wondering if any kind soul out there has a copy of CEOL Vols 2 & 3, 1969 or a web link to a copy. I tried google but no luck.
If you do have a copy I’m after a photocopy of an (alleged) article on/musical transcription of, Micky Chumba O’Sullivans cylinder recording of Alisdrum’s March.
I have a recording of the recording (thanks to Ross Anderson’s wonderful webpage) but I’ve given up on doing my own transcription of this unique but largely inaudible source!
Breathnach wrote a couple of articles on Mairseal Alasdruim - they’re collected along with some other interesting bits and pieces in a publication available from the NPU for 10 euros - The Man and his Music
The transcription of Mici ‘Cumba’s’ playing appeared in An Píobaire and was re-printed in Ceol an Phíobaire.
Technically you should be able to dig that out of the NPU on-line archive. But you’ll need to find out first which issue it was in.
Pat Mitchell, more or less recently, had the opportunity to play the piece on Mici Cumba’s pipes and said it was one of the most memorable moments of his life. A lot of people had assumed the chanter of the set was lost but it isn’t and never was. The present owners only said it was lost when Brother Gildas came visiting, knowing he’d want it if they’d show it to him.
For those of you who are NPU members, you can hear Cormac Cannon play a spellbinding version of this piece on an old Egan set on the NPU video files page. It’s listed under the title “Gol na mBan san Ár”, which constitutes a section of the original descriptive piece.
It’s pretty incredible stuff. Might make for a nice project for the decade… Start listening.
thanks guys! Some great leads there. I knew I could rely on C&F!
I’m researching the “so-called-border-pibroch”, a type of music analogous to GHB Piobaireachd that Leyden (c.1801) said was once played in the Anglo-Scots border country.
What I realized early on is that not only did such music once exist, but it had existed in many areas of the British Isles, and probably had medieval roots on both bagpipe and harp. I now have pretty good examples from northern and midland England, the borders, north-east Scotland, Ireland. Anyway, Alasdruim obviously fits into the picture, and I’d like to amass all the scattered fragments of the piece and see if I can assemble a convincing whole out of it…also to read anything that anyone else has said about it.
John Leyden was a Scottish orientalist/folklorist/antiquarian (1775-1811). Among other things he was involved with Walter Scott in collecting border music.
I’m planning to write up my findings in Common Stock the LBPS journal, but it could be a while…time, work, kids, other things to do etc etc.
I notice a recording of Liam Óg Ó Floinn playing Gol na mBan san Ár at the Comhaltas Archive. That’s Liam Óg, not Liam O’Flynn - you get different results searching for the English/Irish versions of the name.
The recording of Gol na mBan seems to be cut short. It’s the Mici Cumba setting. Lots of great stuff there from the young Liam.
There’s streaming audio of Ronan Browne doing a live performance of his interpretation of this piece at a festival, broadcast later on RTE’s Lyric FM program “Grace Notes” in 2007.
The whole program is nice, but the piece you want runs from 17:20 to 27:22. RealPlayer required: