An Bonnán Buí

[MarcusR]

I know I have seen the abc notation for this tune before but now I can’t find it again.

Have you seen it anywhere?

Thanks!

/MarcusR

[Cayden1]

@The Fiddler's COmpanion

YELLOW BITTERN, THE (“An Bunnan Buí” or “An Bonnán Buidhe”). Irish, Slow Air (4/4 time). Ireland, Ulster. C Major (Joyce, O’Sullivan/Bunting): D Major (Ó Canainn). Standard. One part (Ó Canainn): AB (Joyce, O’Sullivan/Bunting). O’Sullivan (1983) and Ó Canainn (1978) both note the song is still sung today by traditional musicians, to a variety of melodies. O’Sullivan edited the Irish collector Edward Bunting’s works but uses the tune as given by the Cork collector William Forde (c. 1846) because it is a closer variant of the modern version than the one in Bunting’s 1840 collection. “In Bunting’s third collection (1840), p. 56, is given a fine air, The Yellow Bittern: in 3/4 time…(,however, Forde’s tune) is in common time and is at least as good as that of Bunting: besides being simpler and more vocal. Compare with ‘Maire Aroon’” (Joyce).

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The song “The Yellow Bittern” was written in the 18th century by an Ulster poet, Cathal Bui Mac Giolla Ghunna (1690-1756). It seems that Bui Mac Giolla Gunna, or in English ‘yellow Charlie Gunn’, went walking one wintry day near his home by the shores of Lough MacNean. He came upon a yellow bittern lying frozen on the icy lake, and Gunn, identifying with the creature, suspected that the death was brought about because the bird could not drink from the iced-over water. His suspicion was the product of his own fears, for one of his greatest was the absence of convivial drink. The song was translated by Thomas MacDonagh, ultimately executed for his role in the Easter Rising of 1916, and goes, in part:

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It’s not for the common birds that I’d mourn,
The blackbird, the corncrake or the crane,
But for the bittern that’s shy and apart
And drinks in the marsh from the lone bog-drain.
Oh! If I had known you were near your death,
While my breath held out I’d have run to you,
Till a splash from the Lake of the Son of the Bird
Your soul would have stirred and waked anew.

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Sources for notated versions: the index to Bunting’s 1840 collection reveals he noted the tune from a “blind man at Westport in 1802;” Forde noted the melody from fiddler Hugh O’Beirne (Co. Limerick) [Joyce]. Joyce (Forde MS), 1909; No. 609, pg. 314. Ó Canainn (Traditional Slow Airs of Ireland), 1995; No. 104, pg. 88. O’Sullivan/Bunting, 1983; No. 77, pgs. 120-121.
T:Yellow Bittern, The
T:An Bonnán Buidhe
L:1/8
M:C
S:Bunting
K:C
E/F/|G2 G>E F2 EF|G2A2_B2 AG|AGED C2 D/C/D|C2C2 C3E/F/|
G2 G>E F2 EF|G2A2_B2 AG|AGED C2 D/C/D|C2C2C3||E|
G2 GA c2d2|e2 fe d3f|e2 dc c2 GA|_B2A2G2 cA|{A}G21 GE F2 EF|
G2A2_B2 AG|AGED C2 D/C/D|C2C2 C3||

[MarcusR]

Thank you Peter, both for the information and the abc score.

BTW, do you know of any good piping recording of this tune other then the Mikie Smyth version on “A new dawn of Uilleann piping”?

All the best,

MarcusR

[Cayden1]

I have heard Ollie Conway sing it many times and that does me fine. Brian Mac recorded it as well I think. And I seem to remember Finbar Furey. so that covers a broad spectrum between them

[kenny]

Didn’t Liam O’Flynn record it somewhere along the line? Also a fine version sung in English by the Dublin singer Al O’Donnell, I think on his 2nd record.

[Bill_Reeder]

@kenny

Didn’t Liam O’Flynn record it somewhere along the line? Also a fine version sung in English by the Dublin singer Al O’Donnell, I think on his 2nd record.

I think there’s a recording of this on O’Flynn’s “The Poet and the Piper” cd.

[ISU_Trout_Bum]

Hi,

It is also on the 1st CD of “Ireland’s Best Slow Airs” (companion to the book “110 of Ireland’s Best Slow Airs” published by Waltons Publishing) - albeit, played on fiddle, but very nicely done.

Slan!

[MarcusR]

Thanks all for the input, lovely tune it is.
I’ll look into the other sources you mentioned but for now I’ll settle with the Mikie Smyth version.

Cheers!

/MarcusR