I run into this all the time. I hear a slow air being played, I really like it so I look up the sheet music and it’s nothing like what I heard. I know there’s a lot of personal liberty taken with airs so maybe that’s all there is to it. I happened upon this vid yesterday and I love the first tune. The video description states that it’s called “The Song of the Books” but I looked up the dots for it and I just don’t see it. So is it labeled wrong in the video description or is the player just making it his own? If it’s labeled wrong, does anyone know the real name?
The tune in the video sounds nothing like the ‘Tune of the books’ aka ‘Amhrán na Leabhar’ aka ‘Valentia Harbour’ that i am familiar with.. Liam O’Flynn, Cónal O’Grada and Boys of the Lough all do beautiful versions if you want to listen
Agreed, I’ve heard Amhrán na leabhar in other videos/sound clips etc. and it sounds quite different. That’s why I wondered if it was mislabeled. Whatever he’s playing, I like it.
What is it about slow airs? Sorry this doesn’t answer your other questions, but they’re just so dashed hard to play! And sounds to me like your man’s struggling with his intonation as well as any ‘liberties’ he may be taking with the tune…
This is one of my favorite airs, actually, and we’re actually going to be performing it during the St Paddy’s season. I think the version at the top of this thread is terrible. “Taking liberties” should not include completely destroying the song/tune!
I don’t know him and he’s not “my man” so to speak but If he’s taken liberties with the named tune then so be it. FWIW I like his version much better than the original, intonation issues notwithstanding. Different stokes I guess. :\
Edit: Of course there’s still the possibility that someone mislabeled the tune in the video description.
This tune from the very first link is just a “slow air” version of the jig which goes after it.
Of course it has nothing to do with what we usually know as Amhrán na Leabhar.
Sorry Peter, I might have been a bit reactionary on that reply. I have a bad habit of not letting things bounce around in my head long enough before I post. No harm no foul.
Edit: I’m sure I get this from my great uncle John (Jack) McSorely who fought in the Black Watch in WW1. He always told me, “fight first and ask question later.”
That’s very nice. I believe Dave Paton is the son of Sandy Paton, founder of Folk Legacy Records. It’s great to hear English system concertina being played tastefully and well in an Irish set (after my own heart). And some of us remember Claudine Langille from her days with Touchstone.
As for the setting, it’s not Song of the Books. But it won’t be the first time a tune has been misidentified.
Similar enough to put together, anyway. I gave another listen and for my money the slow tune is different enough from the second - especially in the phrasing - for me to think of them as not the same tune at all. Picky, picky.
BTW, I know the second one as The Half Door. I’ve also heard it referred to as Hoof And Mouth - has anyone else heard that name for it as well?
Lovely stuff there. I couldn’t see the difference between the “air” and the jig that followed apart from the speed. That’s the sort of thing that’s been done for ever. I do it when I play The Trumpet Hornpipe (aka Captain Pugwash). It’s surprisingly difficult for anyone to recognise what tune I’m playing. and yet all I do is play it slower, with one or two little passing notes thrown in. Makes a lovely slow air, in fact.
