Anyone know anything about clan outcrys and how they are played.
A few appear in O’Niell’s writings.
http://www2.redhawk.org:8080/irish/oneill/1850/F/1801-1850_bs.abc
From Munster, Leinster, Connacht. and Ulster.
Interesting find. I tried to play The Ulster Outcry and darned if I could find any beat or rhythm in it. It seemed more like someone vamping through arpeggios and stuff. I too would be interested to find out what these are about. I wonder why they’re listed as marches?
djm
Played more free-form, like laments?
Whatever the case, I think it’s interesting that all four have the same basic opening structure. I wonder if they were in themselves a theme and variations penned by the same unity-minded person; one for each region. Maybe they were designed to be performed in a series? Then you’d have sort of a theme-development/return to-theme/new development or variation/return to theme, etc.
I have a feeling a lot of those triplets, etc. aren’t quite so regular; I suspect there’s supposed to be lmore of a ululating “outcry” feel, but that kind of stuff is beastly to transcribe.
Just idle conjecture, though … that said, enough idleness, back to work. See ya! 
Yes, a couple of sources I found on the net suggested these were airs or keens, but the sources were just tossing ideas about - nothing authoritative or quotable. The idea that they are a kind of musical keen is attractive, though.
djm
Heheh…Cathy said “ululating”…heheheheh.
I tend to think that an “outcry” suggests something like a call to arms, or music with an aggressively martial intent in any case. Dunno, though.
Make your way over to this page http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/music/index.html
A little over half ways down the page you’ll come to “Uilleann CYlinders”
Click on Alasdrum’s March
The third track is the last of the old-school Kerry pipers, Mici `Cumbaw’ O’Sullivan, playing fragments of Alasdrum’s March - possibly a seventeenth-century piobaireachd lost to the Scots tradition but preserved in the Irish.
The air is closed to the Ulster Outcry as printed in O’Neills. The other ‘outcrys’ are just similar versions of each other.
The whole lot was written for Alexander Colkitto McDonald, a Scottish mercenary who was killed at the the battle of Cnoc na Dos, in Cork in 1657.
Different versions of Alexanders /Alasdrums / Ollistrums March exist today. Some really nice jig versions of the opening march too. (not heard in the cylinder recording)
Oh yeah, I was forgetting…
The air on the recording is called Gol na mBan San Ar. This means the crying of the women after the slaughter.
The women mentioned were Alexanders mother, from Ulster, his wife from Munster and Connaught woman was his childhood nanny or a servant/maid that his family had. I forget the Leinster connection though.
Thus the outcrys in O’Neills.
Tommy
This is why I hate slow airs. I am aware of the Sullivan cylinder recording, and have heard Seamus Ennis’ and Pat Mithcell’s versions of Gol na mBan San Ar, but I cannot hear any similarity with the ABC for The Ulster Cry from O’Neill’s. I guess the failure lies with me. :shrug:
djm
Or didn’t transfer to the Scottish tradition because of a strong attachment to place.
If this is how they are played then it brings them closer in structure to the O’ marches as I am calling them, O’Neill’s March, O’Donnell’s March, O’Sullivans, and others. Marches of the Milesian Kings as listed in the Memoirs of Arthur O’Neill. (The family names not the marches)
The whole lot was written for Alexander Colkitto McDonald, a Scottish mercenary who was killed at the the battle of Cnoc na Dos, in Cork in 1657.
Did he commission them or something?
Ollistrums March
Humm… another O’ march?
Ross’ site is great for arcane piping info.
I’m glad you mentioned piobaireachd, Tommy. I was going to say the ‘p’ word after I looked at the music for the Outcries. The triplets reminded me of cadences.
Colkitto is also involved in another famous piobaireachd, ‘The Piper’s Warning to His Master’ or ‘Colla Mo Run,’ Colkitto being both the ‘Master’ and ‘Colla’. This tune has been a major work for Allan MacDonald’s research into the ties between Gaelic song and piobaireachd.
I did notice that the ABC’s weren’t always accurate. For example the first bar of the Ulster Outcry has the last two notes at values that don’t match the metre of the tune. Notation of a lot of these more free style tunes is a major area of contention, certainly in piobaireachd. You’re not alone on this, DJM.
I have come to the conclusion that you know you’re listening to the real old-time stuff when it is totally devoid of any rhythm or structure, and any last hint of melody has been beaten out of it completely. To my dull, uneducated ear, this is little more than random noodling, like listening to a jazz improv built around nothing at all. I guess you have to be in the mood to listen to this stuff. At least it reminded me what a great album this is of Pat Mitchell’s.
djm
Did he commission them or something?
Doubt it. It could well have been a commemorative piece written well after his death.
and have heard Seamus Ennis’ and Pat Mithcell’s versions of Gol na mBan San Ar, but I cannot hear any similarity with the ABC for The Ulster Cry from O’Neill’s. I guess the failure lies with me. :shrug:
All is not lost. The tune that Seamus Ennis recorded and called Gol na mBan is not Gol na mBan, its the Eagles Whistle. Also go back the the ABC player and half the tempo in the options and listen again. You’ll hear similar passages in Pat Mitchells version. Pats version is based on Cumbaws version too.
No failure there at all!
By the way, a correction on the women in Gol na mBan.
The Goodman collection refers to the Munster woman being his mother, the Ulster woman, his wife and a Leinster woman being his nurse.
Colkitto is also involved in another famous piobaireachd, ‘The Piper’s Warning to His Master’ or ‘Colla Mo Run,’ Colkitto being both the ‘Master’ and ‘Colla’. This tune has been a major work for Allan MacDonald’s research into the ties between Gaelic song and piobaireachd.
This is really interesting because in the case of Gol na mBan the air is a caoineadh or lament rather that an song air. The air originally was composed to imitate the sound of crying.
There have been cases though of newly written lyrics being sung to older caoineadh airs.
So, I looked up Alisdrums March and two of the parts are the same as the version of O’Sullivan’s March I have. It seems to me that the cries and marches have a similar construction. Maybe the similar parts are a signal that “This is a Clan March so listen for who we are” kind of thing.
I understood from Mitchell that the final jig is supposed to represent the delighted widow dancing on her husband’s grave.