The fourth musketeer
Two out of the three progressions have the Féileacán preceding Burns' March. At
least two out of three progressions indicate an initial group of four tunes generally
taught to learners. This may reflect a lack of traditional agreement about the order of
the pieces after learning Mailí Bhán and does not necessarily imply that Bunting is
wrong to place the Féileacán last in one of these progressions.
Progression one involves a gradually quickening pace. In addition, the Féileacan
demands more contrary motion in the hands than does Burns' March. The chorus of
Burns' March, in lacking an F# in the treble, is nearer the tune of Mailí Bhán
(particularly the MS33 I f32r version) than the Féileacán. On the other hand, the
Féileacán is shorter than even Quinn's set of the march, both hands leap around
less in comparison to Hampsey's set, and the right hand chords of the Féileacán
contain less notes. Learners face different problems with both pieces.
Bunting may also be accurately reflecting a lack of traditional agreement about when
any fourth piece was introduced. Progression two presents the possibility that one
could have been introduced immediately after Mailí Bhán and that it may or may not
have introduced the use of the right hand. There are many tunes similar to Mailí
Bhán all over Gaeldom which would suffice as a candidate for a fourth tune in order
to ground the learner in pentatonic and hexatonic finger positions in the key of G one
sharp.
The note in MS33 I f32r that the treble of the Féileacán is to be played an octave
lower could make sense if transposing Bunting's arrangement from the likely key of G
one sharp to the key of C natural. However, since the same page notates all three
pieces in the key of G one sharp, it is likely that the note simply refers to the melody
passing from the treble into the bass in the latter half of the Féileacán, a frequent
enough feature of the Gaelic harp arrangements Bunting notated from.
The appearance of Mailí Bhán in an English phonetic spelling as 'Molly Vaun' is
instructive when considering how to interpret James MacDonnell's spelling of 'ni
Kaulai', the ancient name for the sisters, as 'au' might indicate a long vowel, which
would mean a modern spelling of 'cómhlaí' for the word.
Burns' March
Fourth musketeer