The Cry of Gallen

Irish Flute
1

Among the works of John Clinton (19th Irish-born flute maker, composer and player) is a set of tunes starting with an air called The Cry of Gallen. Anyone familiar with it?

Gallen (Gailinne) is the site of a Priory, near Ferbane in Co. Offaly. Wikipedia reveals this delightful snippet:

Less than a kilometre south of the town, on the site of an ancient monastery founded by the Welsh missionary Saint Canoc in 492, stands Gallen Priory (today a convent of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny). The nuns were famous for producing illicit alcohol (poteen) but were forced to close their operations following a number of Garda busts in the mid 1990s.

Bears out a comment by an Australian-Irish comedienne: “Of course we had the industrial grade of nuns back in Ireland.”

I’d be interested if anyone can steer me towards a source of the tune, other than the setting by Clinton. And especially a source preceding Clinton - say 1830 or earlier - it would be interesting to know where he might have got it. But also interested if anyone knows anything about the tune - does it commemorate an event, for example.

Terry

2

I better not comment, but I am not surprised… :smiley:

3

Oh, Brother!!! :smiling_imp:

4

Terry, can you point us to the Clinton setting (of the whole set of tunes if possible)?

5

Not at the moment, Chas, unless you happen to be passing the British Library on your way home from work.

We’ve just been dipping into Clinton’s flute compositions and finding them better than we expected (19th century England is usually regarded as a bit of a wasteland for compositions). He seems to have quite a range of inspirations, among which are quite a few Irish tunes. This particular set is called Gems of Ireland 1, and includes an air and three slip jigs: The Cry of Gallen, I’m the Boy for Bewitching Them , Charming Judy Brallaghan and The Lasses of Sligo. So what’s interesting to speculate is where Clinton came by these tunes. He was born and brought up in Dublin, but as an Anglican, so we wouldn’t have expected him to mix much with the lower classes (but, hey, who knows?). He has over a hundred works - some tune sets like this, some songs, some more classical style works. We’ll be doing a CD with some of them, and possibly publishing some too, just to get him back in circulation. He played and wrote for piano as well as flute, and one of the classical works is for piano, flute and clarinet. Increasingly, we’re finding him not the dumb jerk that Rockstro and later writers have portrayed him as.

I haven’t checked out sources for any of these tunes yet, indeed, I’m not sure what sources preceded Clinton - suggestions gratefully received. I guess it is possible that he collected or acquired the tunes himself, which would make him even more interesting. I thought the Cry of Gallen air a good place to start, as it was the only one I’d not heard of. If it proves not to be known, I could probably dust off my ABC’s and see if anyone knows it by another name.

Terry

6

God Bless the Internet. A simple search of “gallen caledonian pocket companion” on Google turned up this snippet from http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/Olson/IRTITLE3.HTM:

"Margaret Roach/ The Cry of Galen [Margaret Roach or Gallen
Lament]; HOIT2 4 |4568|,|4147|: Margaret Roach or Gallens
Lament; OFPC2 34 |4147|:

HOITn: c 1805. S. Holden ‘A Collection of Old Established Irish
Slow and Quick Tunes’, 2vols., Dublin.

OFPC1: c 1805, 06. O’Farrell’s Pocket Companion for the Irish or
Union Pipes being a grand Selection of favourite Tunes both
Scotch and Irish. by P. O’Farrell. Here, following modern
practice, these will be refered to as two volumes of 2 parts
each, rather than 4 volumes as cited many places. Part 1 of
Vol. I extends through p. 80, and part 2, pp. 80-168. Unlike
SITM, the Scots tunes are here listed, but not coded.

OFPC2: Part 1, through p. 72 -c 1808, part 2 -c 1810."

7

Fresno…weird!

8

You got the edit right: “:” not!

:wink:

9

Nice find, mcdafydd! A gold star to you!

10

Well done, mcdafydd! And all done why I lay in the arms of Merciful Anaesthesia.

I’d not have thought of the Pocket Companion addition to the google filter - without it you get hopelessly bogged down in sporting Gallens, Swiss Universities and the like. I have O’Farrells Collection (which doesn’t contain it), but not his Pocket Companion, or Holden. Anyone have these and could report on what they find?

Terry

11

In The Fiddler’s Companion thus:

MARGARET ROACH [2]. AKA – “Gallens Lament.” Irish, Air (4/4 time). E Minor. Standard tuning. One part. O’Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. III), c. 1808; pg. 34.
X:1
T:Margaret Roach [2]
M:C
L:1/8
R:Air
S:O’Farrell – Pocket Companion, vol. III (c. 1808)
Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
K:E Minor
GE | E2E2 GE | E4 GA/B/ | c4 BA | B4 G>A | B2 “tr”e4 | edcBAG | A4 BG | A3G E2 | c4 BA | B4 (AG) | E2E2 G>A | G4E2 | A4 G>A | B3A GE | D4 (EF) | E4 ||

NOTE: the time signature given is clearly an error as the notation is consistently in 3/4 and the melody makes sense thus. Here are the dots with the corrected time signature.

Howzat?

12

Stunning work, Jem. What a team!

Certainly fits well with Clinton’s claim on the cover page:

“Gems of Ireland - 200 Airs containing the most Popular of Moore’s Melodies and the National Airs and the Celebrated Melodies of Carolan, Connolan & c. collected from the most authentic sources and Arranged for the Flute”

Now, I also stumbled upon this convenient listing of collections assembled by Gratten Flood:

List of the Principal Collections of Irish Music
(from 1725 to 1887)

From A History of Irish Music by William H. Grattan Flood

« Previous page | Contents | Appendix B »

Appendix A

A.D.

1726 Neale’s Collection of Irish and Scotch Tunes (Dublin).
1726 Neale’s Book of Irish Tunes (Dublin).
1727-8 Wright’s Aria di Camera.
1729 Coffey’s ballad-opera, The Beggar’s Wedding.
1738 The Vocal Miscellany (Dublin).[1]
1742 Burke Thumoth’s Scotch and Irish Airs.
1743 Burke Thumoth’s English and Irish Airs.
1747 Henry Brooke’s ballad-opera, Jack the Giant Queller.
1747 O’Carolan’s Collection (Dublin).
1748-9 Rutherford’s 200 Country Dances.
1743-64 Oswald’s Caledonian Pocket Companion–12 books.
1754 Lee’s Masque–3 books. (Dublin).
1771 MacLean’s Selection of 22 Original Airs (Dublin).
1774 Jackson’s Celebrated Irish Tunes (Dublin).[2]
1775 The Hibernian Catch Book (Dublin).
1779 O’Carolan’s Collection (New Edition) (Dublin).[3]
1784 MacDonald’s Collection of Highland Airs.
1786 Walker’s Irish Bards (Dublin).
1786 The Musical Miscellany (Perth).[4]
1787 Thompson’s Hibernian Muse.
1788 Aird’s Selection.
1791 Brysson’s 50 Favourite Irish Airs.
1792-3 The Edinburgh Musical Miscellany.
1794 Cooke’s Selection of 21 Favourite Original Irish Airs (Dublin).
1795 Gaudry’s Masonic Songs (Dublin).
1796 Bunting’s Ancient Irish Music.
1798 Holden’s Masonic Songs (Dublin).
1793-9 Thomson’s Four Sets of Scottish Airs (including numerous Irish Tunes).
1797-9 Vocal Magazine.
1787-1803 The Scots Musical Museum.
1801 Crotch’s Specimens.
1800-2 O’Farrell’s Irish Music for the Union Pipes.
1804 Mulholland’s Irish and Scots Tunes.
1805 Miss Owenson’s Twelve Hibernian Melodies (Dublin).
1804-6 Holden’s Collection of Irish Tunes–two books–(Dublin).
1805-8 Hime’s Selection of Original Irish Airs (Dublin).
1804-10 O’Farrell’s Pocket Companion for the Irish Pipes.
1807 Abraham Mackintosh’s Collection.
1808 Holden’s Periodical Irish Melodies (Dublin).
1808 Crosby’s Irish Musical Repository.
1809 Murphy’s Irish Airs and Jigs.
1809 Bunting’s Second Collection.[5]
1810 Mulholland’s Ancient Irish Airs (Belfast).
1810 Power’s Musical Cabinet (Dublin).
1812 National Melodies of England and Ireland.
1804-14 Hime’s Collection of Country Dances (Dublin).
1808-12 Moore’s Irish Melodies, No. 1 to No. 4 (Dublin).[6]
1815 Fraser’s Highland Airs.
1814-16 Thomson’s Irish Airs (arranged by Beethoven). Two Vols.
1815-17 Kinloch’s One Hundred Airs.
1813-18 Moore’s Irish Melodies. No. 5 to No. 7 (inclusively), (Dublin).
1814-16 Fitzsimon’s Irish Minstrelsy, by Dr. Smith (Dublin).
1818 A Selection of Irish Melodies (Dublin).
1818 Holden’s Favourite Irish Airs (Dublin).
1816-18 Campbell’s Albyn’s Anthology.
1820 Mona Melodies.
1821 MacCullagh’s Collection of Irish Airs. Three Vols. (Dublin).
1821-22 O’Callaghan’s Collection of Irish Airs.
1821-24 Moore’s Irish Melodies. Nos. 8 and 9.[7]
1825 Smith’s Vocal Melodies of Ireland.
1826 Egan’s National Lyrics.
1834 Moore’s Irish Melodies. No. 10 and Supplement.
1840 Bunting’s Third Collection.
1840 Clinton’s 200 Irish Melodies for the Flute.
1840 Alexander’s Flowers of the Emerald Isle.
1840-2 The Citizen, edited by W. E. Hudson.
1841 Clinton’s Gems of Ireland.
1841 Crouch’s Songs of Ireland.
1841-2 National Music of Ireland.
1843 Fitzgerald’s Old Songs of Old Ireland, by Guernsey. 1844 Horncastle’s Music of Ireland.
1844-5 The Spirit of the Nation.
1845 Lynch’s Melodies of Ireland. Six books.
1846 Conran’s National Music of Ireland.[8]
1847 Henderson’s Flowers of Irish Melody. Two Vols.
1849 O’Daly’s Poets and Poetry of Munster. First Series.
1850 Moore’s Irish Melodies, by Francis Robinson. Two Vols.
1854 Surenne’s Songs of Ireland.
1855 Petrie’s Ancient Music of Ireland.[9]
1859 Moore’s Irish Melodies, by Glover.
1859 Moore’s Irish Melodies, by Balfe.
1860 Gems from Ould Ireland, by Ogden.
1860 Songs of Ireland, by Wellington Guernsey.
1860 O’Daly’s Poets and Poetry of Munster. New Series.
1861 Davidson’s Irish Melodies.
1861 Hughes’s Collection.
1865 Old Songs of Ireland, by Arthur O’Brien.
1858-73 Levey’s Collection of Irish Dance Music. Two Vols.
1873 Dr. Joyce’s Ancient Irish Music.
1873 Songs of Ireland, by Molloy (Boosey’s edition).[10]
1877 Hoffman’s edition of Petrie for Pianoforte (Dublin).
1882 Songs of Old Ireland, by Stanford.
1887 Irish Music and Song, by Joyce.

Indeed the entirety of Gratten Flood’s book appears to be available at:

http://www.libraryireland.com/IrishMusic/Contents.php

I imagine there might be other items of interest at the Library of Ireland site, but I’d better go off and hammer some innocent pieces of wood into the shape of a flute …

Thanks again all.

Terry

13

Have you invented/discovered (or should I say “hit upon”? :smiley: )a new flute making technique then, Master McGee? Is your lathe redundant? Will you be pounding them out at higher speed and lower cost? Have you nailed the problem?

BTW, in case anyone’s wondering how I’m putting dots up on here, it’s easy enough. Enter your abc in abcedit, make sure the notation looks as you wish, then open the pdf view and use the snapshot tool to select the notation. Copy it into an image handler like Microsoft Office Picture Editor and save it. Then upload the resulting PNG image file to whatever online image hoster you care to use, get the weblink and include it as an image insertion in your C&F post in the usual way. Of course, you can do much the same with other image formats, e.g. a scanned pdf, or as I did when in a rush with one recently, a jpg photo taken with my mobile phone of handwritten dots!

14

Very good bit of information, Jem, and I thank you.

BTW, I like dots. This ABC stuff is another language!

15

Not really, that site has the Traditional Ballad Index of Folk Songs from the English Speaking World which I turn to whenever I want to know which books a song is in. Invaluable resource.

At first I wondered if this thread had something to with my family’s homeland, St. Gallen in Switzerland, which was built around the hermitage of Saint Gallus, a 7th century Irish monk from Bangor, and which remained a pilgrimage for itinerant Hibernians through the Middle Ages. “Gallen” is a Swiss German form of his name I think, so this is perhaps just a coincidence.

Thanks for the link to the Flood book, Terry. They don’t have anything by him at the Internet Archive (lots of other traditional music books though), although confusingly enough, they have books co-authored by Henry Flood and Henry Grattan, and who else but Daniel O’Connell…

16

:boggle: Wow! I know someone who’s deep into it and thus really going to enjoy this list. Thanks, Terry, and thanks to the C&F Sleuths!

17

Okay…I do know that the school is a bit of an oasis.
Fresno is still weird. (okay…again…dated information 69-72) :smiley:

18

Indeed. The man who made babies, in Dublin, by steam:

(O’Connell’s Steam Engine)

Oh people of heart I pray pay attention,
Listen to what I’m about to relate,
Concerning a couple I overheard talking,
As I was returning late home from a wake,
As I rode along sure I saw an old woman,
Who sat in a gap she was milking a cow,
She was jigging that tune called Make haste to the wedding,
Or some other ditty I can’t tell you now.

Ah the next came along, it was a bould tinker,
Who happened by chance to be passing that way,
The day being fine they sat down together,
What news of that man, the old woman did say,
There’s no news at all Ma´m, replied the bould tinker,
But the people all wish that he never had been,
He’s a damnable rogue of a Daniel O’Connell,
And he’s now making babies in Dublin by steam.

Ah, the children are ruined replied the old woman,
Or has the quare fellow gone crazy at last,
Or is it the sign of a war or rebellion,
Or what is the reason he wants them so fast,
It’s not that at all Mam replied the bould tinker,
The children of Ireland are getting too small,
It’s O’Connell’s petition to the new Lord Lieutenant,
That he won’t let us make them the old way at all.

By his pipe in me mouth, replied the old woman,
And that’s a strong oath on me soul for to say,
But I am an old woman and if I was near him,
I bet you me life that he’d rue the day,
For the people of Ireland they’re very well known,
They gave him their earnings when needing them bad,
And now that he is recompensing them for it,
By taking the only diversion they have.

Ah light to your coach Mam replied the bould tinker,
Long may you live now with youth on your side,
If all the young girls in Ireland were like you,
O’Connell could throw his steam engine aside,
If I had the young men of Ireland around me,
And girls making babies as fast as they can,
And whenever Her Majesty wanted an army,
We’d be able to send her as many as Dan.

Terry

19

Follow the bouncing ball.

This one to the tune of the Orphan Jig. Real Audio file. Lyrics unprintable, sorry.[/url]

20

Tangential to thread; Kevin, how did you post those dots so they come out on the plain background? I’ve posted on this thread how I’ve been putting dots up as images - you obviously have a different wrinkle. Please share? Cheers!