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"Give Me Your Hand", in Gaelic "Tabhair domh do Lámh", also known as
"Oh, Give Me Your Hand" is an Irish air or waltz in 6/8 time and G Major/Mixolydian
(Brody, Matthiesen, Neal, Oswald) or G Mixolydian (Mallinson, O'Neill, O'Sullivan/Bunting,
Tubridy). The parts are played: one part (Brody, Mallinson, Ó Canainn, O'Neill), AB (Tubridy),
ABC (Matthiesen) or AABB (Oswald).
The index of the Irish collector Edward Bunting's 1840 collection Ancient Music of Ireland gives that the piece was composed in 1603 by Ruainn Dall O'Catháin (d. 1653), or familiarly Rory Dall (Ó Cathan), originally an Ulster harper who performed and composed primarily in Scotland (the Gaelic appellation ‘dall’ means ‘blind’). Rory Dall is said to also have been an accomplished performer on the bagpipes and was much respected by the Highland gentry. It was printed in Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983), Bulmer & Sharpley's Music from Ireland, vol. 1 (1974), Bunting's Ancient Music of Ireland (1840), Johnson's Kitchen Musician No. 5: Mostly Irish Airs (1985), Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909), Mallinson's 100 Enduring (1995), Matthiesen's The Waltz Book II (1995), Neal's A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Airs (1724), Ó Canainn's Traditional Slow Airs of Ireland (1995), O'Neill's Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies (1903), O'Neill's Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913), O'Sullivan's Bunting's Ancient Music of Ireland (1983), Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion, vol. 8 (1760), Samuel, Anne & Peter Thompson's The Hibernian Muse (1787), Thumoth's 12 English and 12 Irish Airs (1746), Tubridy's Irish Traditional Music, vol. 1 (1999) and Wright's Aria di Camera (1727). It was recorded by Jody Stecher on Snake Baked a Hoecake, Planxty on Planxty Collection and James Galway and the Chieftains on James Galway and the Chieftains in Ireland (1986). I learned this from print although I had heard it a number of times before. |