Does anyone have or know where I could get the music for “Dear Irish Boy” with the ornamentation?
I don’t actually Holly, but two quick points: I’d strongly advise you to learn it by ear. Airs are very difficult to learn properly from music. Or let’s say, it’s very easy to learn an air all wrong from music. Also, there are many different settings.
Have you a recording of it played by a good player? If not, let me know.
The second point concerns “the ornamentation”. Unlike the highly codified world of highland pipe music, ornamentation in Irish music is not something to be learned from a piece of paper. You should ornament the tune according to your own taste and abilities, or if you like, try to emulate the style of someone whose playing you like.
Sorry if all this seems a little uncompromising, but if you really want to learn to play this air well, I suggest you forget about sheet music, and listen to as many recordings as you can get.
There’s a nice one on whistle Tommy McCarthy’s CD, which you can get from Custy’s music.
I also have a few other versions on LPs that you’ll probably not be able to find.
Oh, dear, learning an Air by sheet music doesn’t mean you are stuck with the sheet music version anymore than learning an Air by ear means you are stuck with that artist’s version 
I have to learn everything from either sheet music or ABC’s because my hearing just isn’t that good, and I find that after I learn an Air, my version is different from the sheet music and different every time I play it. It’s a person’s musical sense that interprets music, not the method by which he or she learned the song, anyway
On 2002-04-29 15:03, Kendra wrote:
Oh, dear, learning an Air by sheet music doesn’t mean you are stuck with the sheet music version anymore than learning an Air by ear means you are stuck with that artist’s version
It’s been so long since anyone has called me “dear”!
Kendra, I’m not talking about being stuck with the sheet music version, any more than about being stuck with a recorded interpretation. I’m talking about starting with something that makes sense.
I think it comes down to what you want to do with Irish music. If you or Holly - like quite a few people on the board - are content to play Irish traditional music in what I would call a vacuum - that is without a stylistic connection with the way the music is played in the circles in which it has developed and continues to develop - then sheet music will be fine for you.
If like me however your goal is to share your music with, and be appreciated by, musicians in traditional circles, it just won’t do. Bear in mind that your “musical sense”, although it may be highly developed, is the result of your exposure to and involvement in other kinds of music than Irish trad. You need to expand it to include the Irish idiom, and you can’t do that from sheet music - in the case of slow airs above all.
You can get the music in midi and the sheetmusic in pdf and others at JCs ABC Tunefinder; http://www.trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/findtune.html
Keith
P.S. on the tunefinder url, drop the “www.” and it works.
Sorry about that.
Keith
For what it is worth, “Mel Bay’s Complete Irish Tin Whistle Book” has the sheet music on page 86 as well as a sung version on track 4 of the accompanying CD. The same track has one repeat of the whistle with unfortunately one of the most tasteless background accompaniments I’ve ever heard!
A point I would like to make is that for learning Airs another source to listen to beside whistle and bagpipe is a good traditional singer. I suspect that is the source of most Airs anyway. The beautiful ornamentation that a good singer adds to her/his singing translates very easily to the whistle.
Best wishes, Tom
Holly,
At the risk of opening a hornets nest again,
Stevie (the dear!) is absolutely right. If you want to play an Irish air(sean nos style- most airs are sean nos - unaccompanied songs), and you want it to sound truly Irish, you will not be able to learn to play it from sheet music, certain things in Irish music cannot be notated. Yes, every Irish musician has their own interpretation, musical sensibilities etc. but they play within certain accepted parameters that have evolved over many generations and which make Irish music sound Irish. Now, that doesn’t mean that people have to play an Irish air in an Irish style, but if they do want to, then the only way to learn to play it in an Irish style is by listening to other Irish musicians playing it. Preferably listen to several versions of the same piece done on various instruments and by different singers. However, saying that, sometimes having the sheet music in front of you while listening can help you find the notes on your instrument!
[ This Message was edited by: Whistlepeg on 2002-04-29 19:59 ]