Irish Tune from County Derry

Percy Grainger; arranged by Michael Allen from the original 1911 piano score
 
George Petrie writes (1855) “For the following beautiful air I have to express my very grateful acknowledgement to Miss J. Ross of New Town, Limavady, in the county of Londonderry – a lady who has made a large collection of the popular unpublished melodies of the county, which she has very kindly placed at my disposal, and which has added very considerably to the stock of tunes which I had previously acquired from that still very Irish county.  I say still very Irish, for though it has been planted for more than two centuries by English and Scottish settlers, the old Irish race still forms the great majority of the peasant inhabitants; and there are few, if any counties in which, with less foreign admixture, the ancient melodies of the country have been so extensively preserved.  The name of the tune unfortunately was not ascertained by Miss Ross, who sent it to me with the simple remark that it was ‘very old,’ in the correctness of which statement I have no hesitation in expressing my perfect concurrence.”
 
The lyrics for the popular tune Danny Boy were not written until 1910 (for a very different melody) – they were not adapted for this particular folk tune tune until 1913 – 2 years after Grainger’s first setting of it.