In the 03.10.26 MMD, I submitted a recording of a pretty and
unidentified tune on a Grand roller organ roller ("cob") I have and it
was posted in the "Sounds" section of the MMD Gallery. No MMD reader
was able to identify it, and it has remained in the Gallery since then.

Today I played a Grand cob I just obtained, #2052, "How Dear to Me
the Hour", and, lo and behold, it was my mystery tune!  I had said when
I made my previous posting that the small piece of label on the cob
I had appeared to contain a number that began "205-", but Hibernocentric
thinker that I am (see my submission on Irish music on the roller organ
in the 1998.03.12 MMD), I had ruled out cob #2052 as a possibility
because I assumed that the tune on it would be the "How Dear to Me the
Hour" from Irish poet/composer Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies (which
also contains the much more familiar "The Last Rose of Summer", "The
Minstrel Boy" and "Oft in the Stilly Night", all on the 20-note roller
organ).

In fact, the tune on the Grand cob is something completely different
(I just pulled out my copy of Moore's Melodies and played his "How Dear
to me the Hour" on the piano and the tune on the cob is by no means
even a very altered/florid arrangement of the Moore tune).

Is anyone familiar with this other tune also called "How Dear to Me the
Hour"?  If so, would you know a source for the sheet music for it, or
know who the author/composer are?  It's a very pretty tune, and I'd
like to track it down.

Incidentally, I'm now at a point where I have in my collection all but
16 of the 158 Grand roller organ cobs known to have been made, as well
as many duplicates, and if anyone happens to have any Grand cob I don't
have I would offer, at this point, a high price in cash or in other
Grand cobs of your choice in exchange for it.

Best wishes for a very happy new year!
Richard Dutton