The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #95120   Message #1847163
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
30-Sep-06 - 06:29 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: A Trip o'er the Mountain
Subject: RE: Lyr req. Trip o'er the mountain
Here is a full list of editions at  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

[The true-lover's] trip o'er the mountain

There are two entries at  The Fiddler's Companion, which provide a little additional information:

The Trip we took over the Mountain(s)

The tune in Henry is similar to the transcription from the 'Boys oif the Lough' recording (where did they learn it from?) but bears only a slight resemblance to the purely instrumental versions popularised by Willie Clancy and Seamus Ennis (which are perhaps the best known nowadays). Ennis said that he had his from his grandfather, and played a distinctive flattened note which can be found (approximated rather unsatisfactorily) in some online transcriptions: this may just have been one of his idiosyncratic pipering affectations, though.

A few other recordings and examples from oral currency (plus a lot of broadsides) are listed in  the Roud Folk Song Index:

Roud 9632

I wouldn't as a rule place too much trust in song transcriptions at Cantaria.

Apparently Will Noble got the song from Arthur Howard. It seems to be pretty rare outside Ireland, and it's mildly surprising that it should have shown up in Yorkshire.