Poppy Leaf Hornpipe

A hornpipe in G major, unattributed in its earliest known printing in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (Boston, 1883), and carried forward into Cole’s 1000 Fiddle Tunes (1940), through which it spread into Irish-American, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, and New England repertoires. Cole’s marks the tune as also usable as a clog, and the identical melody appeared as “Mulberry Leaf” in A.S. Bowman’s J.W. Pepper Collection of Five Hundred Reels, Jigs, etc. (Philadelphia, 1908). Notable recordings include Winston “Scotty” Fitzgerald on 78 rpm (Rodeo RO-170; also Celtic CX 34), Sligo-born fiddler Kathleen Harrington (reissued on Milestone at the Garden: Irish Fiddle Masters from the 78 RPM Era, Rounder, 1996), Alistair Anderson on Alistair Anderson Plays English Concertina (Leader, 1972), Brian Conway and Tony DeMarco on The Apple in Winter (Green Linnet, 1981), and Cape Breton fiddler Brenda Stubbert on House Sessions (1992).