Her Long Dark Hair Flowing Down Her Back

hornpipe

Key signature: Dmajor

Submitted on December 28th 2002 by slainte.

This tune has been added to 128 tunebooks.

Also known as Flowing Down Her Back And The Colour Of Her Golden Hair Was Black, Her Golden Hair Hanging Down Her Back, Her Golden Hair Was Black, Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back, Her Golden Long Hair Flowed Down Her Back, Her Long Black Hair, Her Long Golden Hair, Her Lovely Hair Was Flowing Down Her Back, Moll Ha'penny, With Her Lovely Long Hair.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

Between The Showers by Grainne Hambly
Each Little Thing by Sharon Shannon
Flame On The Banks by Maeve Donnelly
Fused by Michael McGoldrick
John Williams by John Williams
Kieran O'Hare by Kieran O'Hare
May Morning Dew by Mick O' Brien
Notes From The Heart by Mick, Louise And Michelle Mulcahy
Oi�che Go Maidean by Brendan Begley
Providence by Providence
The Blue Bottle by InisFail
The Red Wellies by The Red Wellies
The Thing Itself by Maeve Donnelly And Peadar O'Loughlin

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Her Long Dark Hair Flowing Down Her Back sheetmusic

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Flowing down her back and the colour of her golden hair was black

This tune is a composition of Junior Crehan. While many players play it with different titles, it seems "Flowing down her back and the colour of her golden hair was black" is the original title. (But it is too long, so I post it with the composer's name.)

Really beautiful and impressive tune, but not so difficult to play (at least on the flute and whistle). Here I followed the most melodious version played by Michael McGoldrick as much as possible.

I often play another great modern composition "Brenda Stubbert's" after this tune, but you can also move on to Otter's Holt.

To tell the truth, still I'm not sure whether it's hornpipe or reel. Please supply some info.

# Posted on December 28th 2002 by slainte

Her Golden Hair Hanging Down Her Back

Mick O'Brien recorded this tune as part of a medley with "The Golden Castle" (Caisleann an Oir) on his solo album, "May Morning Dew". This is a beautiful tune and it can be played in A minor, too.

# Posted on December 30th 2002 by Hanley

Depends on which daughter

According to Grainne Hambly's comments on the tune when she plays it in concert, Junior Crehan used to alter the hair color in the title depending on which of his daughters was within earshot. She told the same story at two different concerts two years running, so it's probably either accurate or a piece of generally accepted folklore attached to the tune.
Lovely piece, quite fun to play.

# Posted on March 17th 2004 by sara g

Her Long Dark Hair Flowing Down Her Back

I've got Maeve Donnely and Peadar O'Loughlin's beautiful duet album, and find they play a slightly different version of this tune as "Moll Ha'penny." Maybe this isn't Junior Crehan's original composition.

# Posted on February 5th 2005 by slainte

so I was just drunkenly humming this tune according to my present (and debatable) opinion of what the sheet music says, curious, but thinking "boring, boring, what's next?" until I got to the end of the A part with that wicked resolution on the B. Just that one single note. In that instant I knew the guitar player who brought me all this cursed whiskey was going to get all excited, and that this is the type of tune I will play over and over and over again, boring or not.

# Posted on February 5th 2005 by Kerri Brown

Moll Ha'penny

Strange coincidence, "slainte". Kevin Crawford taught us this tune in a flute class in Aberdeen last week. I knew I'd heard it on the Donnelly/O'Loughlin CD, and that it was the same tune as Junior Crehan's "Long Hair". Kevin told us that Junior Crehan did compose his own tunes, but also that he was known for "re-arranging" old tunes with a few turns or phrases of his own, something I hadn't been aware of, although 1 example of that would be "The Mist Covered Mountain".
Kevin has his own arrangement of this, starting with the 2nd part. He called the tune "Dermot Grogan's".
I had been going to post it as a separate tune , but to avoid controversy, I'll just post the ABCs here. Kevin's version was as follows [ more or less, allowing for minor variations ] :

# Posted on February 5th 2005 by Kenny

Key/mode ?

Not sure what mode this is in - can anyone advise? Gs and Amins, I would think.

# Posted on February 5th 2005 by Kenny

Ha'penny

Ronan Browne's whistle playing on P. O'Loughlin and M. Donnelly's Ha'penny track reminds me of Chieftain's playing of Chicago Reel: http://thesession.org/tunes/display.php/840 Similar, isn't it?

# Posted on February 5th 2005 by slainte

Here is a setting we play. Note the pinky "stretch" to the high "C" in both parts...

Ken

# Posted on June 15th 2005 by RogueFiddler

Moll Ha'penny

I happened to be studying this tune and saw questions about its history.. here's some (not all) of what Pat Mitchell put abt it from The Thing Itself sleeve notes -
published variants of the original title: Poll, Paul, Polly, Molly and Moll followed variously by Ha'penny, Halpin and McAlpin, Mac Alpin. O'Neill included 5 versions in DMI. 2 are song-airs - one adapted by Moore for his song Brian the Brave, the set dance Poll Ha'penny, and 2 hornpipes [Hawks and the Boys of Ballysimon]. Many versions of the tune stayed alive in the East Clare tradition; Willie Clancy played one related to Ballysimon, and both Junior Crehan and Bobby Casey played their own. Versions of the first setting called Moll, were also played by Scully Casey and Mrs. Galvin. Peadar O'Loughlin's father used to call it Nell McCarthy's, Mrs. Galvin's maiden name.

# Posted on May 6th 2006 by LH

her long dark hair flowing down her back

i'm looking for notes for this tune, but in the key that michael mcgoldrick himself plays it on his fused cd! i would grateful for any help thanks!

# Posted on March 26th 2007 by sarah concertina

Re: her long dark hair flowing down her back

On the soundclip I have of McGoldrick playing this, he's on a Bb flute. So the tune comes out in Bb/Gdor.

# Posted on March 26th 2007 by Will CPT

Re: her long dark hair flowing down her back

why do you need the dots if you have a recording?

# Posted on March 26th 2007 by llig leahcim

Re: her long dark hair flowing down her back

Because her saying she would like the dots doesn't necessarily mean she *needs* the dots?

Because she loves the graceful visual aesthetic of a well-notated tune, and takes pleasure in seeing the graphical interplay of well-proportioned notes on the page?

Because as a visually-oriented learner, the combination of careful listening to the recorded setting with her developing ear for the music, together with the visual stimulus of an approximate notational representation, is a more powerful and effective nexus of learning stimuli for her than either one alone?

# Posted on March 27th 2007 by MTGuru

Re: her long dark hair flowing down her back

Sarah, here are the abcs transposed to Bb/Gm (my mistake above, not G dorian).

You can cut and paste these into the ABC Convert-A-Matic over at http://www.concertina.net to get the dots, or send me an email and I'll get them to you.

Cheers,

X: 1
T: Her Long Dark Hair Flowing Down Her Back
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Bb/Gm
Bc|:dcBd c2BG|FD~D2 FGBc|dcBd c2Bc|dggf g2fe|
dcBd c2BG|FD~D2 FGBc|dcBd cBGF|G2GF G2 Bc:||
dffg fdcd|BGFG B3c|dggf g2fe|dcBd ~c2Bc|
dffg fdcd|BGFG B3c|dcBd cBGF|G2GF G2 Bc:||

# Posted on March 27th 2007 by Will CPT

Such a considerate gentleman for a puddy tat, and colourful too being a Cheshire... ;-)

# Posted on March 27th 2007 by ceolachan

# Posted on May 22nd 2007 by the wounded hussar

Another album

Several people have mentioned Mike McGoldrick's performance of this tune. In the list of recordings it's on his Fused album. It's also on Wooden Flute Obsession 1, with the title, "Her Long Black Hair."

# Posted on August 11th 2007 by art

Moll Ha'penny

Here's Maeve Donnelly and Peadar O'Loughlin version on their duet album "The Thing Itself".

The sleeve notes by Pat Mitchell doesn't mention the source.

# Posted on August 19th 2007 by slainte

Here's the Mulcahy family of Limerick playing this tune: http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_237_1_the_mulcahy_family_in_concert

# Posted on December 28th 2007 by slainte