A new discovery for me: the dream-ballad. Any books (or internet resource) on this form? There is only one that I’m familiar with, and that is The River of Dreams… are there any more that are accessible (recorded) on the pipes?
As an old Gaelic form, were these -dream ballads- ever written down as verse, or have they all only survived orally?
Further, is there a particular poet/bard who wrote or composed a whole group of dream-ballads?
taimse im choladh is a beautiful aisling air and there are many recordings of it.
regards,
allan
Tomas O Canain’s book on slow airs has several aislings in it. It’s published by Ossian and should still be available.
I’m not too familliar with the term “dream ballad” as such in Irish music…sounds more like something an 80’s hair band would have tried…
But I do know the first slow air I learned was called ‘Aisling Gheal’, meaning beautiful dream, or bright vision, or something like that. Does that count?
And it’s also nice on the pipes…
B~
Most “aisling” airs involve the singer/speaker having a dream, in which he sees some sort of metaphoric figure, often representing Ireland, or the ideal of Irish autonomy…I believe “Aisling Gheal” is a more modern composition, I think by O’Riada, although don’t quote me on that. “Taimse im Choladh” is an old one, as are “Droimeann Donn Dilis” and “an Chul-fhionn” (“The Coolin”). I think “an Leanbh Sidhe” would fall into this category, too, depending on how you interpret it…then again, I’ve heard people say that the “Droimeann Donn Dilis” is simply a pretty girl with big…Anyway, we pipers are way too philosophical and spiritual a bunch for that interpretation, eh? 
Do these songs have any relation to those attributed to the fairy folk? I am more familiar with Scottish songs of this tradition(and some beauties at that) Perhaps a listing of our favorite mystic/other-worldly tunes would be appropriate considering the nearness of Halloween/Celtic New Year/Day of the Dead Festival etc. Maybe we could learn some of them and salute each other across the oceans on the appropriate day? C’mon; might be fun.
Marc
P.S. It’s a full moon as I look out my door.
In the The Best of Irish Piping (Pure Drop) liner notes by Ennis, he writes of hearing someone named Maire Ni Chrochain singing The River of Gems. He writes: “… an old Gaelic Aisling, or dream-ballad…”
Wouldn’t it be nice if someone would record an entire CD of dream-ballads, bringing them all together?
Who is Maire Ni Chrochain?
Yes, Samhain is fast approaching… that night when the veils between this world and the spirit world are lifted.
[quote]
Who is Maire Ni Chrochain?
I believe that Maire Ni Chrochain was a singer in the Connemara gaeltacht, from whom Ennis transcribed some songs when he was working as a “folk music collector” for the Irish Folklore Commission in the 40s.
Interesting to note how many 19th-century German lieder (Schubert, Schumann, Wolff, etc.) seem to have an “aisling” element…guess some common blood still ran in both Celtic and Teutonic veins…
Happy (almost) Samhain, all!
A Vision…deliberately refers the Irish reader back to the aisling or vision-poem, practised by the fallen bards like Ó Rathaille to whom Yeats was increasingly attracted. The outlines of the aisling were rigidly formulaic: it began with a poet, frustrated and weak, falling into a doze by river, lake or mountain-side; and thereafter, he was visited by a spéirbhean or sky-woman, who was in effect a medium for a supernatural power. The misfortunes of modern Ireland were next described, its weakness and diminished grandeur lamented: then, with occult symbolism and complex metaphor, the spéirbhean would foretell the return of Gaelic rulers and values, and the extirpation of the Saxon occupier and of his levelling administrative methods. It was from this convention that Yeats appears to have drawn his framework for A Vision.
–From Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation by Declan Kiberd (Harvard University Press, 1996)