This borders the line between reply and post. The recent post on aires was pretty close to where my headspace has been lately. It strikes me that learning (or, more accurately, attempting) to sing Sean-nós would help my aires (doing slow tones and actually having embouchure would help too, probably!)
Of course, I could just listen to them, sure, but I’m also learning a wee Gaelic and thought it would be nice to combine them and really dig down into some of these tunes and sing them as a way to really feel where they are coming from when I play.
Anyone else doing this? Anyone got a list of nice Sean-nós tunes they like?
The ones I’m looking for are:
Arran boat (I’m playing this at a St. Patty’s party, actually, be nice to sing it once through maybe)
Aisling Gheal (what brought this Native American flute player to Irish flute in the first place- that’s a Native tune!!)
Si bheag si mhor (This song seems to bore people, but I just love it. It’s another Native sounding tune to me)
Amhrán na leabhar (Never heard this one before, but after hearing it sung by Lorcán Mac Mathúna, I really love it)
I just wanted to point out that it’s spelled “air” and “airs”. No e. FWIW, the terminology in irish traditional music is generally agreed that an air is the melody to any song, while slow air is specifically the melody to a sean-nós (literally “old style”) song, an english language song in the same style, or a piece that follows the same style, that may or may not have originally been a song.
Also, Patty is to Patricia what Paddy is to Patrick.
That said, only two of the pieces on your list are sean-nós songs that would make slow airs: Aisling Gheal and Amhrán na leabhar. Assuming of course you mean the Aisling Gheal that I’m thinking of, which is definitely an irish piece…
I play a few airs that I’ve learned bits of the songs for, including the Yellow Bittern, the Old Man Rocking the Cradle, the Green Fields of Canada (all of which I’d classify as slow airs). I generally learn airs that are english language songs, because I don’t speak irish at all. I would only learn english language songs to sing, but I also play airs to a few irish songs, like Valencia Harbour (aka amhran na leabhar or the song of the books).
Point taken. I’ll definitely be much more careful.
My comment was actually a bit of a joke, because when I first heard it I actually started crying because it sounded so much like a Native tune that my grandfather would have sung.
A good start would be listening to Joe Heaney [urhttp://ceolalainn.blogspot.com/2011/07/joe-heaney-gabriel-osullivan-joe-gabe.htmll][/url]
I will search about forsomeother resources, but you also mught google PashaDragutRei’s channel on Youtube. There are some rare cd’s that are periodically available. Somewhere in a cupboard I have a couple of cassettes, I’ll see if I can get details. Joe Heaney spent a summer or so at the University of Washington School of Ethno-Musicology and they have several hundred hours of tape of him singing and discussing the tradition. They could be helpful.
A Mother and Daughter from Barna have a CD. out. If memory serves me correctly there is a little sean-nos on the album ‘Mouth Music’.
For reading, you’ll want to get a copy of ‘Blas Meala’,(A Sip from the Honey-pot) by Brian O Rourke. Also, and this may be the tricky bit, a copy of Pale Rainbow-An Dubh Ina Bhan. . .the two cassette album I was speaking about. I believe the Mckenzie sister did a littl Sean Nos as well as general Gaelic singing, and there are some bits and snippets of Elizabeth Crotty. . .unfortunately done when she was old, frail, and in ill-health.
If we broaden our scope a bit, and take Sean-nós to mean the old styles of Irish unaccompanied singing in both Irish and English, the field is a bit richer. The old singers did not exist in a vacuum. . .they were surrounded both by native gaelic speakers, partial bi-glots, and others who had had the gaelic beaten out of them The songs survived through the power of their beauty and emotion. . .even surviving poor translations. Two modern singers, who might be more accessible would be Len Graham and his wife Pádragín Ní Uallacháin. They have done albums solo and together. Len was just in the Northwest this past year. . .
Have a great journey!
A recent, and lovely interpretation of a gaelic air, was posted by a member ,named LineyBear: Casadh an tSugain. Often sung to accompaniment, as exampled in Micheal O’Domhnaill’s singing, but originally an unaccompanied lament. Yet another thread to pickup would be An Góilín, the tradtional singing club in Dublin. which has a series of CD’s and a list of events, often featuring really old-school
Sean-nós.
Nell Ní Chroinín is a young sean-nos singer from Co. Cork. She sings two songs on the Raw Bar Collective’s CD “Millhouse Measures” and there are many YouTube videos of her; here she sings one that’s on the CD, called ‘Na Táillúiri’.
Three tailors go into a pub and get into an argument about who is the most skilled. The bar man tries to separate them when they start to fight, and gets a kick in the backside. The chorus describes them as the old tailor with the big nose, the younger tailor with the big feet, and the sour, angry one from Killarney. I wrote to Nell and asked her what the song was about since I’m trying to learn it. It’s catchy
Thank you S1m0n. Ceol Alainn is a source for a lot of unobtainable music. . .maintained by PashaDragutRais. I actually have a vinyl (remember vinyl?) copy of “Joe and the Gabe” but I’ve been too lazy to rip it. I believe I had to get my copy in a used record store. . .
Dragut Rais is of course a notorious and reprehensible pirate if you are Italian, or a heroic General and patriot if you are Turkish.
I think two or three of my efforts ended up reposted there. I’ve found some treasures there, too, so it evens out. It’s just interesting to see stuff percolate through the inet, and to wonder about the route.
