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Click here to find out about purchasing this book and other Churchtown related material... The
Boss Murphy Musical Legacy
It was important to John that his own children would continue the family tradition by learning to play the fiddle. By the early 1930s though it was obvious that this was unlikely and he began to direct his thoughts towards future generations. Like many other musicians of his generation he had witnessed the disappearance of many older tunes and tune-types from the local repertory and a general decline in interest in traditional music. He was motivated by a desire to preserve his repertory for future generations of his own family and therefore embarked on the task of compiling a manuscript collection from tunes that he had already written down in jotters or that he retained in his memory. The manuscript was completed during the three-year period 1933-35. This volume contains 306 airs, barndances, flings, galops, hornpipes, jigs, marches, mazurkas, polkas, quadrilles, reels, set dances, schottisches and waltzes: the repertory of a traditional musician in rural Munster in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many of the tunes, tune-types and settings in this volume have now vanished from the aural tradition. This publication aims to preserve this valuable source, and to disseminate it to a wider audience. In addition to the music the volume contains biographical detail on John 'Boss' Murphy and an account of the musical life in the Churchtown area during the first half of the twentieth century. Dr
Colette Moloney from Charleville, Co Cork, is a musician in both
the traditional and classical idioms. A graduate in music from University
College Cork, she obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Limerick
in 1995 on the subject of the Bunting Manuscripts. She is currently
a lecturer in music at the Waterford Institute of Technology. Her
reference work The Irish Music Manuscripts of Edward Bunting (1773-1843):
An Introduction and Catalogue The
Boss Murphy Musical Legacy ISBN
0-952-4931-2-8
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John
'Boss' Murphy (1875-1955) was both a farmer and a fiddle player
from The Leap, Churchtown, Co Cork. He was a well-respected musician
and a regular performer at house dances, dance stages and sessions
in the area. Indeed, the Murphy house at The Leap was an open house
for all local and travelling musicians to play and discuss their
music. John's father William Murphy was also a fiddle player and
father and son spend many hours playing music.
