The Mother And Child

reel

Key signature: Dmajor

Submitted on April 3rd 2003 by Dow.

This tune has been added to 67 tunebooks.

Also known as Mother And Child, The Yellow Cow.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

• Bright Early Mornings by Mary Staunton
• Inside Out by Mícheál O' Raghallaigh
• John Williams by John Williams
• Lead The Knave by Arty McGlynn And Nollaig Casey
• Music For Peace by Gary Hastings And Frankie Gavin
• Pick It Up by Enda Scahill
• The Lonesome Touch by Martin Hayes
• The Long Trip Home: Traditional Irish Music From D.C. And Baltimore by Josh Dukes
• The Mirthical Reel by Steve Mulhern And Ian Laws
• Three's Company by Martin Meehan
• Up Against The Flatirons by Eliot Grasso

X: 1
T: Mother And Child, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
A2GE FD~D2|EFGD EFGE|A2GE FDDF|EFGE A2AB:|
|:cAAB cdeg|fdec dcAB|cAAB cdeg|1 fdec d2ed:|2 fdec d2ec||

Submitted in response to a request. This reel was originally a song which comes in different versions. On Arty McGlynn and Nollaig Casey's "Lead The Knave" it is known as "The Yellow Cow". This name came about because one of the verses in one of the versions can be translated as:

I wish I had a yellow cow, a yellow cow, a yellow cow,
I wish I had a yellow cow,
And welcome from my darling.

The chorus translates as:

And Oh, I call to thee, I call to thee,
And the love of my heart art thou,
And Oh, I call to thee, I call to thee,
And thou art the fair child of your mother.

This is a type of song called a "dandling" that would have been sung by a mother to her child. This tune is therefore known by some as "The Mother And Child Reel", e.g. Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill: "The Lonesome Touch", and one of the Danu albums, the title of which I can't bring to mind.

# Posted on April 3rd 2003 by Dow

Yellow cow

thanks, dow, for posting the tune. i have the other tunes from arty's set and wanted to work up the whole thing on guitar. dont

# Posted on April 4th 2003 by Dont

If you want a transcription of the exact version played by Arty McGlynn, it's on Henrik Norbeck's site.

# Posted on April 4th 2003 by Dow

Your Mother's Little Pet

There's another version of this reel called "Your Mother's Little Pet" or "Your Mother's Fair Pet" posted at http://thesession.org/tunes/display.php/1571/comments

# Posted on April 4th 2003 by Dow

Key

This feels more like A mixolydian than D - it seems to centre on A rather than D

# Posted on May 11th 2008 by colm