Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Pretty Maggie Morrissey

hornpipe

Key signature: Gmajor

Submitted on September 19th 2004 by Aidan Crossey.

This tune has been added to 37 tunebooks.

Also known as O'Neill's, Pretty Maggie Morissey, Pretty Maggie Morrisey, Pretty Peggy Morrissey, The Wexford.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

1891-1945 Disc 1 by Michael Coleman
Archives #3 by Jean Carignan
Come Dance With Me In Ireland by Various Artists
Dawn In The Hills Of Ireland by Marty O'Keefe
Give It Shtick by Matt Cranitch
Leo Rowsome: Classics Of Irish Piping by Leo Rowsome
Mac Bones And The B Band by Mac Bones And The B Band
One by Murphy Roche Irish Music Club
Pure Piping by Leo Rickard
Set Dances Of Ireland, Volume II by Various Artists
That's What You Get by Wendy MacIsaac
The Cook In The Kitchen by John Brosnan
The Rowsome Tradition: Five Generations Of Uileann Piping by Kevin Rowsome
The Sligo Maid by Carmel Gunning
The Trip To Cullenstown by Phil, John And Pip Murphy
The Wheels Of The World, Early Irish American Music, Vol 2 by Various Artists
The World Turned Upside Down by Patti O'Doors
Tiomnacht / Handed On by Eoin O Riabhaigh
Turning The Tune by Charlie Lennon
We'll Seek No More Engagements by Aidan Crossey

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

After some badgering by a friend of mine, I decided to apply myself and learn this tune and so visited the session's tunes database to download. Surprised not to find it here, so I went to Matt Cranitch's fiddle book and set his version out here in abc. I know some people think that that's not quite in the spirit of the place, but quite frankly, my dear ... we'd have to wait a while before I make the tune my own and set out how I go about playing it. Is it fair to keep such a good tune away from people in the meantime?

# Posted on September 19th 2004 by Aidan Crossey

Pretty Peggy Morrissey

Aidan,
I learned this tune several years ago, from Fintan Vallely's TIMBER Flute Tutor (p.22).
He only listed it as HORNPIPE. I was told once it was called The Plains of Boyle #2, but found no corroboration as to that. Two weeks ago I was browsing tunes on the Kyrie/Helga site, and found it as Pretty Peggy Morrissey! I usually play it followed by McGibbney's Hornpipe, then sometimes by The Plains of Boyle #1. I'm glad someone else is playing it, since I'm the only one that I've heard play it. It is a lovely tune that I wish were more widely played.

# Posted on September 19th 2004 by chscott

Pretty Maggie Morrisey

I've played this for years now - so long, I can't remember who I learned it from. When I launched into it at a house session last June, Brian Conway and Felix Dolan leapt right to it (they were visiting, on their way to teach at the Montana Fiddle Camp). Brian said afterward that he's very fond of the tune, and mentioned it being played by Coleman.

I play it more as a reel than a hornpipe, though I like to put it in a set between Dance of the Honeybees and Kitty's Wedding. Here's a stab at notating how it might come out on my fiddle:

X:1
T:Pretty Maggie Morrissey
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:reel
K:Gmaj
Bc|:dBGB cAFA|DGGF GABc|d~g3 efge|dBGB A2 Bc|
|dBGB cAFA|DGG/G/F GABc|d~g3 ecAF|GBAF G2 Bc:||
|:d~g3 efge|degd e2 Bc|d~g3 efge|dBGB A2 Bc|
|dBGB cAFA|DGAF GABc|dgfg ecAF|GBAF G2 Bc:||

It goes about the same on banjo, with triplets where the rolls are indicated. I especially like the "degd e2..." bit in the 2nd bar of the B part.

# Posted on September 19th 2004 by Will CPT

Thanks for the alternative setting, Will. I'll give it a lash soon! CH ... I think this is a fairly well-known hornpipe. Several of the regulars at our local sesh have it and once I've got it a bit more fluent, I'll have it myself!

# Posted on September 19th 2004 by Aidan Crossey

I know this as the Wexford Hornpipe. Popular in both Hughes and the Cobblestone

# Posted on September 20th 2004 by cluaintarbh

Pretty Maggie Morrissey

Been playing this lovely hornpipe for years, and usually follow it with 'The Honeysuckle', another hornpipe that is listed in the session, which seems to follow on nicely

# Posted on September 20th 2004 by Enob

The famous piper Leo Rowsome called this the Wexford hornpipe, after his family's home county, and it is under this title pipers inevitably call it. The Pretty M.M. title seems to have been more in use in America - the piping of Tom Busby on this tune was transcribed in An Piobarie, the journal of Na Piobari Uilleann, and he called it by this title, saying it was popular with the old timers. Michael Coleman called it "O'Neill's," also.
It is a beautiful tune, one of those hornpipes with lots of scope for rolls (in the seond part, on the high G) too.

# Posted on September 21st 2004 by Kevin Rietmann

Having played this for a few days (Octave Mandola and mandolin) to get it under my fingers ready for the next session, I tend towards the following setting:

# Posted on September 22nd 2004 by Aidan Crossey

The Wexford Hornpipe

I looked out my copy of Leo Rickard's "Pure Piping", where he pairs "The Wexford Hornpipe" with "The High Level Hornpipe". And the first tune is indeed the same as that set out here as Pretty Maggie Morrissey.

# Posted on September 22nd 2004 by Aidan Crossey

You've done a great service by posting this before you "made it your own." This was the first tune I ever learned, when I bought my first folk flute. It was the second tune in a book I later lost. Later, when I introduced it to friends in a band I was in, we didn't know the name, so we dubbed it "#2 in the book." Every time we performed it, that's what we told people it was called.

# Posted on July 11th 2005 by fluti31415