Da mihi manum – Give Me Your Hand
The Harper Arthur O’Neill attests in his memoirs that the composer of this lovely Old Gaelic harp tune was Ruaraidh Dall Ó Catháin (c.1580-1653), and that he composed it for Lady Eglinton, a patron while he was in Scotland. This tune appears in many early Scottish sources, beginning with the Wemys lute book, where it was written down in simple form during Ruaraidh’s lifetime. I’ve chosen to play the version from A Collection of Ancient Scots Music (1776) by Daniel Dow, fiddler and music teacher in Edinburgh, which includes lovely variants and baroque embellishments to the melody that would be expected from an 18th c. fiddler. The high point, however, still seems to be the surprising and emotional introduction of an F natural late in the tune. With time, this tune became more popular in Irish sources and tradition, and less so in Scotland.