Sergeant Early's Dream - Solo - Download

Sergeant Early's Dream

Traditional Irish Dance Tune  - Download with Free MP3

for Irish / Celtic / Lever Harp 

at Level 4 (Advanced) 

Arranged Janet Harbison

In O’Neill’s ‘Music of Ireland’ published by the police Captain Frances O’Neill (Chicago in 1903), we learn of the emigrant Irish musicians who looked to Captain Frances to notate dance tunes that could be shared between all the session musicians they knew.  In his first tome of 1850 tunes, ‘Sergeant Early’s Dream’ is listed as tune number 1419, and Captain Frances attributes it to one of his prolific informant friends, McFadden.  There are a number of other Sergeant Early tunes in the collection – and I suspect that he was another police colleague of Captain Frances.  

It’s a great tune – given in the key of A major in Captain Frances’ collection – but I suspect this was a mistake as there are a number of strange anomalies…  I present it in the key of D minor as I learned it.