Not quite so easy as the other tunes listed, “Give Me Your Hand” is a beautiful tune well worth learning.
(actually, “Mist Covered Mountains” is a jig, slowed down to a slower tempo and used as a repeating theme in Local Hero. Great movie-one of my favorites)
TheWaltz Mist covered Mountains of Home was very popular during the 1950s through the playing of Jimmy Shand.
The jig was composed by Junior Crehan. the story he had was that walking home fro ma session one morning the tune came t ohis head, Willie clancy was there, Junior played the tune for him and Willie pointed at Mt Callan in the distance and said ‘why not call it the Mist Coverred Mountain’.
Junior notoriously ‘developed’ tunes from other tunes (and what harm, he didn’t pretend otherwise) and I am sure Willie was well aware of it.
All great stuff.
A couple more:
There is a lullaby called the Garton Mother’s Lullaby. Lovely melody for whistle or flute, also words that I find stick in the mind and haunt me at the oddest occasions.
There is a lullaby version of the Eagle’s Whistle which is a lovely, simple melody.
Also there is the song “If Ever You Were Mine,” which can be played quite simply and beautifully on whistle.
I think these lovely simple tunes are underplayed, probably because of the desire of the Irish Traditional movement to distance itself from the New Age movement.
It’s a shame: they are lovely melodies.
–James
Someone played a wonderful version of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ here once. It’s pretty easy.
… I think the reverse might be true. The ‘Mist Covered Mountains’ is a
popular traditional Scot’s song from the 19th century sung in a moderately
slow 6/8 time which has been speeded up and played as a jig.
Many songs from the Highlands and Islands are in 6/8 or 9/8 time - those
times seem to suit the natural rhythmic lilt of the original Gaelic lyrics.
Colin
See Peter’s post above. “Speeded up and played as a jig” is basically what Peter meant by “developed tunes from other tunes.”
Bucks of Oranmore
The Gold Ring
Gravel Walks
Chris
The Local Hero theme is a separate tune composed by Mark Knopfler. I think it’s what the ginger lad plays on the Clarke whistle after Wedge Antilles and the other accordion player perform “Mist Covered Mountains.”
My understanding of the roots of the “Mist Covered Mountains” air is in Scots-Gaelic song, possibly piobaireachd. I’ll agree with Peter on the waltz and jig. But Peter could tell me Johnny Doran was a missing Romanov and I’d believe him.
Cheers,
Aaron
Thanks guys, that’s a treasure trove.
Someone asked where I’ve find them. I use “JC’s ABC Tune Finder”. If you search by that phrase it will come up first. Great tool!
“Give Me Your Hand” is easier to find under its title in Irish: Tabhair Dom Do Lámh. I’ve got it in a couple of collections.
Redwolf
Thanks Peter. Good stuff.
These threads come up every so often and I copy and paste lists into word files for future reference (and forget where I put them). It would be nice to have a repository of tunes by category- particularly, slow airs (abc’s, notes, and or recordings) to look at. I’d be inclined to learn more tunes that way.
I know, I can go all over the place and track down this and that. How about if someone with too much time on their hands was to research the tunes suggested in the thread and put something together in one place?
It could be a group project.
And, I’d recommend the book, 100 Best Ireland’s Slow Airs, Mel Bay, which has some nice ones and 2cd’s to match (more-or-less) the print.
Tony
duuuuh…think i didn’t know that…ts…i mean really… :roll:
i must say, this is a phenomenal thread. slow airs are my favorite (they’re slow…), who’s gonna make a compilation of the tunes in this thread? I think bloomy should. who’s with me??
I feel a poll coming up…i feel it..
sorry, i forgot (not forget) to contribute:
song of the kelpie
mr. anderson (from john mccusker)
I just ordered O’Neills Music of Ireland, with 625 slow airs and songs. I think that’ll be a good start. But I love your idea of someone compiling them all somewhere on this site for us all to look at. If I could have my every wish, this list would also include a list of available CDs on which the airs could be heard being played by an accomplished player.
buddy, you can find something just like that on the thesession.org page. check it out. you can find very many cds on which your favorite slow airs are on.
my god, what a terrible sentense that was..
I read some place on that website that the moderator didn’t want to be bothered by slow airs. Maybe (s)he’s changed his/her mind.
i dunno, that’s weird, i used that site to find a solas cd featuring “song of the kelpie”…but i’ll admit, i haven’t done any extensive searches…yet.
so sorry, aird uí chumhaing