There’s an interesting version of this tune played by highland piper Allan MacDonald on the 03/07/2005 Late Session from this year’s Willie week. A link to it is posted on the radio section of uilleannobsession.com. Does anyone know anything about the origins of this tune? I know the tune from Paddy Keenan’s playing. Was it originally a Scottish tune? Maybe Ross Anderson would know.
On another note, I’m sorry to see Pat Cannady leave. I enjoyed the video of him playing on the Northern Pipers’ website. Anyone who can play that well is someone whose opinion is worth having on this forum.
I will post this link to the Fiddler’s Companion. You have to scroll a good way down the page to find discussions of a number of versions of The Blackbird. http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/BLACK.htm
Haven’t heard the Late Session recording, so I’m not sure which tune of that name is referred to. As far as the Set Dance tune goes, it’s considered to be Irish. To me, it doesn’t sound Scottish, anyway. The following is second-hand, but I know of one fellow who mentioned to me the James II reference as found in the Fiddler’s Companion, and the same fellow had seen it performed at wakes, the dancer commonly wearing a pulled-down black fedora and loose trenchcoat, the angle of the brim and flapping of the coat suggesting the bird itself. That would be interesting to see.
The Blackbird was Brendan Behans favourite tune.
Barney McKenna tells a story of Behan following him around the pubs of Dublin begging him to play the tune every time they met.
Here is a pic of Brendans monument complete with Blackbird, and a few old triangles
Cool bench! As it happens, the fellow I mentioned bears a passing resemblance to some of Behan’s portraits. Dubh, have you ever seen the Set Dance performed in hat and trenchcoat, or heard of the custom, yourself?
The bench is situated on the bank of the royal canal.
Mounjoy Prison,where Behan spent many a night,is just up a bit on the left hand side of this picture.It is the large grey building just past the lock gate.
The song penned by B. Behan, The Old Triangle. One of my favorites. Many years ago when I was playing at Finnegans in Denver as a duo with Mike Wallace of the Irish Brigade, we would hit the pub named Duffy’s down the street for after hours pints, food, darts and what not.
Many evenings, after being kicked out of the Duffy’s, Mike and I (along with a few good friends) would walk back to the hotel and stop to sing a rousing version of The Old Triangle in the entry way of an underground parkinglot. The acoustics were magnificent!
… and the Old Triangle, went jingle jangle,
all along the banks, of the Royal Canal…
I just asked dubh what exactly the old triangle was. I just couldn’t figure it out even though I have heard the song and read over the words. For those with the same problem, it was the triangle used in the prison to announce mealtimes. It could be heard ringing outside the prison along the banks of the canal.
Edited to remove image because it turned into red X.
back on topic…as Cynth pointed out…
"BLACKBIRD [1], THE (An Londubh). AKA and see “Once On a Morning of Sweet Recreation,” “Bonny Lass of Aberdeen.” See “Napoleon Crossing the Rhine” for an American version of the same tune. Irish, English; Slow Air, Set, Long or Country Dance (4/4 time), Reel, Hornpipe. D Major (Allan, O’Neill/1850): D Major/Mixolydian (Cranitch, Moylan, Mulvihill, O’Neill/1001): D Mixolydian (Breathnach, Kennedy, Kerr, O’Neill/1915 & Krassen, Raven, & Roche). Standard. AB (Moylan): AAB (Kennedy, Raven, Roche): AABB (Allan, Breathnach, Cranitch, Mulvihill, O’Farrell, O’Neill {4 editions}): AABCBC (Roche). The original song from which the instrumental versions take the title was written c. 1707 in praise of the Old Pretender, according to Flood (1906), who found reference to it as early as 1709 and who noted its printing by Alan Ramsay in 1724 in his Tea Table Miscellany (Ramsey records that he took the song down from an Irish participant who took part in the 1715 revolt). Other sources date the words from the war of 1688-90. So well understood was the nickname The Blackbird as applied to James I, Flood says, that the Jacobite Earl of Thomond, in 1704, had a horse of that name. Caoimhin Mac Aodha points out that the image of the blackbird, An Lon Dubh, is that of a melodious harbinger of joy in Irish folklore, unlike the raven, crow, rook or jackdaw, which are all associated with death and misfortune. In this spirit of hope the ‘Blackbird’ name was applied after the Old Pretender to the later James II and, in the 19th century, to Charles Stewart Parnell…”
ye can note it was also widely used during the second Jacobite Rebellion and referred to the Young Pretender as well.
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam
