The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) is committed to providing free, universal access to the rich cultural tradition of Irish music, song and dance. If you’re able, we’d love for you to consider a donation. Any level of support will help us preserve and grow this tradition for future generations.
While ‘The Morning Dew’ is the title given by Séamus Ennis in the transcription, this tune is one of a number of jigs in Donegal that all have the title ‘The King of the Pipers’ even though they are different tunes. Another version of ‘The King of the Pipers’ can be found in Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2 (No. 45). Brendán Breathnach recorded it from John Doherty in 1966 and commented that the same name was on other tunes but they were not related to Doherty’s version. ‘The King of the Pipers’ published in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland (No 702) has a number of parts similar to this version transcribed by Séamus Ennis from the fiddle playing of Hughie Bonar in March 1944.
![The morning dew [The king of the pipers], jig, handwritten by Séamus Ennis, CBÉ CC020.Hughie Bonar 8](https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/prints.itma.ie/seamusennis/the_morning_dew_ceol.jpg "The morning dew [The king of the pipers], jig, handwritten by Séamus Ennis, CBÉ CC020.Hughie Bonar 8")
