I accidentally stumbled surfing on the web in this beautiful ancient gaelic song, which has many versions (Altan, Danu, and John Beag O’Flatharta -possibly the most moving of them all). I find this is absolutely perfect for a uilleann pipes version. Has anyone some hint on where is possible to find an ABC file or a music sheet of it? (I’m not very good in transcribing by ear).
Many thanks!
After listening to another version, is it possible that it is the same melody of “Rock of Bawn”?
I’m not familiar with either of those names; might you have a link to a video or sound file of the tune being performed?
I would say yes. Also the same tune to “Homes of Donegal”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By0QM8mlr28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8de27O8ILo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thA_LsDUIPA
Thanks Nanohedron for the links!
I woiuld add this link with a precious uilleann pipes flow by Liam Og Flynn
I woiuld add this link with a precious uilleann pipes flow by Liam Og Flynn
You did notice that’s not the air John Beag sings? That’s the one Willie Clancy played under the title ‘Rocks of Bawn’, not the air the song is usually sung to.
Mr.Gumby, in my humble opinion, the melody line, apart from melisms’ of sean nos singing, is really looking substantially the same.
Looks the same? Hmmm..
But does it sound the same?
Seriously though, when you sing a song to two different airs, the phrasing is bound to be (at least more or less) the same (you’ll have to fit the same words to the melody after all). Look here and compare to what Liam Óg is playing there. Not the same tune.
Reasoning as I am out of an abundance of ignorance, could it be an idiosyncratic variant, perhaps? I agree it does indeed sound like a different tune, but I also hear in it the same general structure and most notably the same signature tag-ends found in the original tune we’ve been discussing. So while I think of it as a different tune for obvious reasons, all the same it’s hard not to sense at least a certain degree of relatedness between the two, which inspires my question. Maybe this is what Alaricus is grabbing onto.
Thanks to both, Nanohedron and Mr.Gumby, for this interesting and deep discussion! To my ears, which possibly are not so fine to know subtleties as yours, Liam Og Flynn intervention is a variation of the melody line that Paul Brady next sings, which is again a little different than the abc dots Mr.Gumby underlines. It could be really meaningful to compare in depth the musical sheets of these different versions, to comprehend if these are “idiosyncratic variants” (what an interesting concept!) or structurally different tunes. But maybe this is far beyond of my music knowledge…
It happens. Paddy O’Brien (of County Offally, and still with us) has a few of his own, one being a personal version of the Battle of Aughrim:
See 2. The Battle of Aughrim (2nd Version)
Definitely not your usual. I think of it as a different tune. But by and large it still hangs on the barest bones of the original, and I’m not going to be the one to tell Paddy he can’t call it what he likes!
Micho Russell was another one known for unique, personal settings of otherwise “standardized” tunes.
Great, clear and focused example, Nanohedron, thanks!