Found a song in an old dusty box - James Rielly

Trad Irish Music
1

Here’s the story - I’ve recently inherited a collection (In a weathered old cigar box) of letters and various clippings brought/sent from/to my Great Grandmother from her family in Ireland. She came to Canada in 1927 and I’ve just started digging through this box and it’s been entertaining to go through the box. Now why am I writing about this in the ITM forum? Well, I’m not even sure if it belongs here - But here’s the story anyways…

Tucked away in this cigar box was an old clipping from a newspaper. The article clipped out is titled: SONGS OF THE PEOPLE. I will replicate it below and see if anyone finds it interesting. I’m doing this before I lose it or it disintegrates after coming out of the cigar box after who knows how long. I looked up the lyrics online and found variations of this version but none that I saw that are quite the same… so it’s not an Antiques Roadshow worthy story (Such as, “Oh, you’ve found the “Stairway to Heaven” of Irish music tucked in a cruddy old box and it’s worth $100,000,000 just to touch it and the world will praise you forever!” and I go on to say I found it in a coat I bought at a barn sale for 10 cents) but it’s kind of cool to find something music related in the first few items I’ve blown the dust off so entertain me and have a look… if anyone could tell me how to “read” the notation that would be cool - I have no clue myself.

It’s a ghost story… fun!

SONGS OF THE PEOPLE

No. 404 ---- JAMES RIELLY,


Key B. Flat,

: m | f:-: m | f :-: s | d :-: d | s :-: m | f :-: m | d :-: d | d :-:- : }

: s | d’ :-: r’ | m’ :-: r’ | d’ :-: l | ta :-: s | l :-: l | m :-: f | s :-:-|-:- }

: s | d’ :-: r’ | m’ :-: r’ | d’ :-: l | ta :-: s | l :-: f | t :-: l | s :-:-|-:- }

: m | f:-: m | f :-: s | d :-: d | s :-: m | f :-: m | d :-: d | d :-:- : }

As I roved out one evening down by the river side,
I heard a lovely maid complain till tears fell from her eyes
It was a dark and stormy night; these words I heard her say;
"My love he’s on the ocean deep, bound for America.

"James Rielly is my true love’s name, his age is scarce eighteen;
He is one of the nicest young men your eyes has ever seen.
My father he had riches great, but Rielly he was poor,
And because I loved my sailor lad they could not me endure.

"My mother took me by the hand, and these words to me did say;
‘Its if you love young Rielly, he must leave the country.
To take his life this very night your father charged the gun;
He swears that he will have his life if you will not his company shun’ "

“Oh, mother, dear, dont be severe, where could I send my love?
My very heart lies on his breast as constant as a dove.”
“Oh, daughter, dear, I’m not severe, here is five hundred pounds;
Send Rielly to America to purchase there some ground.”

"So when he got the money, next day he sailed away,
and as he put his foot on board these words to me did say;
Here is a true love’s token, a ring that will not break;
You have my ring, you have my heart till I return again.’ "

It was scarcely three months after, as she walked along the shore,
Young Rielly he came back again and stole his love away.
The ship was lost, all hands were drowned, her father grieved full sore,
For in each other’s arms they lay drowned upon the shore.

And in her breast a note was found, and it was wrote with blood,
Saying: “Cruel was my father that tried to shoot my love.”
Now let this be a warning to all young maids so gay,
And never let the lad you love sail to America.



That’s it for the song, on the back of the clipping is an advertisement for Clarke’s Blood Mixture (“Avoid all Imitations” it says…) and a partial bit about “Strabane Guardians” and something “inmates in Derry Workhouse” if that helps date the article.

Anyways, I hope this was interesting to someone other than me. :blush:

Regards.

2

I’m guessing it’s just solfège: d=do r=re m=mi f=fa s=sol l=la t/ta=ti

The ticks like d’ just indicate one octave higher. And the :-: signs indicate note continuations.

Assuming it’s relative solfège - because absolute doesn’t sound right here - we can write it out in the key of C for simplicity.

X:1
T:James Rielly
M:3/4
K:C
E2|F4 E2|F4 G2|C4 C2|G4 E2|F4 E2|C4 C2|C6-|C4|
G2|c4 d2|e4 d2|c4 A2|B4 G2|A4 A2|E4 F2|G6-|G4|
G2|c4 d2|e4 d2|c4 A2|B4 G2|A4 F2|B4 A2|G6-|G4|
E2|F4 E2|F4 G2|C4 C2|G4 E2|F4 E2|C4 C2|C6-|C4|]

If you really want it in the key of Bb as suggested, just transpose it down a step:

X:2
T:James Rielly
M:3/4
K:Bb
D2|E4 D2|E4 F2|B,4 B,2|F4 D2|E4 D2|B,4 B,2|B,6-|B,4||
F2|B4 c2|d4 c2|B4 G2|A4 F2|G4 G2|D4 E2|F6-|F4||
F2|B4 c2|d4 c2|B4 G2|A4 F2|G4 E2|A4 G2|F6-|F4||
D2|E4 D2|E4 F2|B,4 B,2|F4 D2|E4 D2|B,4 B,2|B,6-|B,4|]

3

MTGuru is right as usual. That’s tonic solfa notation developed by Sarah Anne Glover (and I think John Mairwaring) and very much in vogue for a short period. You could get all of Messiah and even Beethoven symphonies written out in that notation. Think of it as the abc of the time.

4

Sam Henry published all his songs in tonic solfa. Look up Sam Henry collection - Songs of the People.

5

Hey, I guessed good. :slight_smile:

Thanks Chuck and Peter. I’d heard of Tonic Sol-Fa, but never paid attention. Now I see my ABC can use a few minor revisions (like putting it in 6/8), which I’ll do later. The links from the Wiki article give enough info on the basics. And I found an old downloadable Tonic Sol-Fa tutor online.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonic_sol-fa
http://www.archive.org/details/tonicsolfamusicr00sewauoft

Added: Concise details on the syllables, including accidentals, here:
http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Tonic+sol+fa

6

You guys are awesome. :slight_smile: C&F Peep Pride! :slight_smile:

7

Here’s the revised ABC in 6/8, with ta = ti flat and the rests correctly notated:

X:1
T:James Rielly
M:6/8
K:C
E|F2E F2G|C2C G2E|F2E C2C|C3 zz||
G|c2d e2d|c2A _B2G|A2A E2F|G3- G2||
G|c2d e2d|c2A _B2G|A2F =B2A|G3- G2||
E|F2E F2G|C2C G2E|F2E C2C|C3 z3|]
K:Bb
D|E2D E2F|B,2B, F2D|E2D B,2B,|B,3 zz||
F|B2c d2c|B2G _A2F|G2G D2E|F3- F2||
F|B2c d2c|B2G _A2F|G2E =A2G|F3- F2||
D|E2D E2F|B,2B, F2D|E2D B,2B,|B,3 z3|]

8

Well, I don’t know what to say… :blush:

I was hoping someone would have an Enigma machine to decode this for me. I didn’t expect such a quick and informative response… this little piece of paper means a great deal to me - I thank you all!

I noticed the bottom right corner of the clipping was folded over, there are initials on the bottom - to complete the article they are: W.J.T.

Regards,

Jay

P.s’ Thanks to the kind member who emailed me in regards to the notation - that meant a great deal to me… :thumbsup:


Now, as a thank you - I will copy the “voluntary testimonial” from a happy user of the Clarke’s Blood Mixture - as advertised on the back side of the clipping, it is as follows:

Mrs. Jorgensen, 9, Smyrna St., Plasmarl, Swansea, writes :- “My husband broke his leg through a motor-cycle accident, and when the plaster was removed the skin was torn off as well. The wound grew bigger and bigger until it reached from his hip to his knee. Twelve months’ hospital treatment, including a skin-graft, brought no recovery, and his leg even turned black. The doctor advised him to have his leg off at the thigh. This nearly broke my heart, and I begged him to try Clarke’s Blood Mixture. after he had taken five bottles the wound was healthy and red, so we kept on with Clarke’s Blood Mixture till his leg was completely healed.”

I hope this does not break any rules for medical advice postings on this forum… :smiley:

9

Thanks for the fix of “ta” MT. I don 't know how you decided 6/8 though. I guess I’ll have to go back and study that stuff. You don’t want to know how long ago I wrote a masters paper on the social aspects of sight singing in that era.

10

AAACK! Correcting my error. Tonic Sol-Fa was developed by Sarah Ann Glover and John CURWEN. John(?) Mainwaring was, I believe, on the other side of the argument and favored fixed do notation. I’m a bit uncertain about the John, since there is a John Mainwaring that wrote a biography of Handel and is, I believe, in a slightly earlier era. I may be confusing the two…

11

The thick and thin bar lines. The thick bars indicate the main divisions (strong beats) and the thin ones secondary, so it’s clearly supposed to be in 6 - though whether 6/4. 6/8 etc. would be up to the transcriber. :slight_smile:

12

Following up Mr G’s suggestion … Some of the U. of Georgia Press edition is browsable online, including the informative introduction:

http://books.google.com/books?id=aiQ7UAwQgDUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

The Tonic Sol-Fa has been transcribed to standard notation, not preserved.

That would be William John Tweed of Bushmills, one of the other contributors to the Songs of the People column, who filled in for Henry during his period of illness spanning columns 247 through 463. Your number 404 falls into that gap, and doesn’t appear in the book collection.

WJC, was your GGran from Coleraine or nearby?

13

She was from Coleraine :slight_smile:

14

The Sam Henry collection is one of the big Northern collections of song. Andy Irivine has used it as a source for a good number of his songs.

I bought a copy of it in 1979, which was poorly glued together and fell apart almost immediately. I lend it t oa friend during the early eighties, he never returned it.