. [Granuaile] I posted the song previously on a thread of Guys Songs.

"Grania Meuel" is cited as the tune for a two verse song in 'Songs in Jack the Gyant Queller', Dublin, 1749, from Henry Brooke's suppressed Irish ballad opera of 1748. The song there fits the tune given above (Hime's, X:1).

Granau Wale/Weal is (Mother) Ireland in a song which I think is probably American, although set in Dublin and London. "Old Granau" here complains to several English statesmen about the hard times the English are giving to her sons in America. The song mentions events in America from the Boston tea party up to, but not including the Declaration of Independence. The song was printed in the very rare 'The Green Mountain Songster' of 1823, with the first nine verses reprinted in the Vermont folk song collection, 'The New Green Mountain Songster', (by Flanders, Ballard, Brown and Barry) 1939, reprinted 1966. For this song the title is "Old Granny Wales." A later copy, with several corruptions, is printed from the Stevens-Douglas manuscript (c 1841-56) of western New York in 'A Pioneer Songster', (by Harold Thompson and Edith Cutting) p. 85, 1958. In the latter the song is entitled "Old Grannau Weal." Neither copy contains a tune direction, nor do any of the editors suggest one, but the song fits our tune here quite well. I suspect the song was actually written in America by an Irish American: the writer does not seen to know the names of any real streets in Dublin or London, and even after the date of this song Irishmen were being executed for treason for less provocative acts against the English.

Is this the first Irish-American song?

[From 'A Pioneer Songster', 1958, with some corrections from 'The New Green Mountain Songster', 1939 and 1966]

OLD GRANNAU WEAL

Old Grannau she arose in the morning so soon
She put on her petticoat apron and gown
Saying very bad news last night came to me
They are wronging my children thats over the main [sea]
Old Grannau [mounted her gelding] in rage
And straight way for Dublin it was her first stage
And as she was prancing it was up Dublin street
She with lord Cornwall [Conner] had a chance for to meet

He says noble Grannau come tell me in haste
Have you any good news from the East or the West
O bad news says Grannau that makes me complain
They are wronging my children thats over the main

That news is to true lord Cornwall [Conner] he said
They will bring them to slavery soon I'm afraid
Theres lord North and Cranville [Granville] and infamous Bute [No North in
That brought on the tea act that[s] now in dispute [New Gn. Mtn. text]

(Old Grannau set out with her grand equipage) [Pioneer
[The weather being wet and her sorrows increas'd] [New Gn. Mtn.
And straight way for london it was her first [next] stage
And as she was prancing it was up london street
Twas there with Lord Granville and Bute she did meet

You are three [two] villains as I understand
Who are wronging my children in yon foreign land
And it is reported and told as a fact
You are the three [two] villains that made the tea act

(You are wrongly informed says these gentlemen) (Pioneer
[They say noble granny you're wrongly informed] [New Gn. Mtn
(To yield to your slavery we never intend) (Pioneer
[To enslave America we never intend] [New Gn. Mtn
That land is our kings we solmnly say
And we will make laws and your sons must obey

You are three [two] arrant liars says old Grannau in haste
Tis very well known from the east to the west
My children they ventured their lives o'er the flood
And purchased that land with the price of their blood

They said noble Grannau do'nt give such a vent
We'll cool your sons courage and make them repent
With our great ships of war and our men in the field
We'll cool your sons courage and make them to yield

I would not have you think for to frighten my sons
At Lexington battle they made your men run
They are men of experience in every degree
The[y]'ll turn your proud ships with a hell-a-ma-lee

O says noble Grannau give me leave for to tell
Of a battle that was fought it was nigh Bunker hill
Where twelve hundred Britons lay dead on the field
And five hundred more have since died of their wounds [rhyme lost]

O Grannau do'nt tell us about bunker hill
For in that battle we gained the field
You once had warren but now he is slain [Joseph Warren, killed at
You have no more Warren's now over the main [battle of Bunker Hill

Well well says old grannau though Warren is dead
A Washington lives and our armies he'll lead
We'll handle your troops as polite as you please
And pay them their trouble for crossing the seas

We cannot deny but your Washington's brave
Then only think of what armies we have
We'll send over bigsby old Derby and Graves
Your sons must submit or we'll make them our slaves

Well Well says old Grannau go on with your cause
Our sons will never submit to your laws
And when they've beat you and drove your troops home
My sons will be free and make laws of their own

Too late will you see your desperate crimes
And mourn and lament to the end of your times
That ever you sent your troops o'er the flood
To spill my dear innocent childrens blood

I have a millions of sons in america born
To yield to your slavery they hold it in scorn
They are men of experience in every degree
They never will yield to your bloody tea Act [rhyme lost]

Sing wobaroo bob-a-roo says old Grannau weal
The fox is in the trap he's caught by the tail
They are men of experience and never will fail
Sucess to our sons say old Grannau Weal.

Hell-a-ma-lee in verse 10 and wobaroo bob-a-roo in the last verse are probably corrupt Gaelic expressions rather than nonsense expressions. One lost Gaelic tune of the middle of the 18th century was entitled "Suba roo roo."

^^