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"The Catholic Boys (in Gaelic "Cathaoir an Phíobáire"), also known as "The Piper's Chair" and
"Silver and Gold" is an Irish air or double jig in G Mixolydian/Major. The parts are
played A(one part) (Petrie), AB (O'Neill), AABB (Bayard, Breathnach, Roche). The melody is
better-known today as "The Piper's Chair".
Petrie stated the old Irish name for the tune was lost but that this was the name his source, Clare piper Willie Clancy, used. A version of the tune was entered into the large mid-19th century music manuscript of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper Canon James Goodman under the title "Silver and Gold". The tune was collected in western Pennsylvania by Samuel Bayard from fifer Hiram Horner. It was printed in Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1981), Breathnach's CRÉ I (1963), O'Malley's Luke O'Malley's Collection of Irish Music, vol. 1 (1976), O'Neill's O'Neill's Irish Music (1915), O'Neill's Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies (1903), Petrie's Ancient Music of Ireland and Roche's Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 3 (1927). |