CD with "Star of County Down"

Whistle
1

Hey everyone,

I’m working on an arrangement for one of our church’s Christmas services. I’m combining “I Wonder as I Wander” together with “Star of County Down.” I have an amazingly awesome flute player for “Star,” but when I say “flute” I mean your classical, concert-style flute. She’s not on a first-name basis with all the little tricks of the Irish sound.

Could anyone recommend of good CD that has “Star of County Down” played really well and “Irish” sounding? (I think you know what I’m trying to say.) I’d like to give her something to listen to so she can pick up the style.

Thanks,
Joey

2

If you mean the hornpipe that is also called “Bonaparte crossing the rhine”, check http://www.barrelmusic.com/cd.php. Follow the “Buy the CD” link, there are sound samples, one of them having this tune in full length, played by John Skelton and Kieran O’Hare on Bb whistles. Lovely.

Sonja

3

Hm… answering myself: given that you want to play it in a church service, it’s probably not the same tune. But check out the link anyway.

Sonja

4

skh,

Thanks, a cool link! But you’re right, that’s not quite the song I was thinking about. If it goes by different names, here’s a partial mp3 of the only version that I know of (by Lorie Line):

http://www.lorieline.com/media/audio/open_house/03_star_of_the_county_down.mp3

Thanks!
Joey

5

[double post]

6

My two fave versions are the one by the Chieftains on the CD with Van Morrison, and the one by the L.A. group called the Fenians. You can find them at www.thefenians.com. I have probably ten versions of that song (it’s one of the reasons I wanted to learn to play the whistle in the first place), but those two are the “most Irish.”

7

One of my favorite versions of The Star of County Down is by Slainte, They have CD’s available through MP3.Com or you can download the song in MP3 format for free: The](http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/18/18856.html%3EThe) Star of County Down recorded by Slainte</a](http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/5/slainte.html>Slainte</a)>. It starts with a whistle solo that should give your classically trained flute player a feel for ornamentation.

8

Any other place to hear this Lee, without having to sign-up for MP3.com?
Last time it took me months to get rid of them, as they said I hadn’t
“subscribed” to be able to “un-subscribe”, when all I wanted to do
was to hear one tune???
Lolly