The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #109830   Message #2299750
Posted By: Anglogeezer
28-Mar-08 - 02:01 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Herring the King
Subject: RE: Origins: Herring the King
The website "The Fiddler's Companion" has the following :-
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WE BROUGHT THE SUMMER WITH US (Thugamar fein an Samhradh linn). AKA and see "Samhradh, Samhradh." Irish, Slow Air (6/8 or 3/4 time). E Major/Mixolydian (Stanford/Petrie): D Mixolydian (Ó Canainn). Standard. One part (Ó Canainn): AB (Stanford/Petrie). The melody, which is still very much a part of the living tradition, appears earliest in Neales' Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes (Dublin, 1726), which Ó Canainn (1978) believes to be the first real collection of exclusively Irish folk music. It also appears in Burke Thumoth's collection of c. 1750 and Cooke's Selection of Twenty-one Favourite Original Irish Airs arranged for Pianoforte, Violin or Flute (Dublin, 1793). Breandan Breathnach, in Folk Music and Dances of Ireland, notes that the air is an example of the rare airs in Lah (Aeolian) mode.
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Of all the fish that's in the sea,
The Herring is king, the herring is king.
Sing thugamur fein an samhra linn
Tis we have brought the summer in.
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Ó Canainn (Traditional Slow Airs of Ireland), 1995; No. 97, pg. 83 (appears as "Thugamar Féin an Samhradh Linn"). Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 502, pg. 127. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, Vol. 1), 1999; pg. 2 (appears as "Thugamar Féin an Samhradh Linn").
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It may give you some leads

regards
Jake