its air/aire learning time.
i need a recomendation for a proper mournfull air which can caus people to burst into tears at a range of 20ft or less, the kind of thing i could play on a flute on a foggy morning beneath my lovers window before embarking on a necissary but ephemeral quest for personal salvation on foot.
I could also do with tips on how to learn the thing, as they are to arbatry for my usual tune learning technique, there lyrics are generally in Irish and i have a pritty poor memory normally anyway.
My idea is to brainwash myself into knowing them by puting recordings of them on loop until the last threds of my sanity snap, once i can sing them in my head im pritty sure i can play them on a flute/whistle/pipes/hollowed out PC case.
PS.
while i have your attention and while i am on the subject of aires/airs theres a horselips song on happy to meet sorry to part which has lrics starting thus ‘In early spring, when small boys sing’ Its an englisisation of an irish tune from the north east - (i appologise for butchering ABC notation but its my first time) somthing like this: E2|A2BC|A2E|A2FA|.. and somthing involving naturals. It was also on transatlantic sessions last series, i actualy thing Cara Dillon sung it but my memory is hazey.
…can anyone tell me its real name?
I can’t help you with a tune, but here’s something that might help you memorize it:
When I memorize GHB piobaireachd, which has a somewhat free time and can be a bit arbitrary, I like to put it on a CD in my car, and finger along on the steering wheel.
Judging by the above I’m betting you’re the man for the job.
As to the learning process, I frequently do what highland-piper does, play the piece over and over while I drive or while I’m actively engaged on the computer. I don’t practice fingering while I listen thusly, though, as I don’t multitask well and so have to drive first and listen second. This makes it mainly a passive listening approach which has for me the added benefit (as I count it) that since I’m multitasking at the driving/'putering/listening thing, the hearing memory is a bit filtered and so I catch the tune by osmosis rather than just copying it, increasing the odds for a more personal take. If I can refer particularly to at least one sung version, it’s to the best: I’m a bit loath to publicly play airs that I haven’t heard as sung.
Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore. Called simply The Shamrock Shore on the album - but that title is usually reserved for a different tune entirely (“You brave young sons of Erin’s isle …”), as performed by Paul Brady, Karan Casey et al.
Oh Lawd, your right.
that turns up in my flatmates book as ‘paddys green shamrock shore’ and is well and truley on the household ‘title too corney’ list, i didnt even check the music, eugh.
this is a beautiful beautiful performance, but the title is unpronouncable and would leed to aquard moments at performance:
audience: that was lovley, what was it called?
me: ohhh that one - that was Davey buttercup’s spatula jig
audience: no… what was it actually called
me: ermm… oh i remember, it was cough Amran L’onion a Ballyhalligh cough
audience: oh… ok, im just popping out to grab a wepon of some kind so i can clove your face in twain for such orrible pronounciation.
Amhrán Iníon A’ Bhaoghailligh = The Song of the Onion Bagel. That’s easy enough. It’s a sad lament, about a girl who goes to the deli to buy an onion bagel, and all they have left are poppy seed. “Oh where is the bagel, my cream cheese to spread” etc.
It’s really Song of Boyle’s Daughter, or Ms Boyle’s Song. There’s a nice thread with lyrics, translation, and pronunciation of the title (OW-rahn INYEE-un a VWEE-al-ee):
ouch, lovley.
i suppose i should make some sort of effort to reclaim the kitch irish national steriotypes… I need an excuse to learn to supress the gag reflex when i walk past a souvineare stall.
thanks for this, i think i have it, ill do a make-shift recording and put it up here later and make shure what im playing is what people are expecting… slow aires seem to be vectoral - you have a note, and a note you need to be at, and you get there by some dark combination of a remembered tune and improvised orniments… the result is for me as a newcommer to the tradition, the border between the tune and random noodling is quite difficult to discern, but hopefully ill have it nailed.
Arin Island a Bronagh is next… ops sorry, i mean ‘Amhrán Iníon A’ Bhaoghailligh’
I have a copy of Tomas O’Canainn’s book ‘Traditional Slow Airs Of Ireland’ if you want to browse through it and look for ideas (the accompanying CD is somewhat variable in quality so best listen to a sean nos sung version of your selection if you can find one). There’s a couple of Caitlín Maude’s singing on YouTube for example.
Maybe one of the allegorical, post-jacobite, aisling airs? (love lost, personified in nation bulding etc.)
Always had a spine tingly thing for Caoineadh An Spailpín (The Spalpeen’s Lament), which I had from the whistle playing of Brid O’Donohue who I think (judging by the similarity) had it from the playing of Willy Clancy. http://www.amazon.com/Caoineadh-Spailpín-Spalpeens-Lament/dp/B002TQBIJ0
For a more modern tune, Tommy People’s ‘The Gentle Breeze’ has the requisite effect (at least according my partner )
I guess most whistle/flute players would have Si Bheag Si Mhor and Róisín Dubh in their repertoire for starters? (although Carolan’s She Begs would be a slightly different repertoire I guess). Here’s Caitlín Maude, with whistle intro (too much reverb and dodgy video but you do get the words on screen, which helps - but not in the key you’d usually see written down) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdskdLV4MWY
According to Linneaus, and to the International Institute of Bagel Taxonomy (actually “L’Institut de la Taxinomie Baguelois” - its in Montreal), the only true bagels are 1. ‘white seed’ (sesame) and 2. ‘black seed’ (poppy). All others are inaccurately-named hybrid forms of hippie and/or supermarket breads.
Da Slocket Light, The Little Bench of Rushes (sometimes just The Bench of Rushes), Paddy’s Rambles through the Park, The Accursed Kerryman, Aisling Gael, Squire Wood’s Lament on the Refusal of his Half-pence (O’Carolan), Gates of the Yellow Town (Geaftái Bhaile Bui), Lament for Staker Wallace, O’Reilly’s Lamentation, Bánchnoic Éireann Ó (The White Hills of Erin), Lament for the Fox, Sliabh Gael gCua
