Pretty Peggy's bass
The chorus contains a very similar bass to that presented in MS12 f64v (the fine copy
from which the published version derives) where the following is written
Burn's March, or Hugad e Gaddigh fried e Moni
2 first Bars
original harp
Bass
these two Bars the
original harp Bass
an expression of this ingenious Air would have been lost otherwise
This is one of the first tunes taught young Irish Harpers and I have given the Harp
Bass
in its original state with little exception as the Characteristic wildness
I would not give the MS33 book I bass to a learner myself but the MS12 bass I might.
These notations might imply that Quinn's bass for the chorus varied from that of
Hampsey as notated in MS12 f33r. Hampsey struck the highest right hand pitch on
the second and fourth crotchet of the bar whereas Quinn seems to have struck it on
the first and third crotchet of the bar. Both basses however use a full hand of four
fingers to produce a pedal tonic triad under the treble melody. The rhythm of Quinn's
chorus melody also appears to be slightly different from Hampsey's set.
The Quinn set, seen in verses three and four of the published version, presents the
possibility of using:-
for the right hand
ladhar láir (middle of hand: 1,2) as a fourth in the chorus
for the left hand
leithleagadh (half falling: 2,3 or perhaps as 1,2) in both verses
Burns' March
Bass