Source: John McFadden in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland1
Possibly bears some resemblance in melodic contour to Jackson’s Humours of Panteen2. Not found in any of the older collections in DeGrae’s Bibliography. He comments that the related tune Wallop the Spot, also sourced from McFadden…:
”…uses similar melodic material in different ways; the two tunes may indeed be regarded as variations of each other.
[…Wallop the Potlid…] has six parts and Wallop the Spot has four. The resemblance between the two tunes is slightly concealed by the order of the parts, but becomes more noticeable if one compares the first part of Wallop the Potlid with the fourth of Wallop the Spot, and the second part of Wallop the Potlid with the third of Wallop the Spot.
Though musically illiterate, McFadden was a known composer (see the note to The Queen of the Fair, DMI 330, his best-known tune). In IFM and IMM, O’Neill several times mentions McFadden’s “chronic” (O’Neill’s word) habit of variation and improvisation, which often made it very difficult to notate his tunes. So, with the reworking of material in these two tunes — if that is indeed the case — perhaps what we have here is a glimpse into McFadden’s creative process at work, two snapshots of (or attempts to notate) his take on similar material at different times.”3
O’Neill’s account of McFadden from Irish Minstrels and Musicians can be found here.
- Francis O’Neill, O’Neill’s Music of Ireland: Eighteen Hundred and Fifty Melodies. Chicago, Lyon & Healy, 1903, #1048, p.197.
Also appears in:
Francis O’Neill, The Dance Music of Ireland (1001 Gems). Chicago, Lyon & Healy, 1907, #258, p.57. - Jackson’s Celebrated Irish Tunes, Dublin: Edmund Lee, 2 Dame Street, n.d., (JM 5411, watermark 1794), may be re-issue of an earlier publication by Sam Lee [1774?] or John Lee [1780], p.3.
- Paul DeGrae, Sources of tunes in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland and Dance Music of Ireland, 2017 (rev.2021). https://www.irishtune.info/public/oneill-sources.htm (accessed 23/1/23)
