Maid Behind the Bar (D)

O’Neill’s 1850 (1903)

The reel “Maid Behind the Bar,” has a slightly different A part in O’Neill’s, Music of Ireland (1903) – a book commonly called “O’Neill’s 1850” because it has just over 1,850 tunes in it.  In that collection this tune (or a member of this tune family) is entitled “The Green Mountain” (pg. 227, #1205).   So, if someone calls the tune “Green Mountain” then be ready for a different A part.  It is unknown how old the tune is, but there is some evidence that it or a variation (i.e., a close melodic cousin) was a commonly played dance tune in the mid-1800s in the U.S. and so is likely to have been played in Ireland at least fifty years earlier.   Anything more is speculative.  Its structure is AABB.  As with all tunes on this site, the priority of order is (1) learning the tune from a live player, (2) learn the tune from the recordings below, and (3) learn the tune from dots or midi.  This last being the least desirable option.

Here’s Maid Behind the Bar in ABC

Maid Behind the Bar, slow tempo (Bob Midden, flute)

Maid Behind the Bar, med-fast tempo (whistle).

Maid Beind the Bar