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"The New Mown Meadow", also known as "The New Mown Meadows", "Anderson's Reel",
"Miss Lane's Fancy", "Old Silver Spear", "The Threepenny Bit", "The Top of the Cliff",
"The Silver Tip", "My Love is on the Ocean", "The Silver Spear", "Holly Bush" or
"Joe Mháire Mhicilín" is an Irish reel in A Dorian, D Dorian {Joyce} or
E Dorian ('A' part) & A Mixolydian ('B' part). The parts are played AB (Joyce) or
AA'BB' (Moylan).
There are different versions of this tune, although generally it is played in either the keys of A Dorian or E Dorian, less frequently heard in D Dorian. The tune is often associated with "The Silver Spear" which it resembles, especially in the second strain. It is popular in County Clare and has been a favorite of melodeon players. P.W. Joyce, who collected in Munster in the mid-1800's and first published the tune said that it was "written from memory". This is the same period (and, broadly, region) that Church of Ireland cleric James Goodman (1828-1896), of Cork, collected in and he included the melody twice in his manuscript collection, under the titles "The Top of the Cliff" and "The Silver Top". It was printed in Bulmer & Sharpley's Music from Ireland, vol. 2 (1974), Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909), Moylan's Johnny O'Leary of Sliabh Luachra (1994) and Songer & Clyde Curley's Portland Collection vol. 3 (2015). It was recorded by Denis Murphy & Julia Clifford on The Rushy Mountain (1994), Noel Hill & Tony MacMahon on I gCnoc Na Graí/In Knocknagree and Christy Moore on The Iron Behind the Velve (1978). |