This song keeps coming up on this board and the only version I can find is a totally uninspiring, very simplified, 17-bar-long thing in a Mel Bay whistle tunebook. It must be an extremely nice song to be mentioned so often. I’ve checked ABC Finder and wherever else sheet music might be, with no luck.
Can any of you supply a link? Maybe it has another title?
Thanks.
Kendra-Links for this great old O’Carolan tune:Rounder CD # 3041 and 11541 of
Eric Schoenberg in a guitar arrangement.
(Sadly, No sound samples on the Rounder site listing Si Beag..)
Web Links with sound are:
http://www.leoagosselin.com//mp3/sibeag.mp3
( played on the Chapman Stick)
-also check the tinwhistler.com site
for MIDI, MP3 and sheet music for this.
(a whistle arrangement)
Whistlito ergo …
[ This Message was edited by: brianormond on 2002-05-05 13:04 ]
[ This Message was edited by: brianormond on 2002-05-05 14:49 ]
[ This Message was edited by: brianormond on 2002-05-05 14:51 ]
[ This Message was edited by: brianormond on 2002-05-05 14:54 ]
Kendra-I guess my previous answer didn’t actually answer your query, but hope the links were productive. I don’t know that Si Beag Si Mor goes by any other names, but don’t know that it doesn’t either. As with many Gaelic phoneticisms, the spelling in English will
vary.
Brianormond - Your post answered my question fine, but the first link doesn’t work. I was able to use the second link, tho, and it has sheet music. It’s a truly lovely song and exactly what I like to play best. Thanks.
I never tire of this tune as it offers endless variation possibilities.A melody this beautiful begs to be played again and again and again and…
peace, Mike
Kendra-Try the Gosselin link (corrected now) as here:
http://leoagosselin.com/mp3/sibeag.mp3
-This is actually played on the Chapman stick.
-Brian
Here’s an unusual version played on 5-string banjo clawhammer style. Look in the first column toward the bottom.
http://chordacopia.com/music.htm
Steve
On 2002-04-29 03:12, mike.r wrote:
I never tire of this tune as it offers endless variation possibilities.A melody this beautiful begs to be played again and again and again and…>
And not so long ago O’Carolan tunes were being derided for the lack of variation possibilities.
and so the world keeps turning…
FWIW L.E.'s Tune Book has it… A good place to start at least… He plays it as well on the accompanying CD…
It’s also featured on the Blue Star Radio website-at quite a decent pace too. It works slow or moderate.
Here’s the link for Blue Star Radio:
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~mandeflutes/Blue_Star_Radio/index.htm</A](http://homepage.tinet.ie/~mandeflutes/Blue_Star_Radio/index.htm">http://homepage.tinet.ie/~mandeflutes/Blue_Star_Radio/index.htm</A)>
Tom Gallagher
aka fiddling_tenor
fiddlingtenor@usa.com
“This is petrified truth.” (Mark Twain)
[ This Message was edited by: fiddling_tenor on 2002-04-29 11:55 ]
Greetings Kendra,
Homespun tapes has a great book from Cathal McConnell which has “Si Beag, Si Mor” on it (It’s become one of my favorites to play, along with “The South Wind”). The book comes with a CD for $17.95, and it’s been worth every penny (though if I had known I’d like it so much I would have just gotten his expanded book).
Also, does anyone know exactly what the title means. I tried to translate it, but it came out as “she/it’s big, she/it’s small”, and I’m not sure this is correct. Anyone know?
Jason
On 2002-04-29 12:25, Jason Burke wrote:
Also, does anyone know exactly what the title means. I tried to translate it, but it came out as “she/it’s big, she/it’s small”, and I’m not sure this is correct. Anyone know?
The title is actually the names of two hills in Ireland. Leslie Nelson has a nice history of the tune here:
http://www.contemplator.com/carolan/sheebeg.html#top
If you don’t already know about her site, it’s well worth visiting.
Mr. Mahan has a wonderful version (with ornamentation, I believe) on his site
http://www.tinwhistler.com/music
the spelling is funny: sheebeg sheemore
But that’s the most complete version I’ve heard.
Mike - I so agree; this is a favorite of mine. It’s simply one of the most beautiful melodies I’ve ever heard. Allows for a great deal of emotional content while requiring some technical discipline, esp at the high end in the second half. I first learned the Cathal McConnel version. Tune appears, among many other places as well, on the “Planxty” cd. Philo
I’ve got L.E. McCullough’s “Complete Irish Tinwhistle tutor” book and it has that song along with a bunch more in it. It comes with a cd of him playing all of the songs too, if you learn by ear and not from sheet music.
shrugs
On 2002-04-29 02:28, brianormond wrote:
I don’t know that Si Beag Si Mor goes by any other names, but don’t know that it doesn’t either. As with many Gaelic phoneticisms, the spelling in English will
vary.
In some sessions the tune tends to go by the name “She Begs for More”…
often played in a set with another Carolan tune: Fanny Power
On 2002-04-29 08:49, Martin Milner wrote:
And not so long ago O’Carolan tunes were being derided for the lack of variation possibilities.
Martin, I did not deride the Carolan tunes as far as I remember. I recall saying, and giving this as a possible reason why they are not being played very often in sessions, that compared to the traditional material there is not much you can ‘do’ with them. Meaning to say that the dance music has an underlying system , a frame work within which the player has almost unlimited possibilities for variation, both melodic and rhythmic. The Carolan tunes lack that, they are a different music altogether, they are closer to western art music in their idiom and while you can ‘bend’ them a bit to suit your needs the melodies have been very much ‘fixed’ by the composer.
The most elaborate treatment of the tune under discussion I have ever heard was when I heard Paddy Keenan and Ronan Browne play [it is interesting to note that Ronan could switch to the Keenan style without any problem and although they tried to outwit eachother, Ronan came out as the better one at it at the time) but their variation was all in the regulatorwork and turns each took playing harmonies. The melody-line remained very much fixed throughout.
Hi Peter,
Sorry, didn’t mean to cause offence, I didn’t think you had derided the tunes personally.
I was just struck by the fact that Mike.R enjoys the tunes for their variational possibilities, while many session players avoid them for thair lact of variational possiblilities.
On 2002-04-30 07:37, Martin Milner wrote:
Hi Peter,Sorry, didn’t mean to cause offence, I didn’t think you had derided the tunes personally.
I was just struck by the fact that Mike.R enjoys the tunes for their variational possibilities, while many session players avoid them for thair lact of variational possiblilities.
I didn’t even think of getting offended so don’t worry about that, I just wanted to clear up my point. It is indeed an interesting contrast, I can imagine though that Mike plays the tune on the guitar, and then you have a range of different options that you wouldn’t have on a melody instrument.
Re: the variation and ornamentation possibilities of tunes O’Carolan.
I have the Demo CD that goes with Maguire’s An Irish Whistle Tune Book, with “Harry” Hamlin as the Whistler/flautist. Mr. Hamlin plays two Carolan tunes, “Lord Inchiquin” and “Planxty Irwin,” and in both he uses a lot of ornamentation. In “Lord Inchiquin,” particularly, it is hard to follow the sheet music while listening. The songs sound lovely and the melody is usually discernible, but there are a LOT of ornaments and other embellishments. His interpretation of the songs sound to me as though they would fit well in a Trad session, particularly as solos, but I’m a beginner and what do I know Has anybody else heard this CD and can offer opinions on this?