Lyr Req: 'I'm sitting on the stile Mary, where...'

Subject: sitting by the stile mary
From: tremodt
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 07:41 PM

the irish emigrant first line is while sitting by the sty mary as we did long ago

please help with the words

ro1sin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sitting by the stile mary
From: Barry T
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 08:46 PM

Over here

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sitting by the stile mary
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 08:59 PM

You can also get sheet music, should you wish it, at The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, starting here: THE LAMENT OF THE IRISH EMIGRANT. Then follow the links.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sitting by the stile mary
From: Dale Rose
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 09:22 PM

And we have had a couple of discussions here at the Mudcat. HERE and HERE.

Here is an excerpt from a message I sent to George (who just MAY show up here somewhere along the line) some while ago. Some may find it interesting and/or informative.

I found the sheet music at Levy, Duke, and at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The copy that they used at Duke was in pretty poor condition, but their scans are always better than the others, so it is still the best of the three. I was a bit stumped by all the references to Lady Dufferin in the thread when all I could see in the sheet music was Mrs. Price Blackwood. A little more investigation made it all clear to me, though. The following paragraph (which I found online) was the most informative.

Up to the mid-1820s the Blackwoods, even though a peerage family, in reality belonged to the provincial gentry, overshadowed in their own county by the more cosmopolitan and much richer Marquesses of Downshire and Londonderry. In 1825 Capt. Price Blackwood, RN, who was the heir presumptive to the Barony of Dufferin (to which he succeeded in 1839) married outside the normal circle of Blackwood wives. His wife was Helen Selina Sheridan, granddaughter of the playwright, Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), whose family, although also of Irish origin, 'belonged to another class [the English literati], with very dissimilar antecedents and traditions'. emphasis added to note that all three of the above ladies are the same person!

Later on it mentioned that their son was a well known writer, too.

Barry, don't forget the other version, which I found in one of the other threads, posted by you, of course! a midi of the older version

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sitting by the stile mary
From:
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 09:22 PM

I checked the various search engines, and found the lyrics

http://www.bartleby.com/101/691.html

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/sheetmusic/lyrics/Dempster__Lament_of_the_Irish_emigrant.html

http://foxleap.fortunecity.com/irishlyrics/lyrics/lamentofirishimmigrant.txt

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/amss:@field(TITLE+@band(Lament+of+the+Irish+immigrant.+Andrews,+Printer,+No.+38+Chatham+Street,+N.+Y.+[n.+d.]))

The words seem to have been written by a Lady Dufferin, Helen Selina Price. The music composed by William Dempster. Some places call it Lament of the Irish Emigrant, and others call it Lament of the Irish Immigrant.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sitting by the stile mary
From: Dale Rose
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 09:24 PM

WELL, George! That WAS quick! 8-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sitting by the stile mary
From:
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 09:31 PM

Thanks, Dale. We must have been on at the same time

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sitting by the stile mary
From: tremodt
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 10:15 PM

Thank you all again for your input and information sincerley ro1sin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sitting by the stile mary
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 11 Apr 00 - 11:39 PM

Noticed one discrepancy in the first post. Just in case it's not a typo ...

Sty - a pigpen

stile - a fence crossing, looks like a 2-sided ladder