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"Maude Millar", also known as "Donegal Boys", "Eileen Curran's",
"I Wish I Never Saw You", "Killoran's Reel",
"The Magic Slipper",
"The Montua", "Morrison's Reel", "Mrs. Smullen's",
"My Love is Fair and Handsome", "Paddy McFadden's" is an Irish reel in
G Major (most versions) or F Major (McGuire & Keegan). The parts are played
AB (Breathnach), AAB (Mallinson, Taylor) or AABB (McGuire & Keegan, Miller).
It is sometimes found in older manuscripts in the key of F Major and occasionally is heard played in that key in modern times. However, the title "Maude Millar" for this tune on printed sheet music seems to have been fairly recent, dating to O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1903). O'Neill spelled the first name of the title with an 'e', but there are many instances of 'Maud Miller' as well. Both Breathnach and Bulmer & Sharpley printed the reel in 1976 as an untitled tune. The reel was popularized by James Morrision, who recorded the tune as "Maud Millar" for Columbia records in New York in 1935 in a medley with his own composition, "The Skylark". The alternate titles "Killoran's Reel" and "Morrison's Reel" come from Sligo-style fiddlers John Vesey and Andy McGann, respectively. It was printed in Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann vol. II (1976), Bulmer & Sharpley's Music from Ireland, vol. 3 (1976), Mallinson's 100 Essential (1995), McGuire & Keegan's Irish Tunes by the 100, vol. 1 (1975), Miller's Fiddler's Throne (2004), Taylor's Through the Half-door (1992) and Vallely's Play Fifty Reels with the Armagh Pipers Club (1982). It was recorded by Oisín McAuley on From the Hills of Donegal (2007), James Keane on Roll Away the Reel World (1980), Matt Molloy on Matt Molloy (1984), Mary Bergin on Feadóga Stáin 1 (1979), Frankie Gavin on Fierce Traditional, Seamus Tansey on Easter Snow (1996), Shaskeen on Shaskeen Live and Dezi Donnelly on Familiar Footsteps. |