What is your favorite most moving slow tune?

[chrisp]

I would like to learn more moving emotional tunes, any Ideas?
A couple of examples I love playing are Spancil hill, and Inisheer.

What haunting tunes do you get a clump in your throat from?

[Lars Larry Mór Mott]

I guess Valentia harbour is my number one. Heard it first played by Liam O'Flynn, but this version by boys of the lough is fantastic as well!
http://grooveshark.com/s/Valentia+Harbo ... CDGk?src=5

[cunparis]

I guess Valentia harbour is my number one. Heard it first played by Liam O'Flynn, but this version by boys of the lough is fantastic as well!
http://grooveshark.com/s/Valentia+Harbo ... CDGk?src=5

I was intrigued so I clicked to listen. I love Grooveshark and the other sites, it's so nice to be able to hear a song once without having to buy anything.

The tune sounded very familiar.. I know it as Amhran Na Leabhar which is a very said story about a guy who moved and put all his possessions including a very impressive collection of books on a boat. He took the land route and the boat sank and he lost everything, most importantly his books. So it's called something like "Lamant of the books".

Knowing the history behind it makes it that much more moving when I play it.

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/814

[cunparis]

I would vote for "Niel Gow's Lament For His Second Wife":

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1892

(I had to transpose it but I can't seem to attach it here).

I found it quite by accident by following a link to hear a Bleazey whistle. What a nice surprise. Played by someone on this site. Sounds great and I love playing it on the Low D.

[Lars Larry Mór Mott]

Yeah Cathal McConnell told me the story behind Valentia harbour /Amhrán na Leabhar, composed by schoolteacher Tomás Ruadh Suilleabhain on the occasion of losing his priceless library in a shipwreck in Kerry. He said there's words to it as well, mentioning, if not all, the most lamented books he lost.

[Flexismart]

Finore (among many)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xTZcdoOjjs

[Viking of Kiev]

Amhrán Mhuínse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By0QM8mlr28

[plunk111]

My current faves are Amhrán na Leabhar (above), Cape Clear, and Bruach na Carraige Baine (Edge of the White Rock)

[ecohawk]

Well you've got two of my favorites though I've never Amhrán na Leabhar called Valentia harbor so thanks for the education!

Indeed Niel Gow's Lament for the Death of His Second Wife was the first slow tune I learned and I still use it for practice.

I'd add three more: Mná na hÉireann (Women of Ireland, Ashokan Farewell (you've got to execute those high notes though), and my personal favorite Roisin Dubh (Black Rose).

ecohawk

[brewerpaul]

I don't play a lot of slow airs on the whistle, but one slow piece I often play is the opening Air from Bach's Goldberg Variations. It fits perfectly on a D whistle, with some half holing. I can't find a whistle recording, but here's Glenn Gould playing (and singing) it on piano:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv94m_S3QDo

Sheet music here:

http://www.8notes.com/scores/7321.asp

If you substitute traditional Irish ornaments for some of the Baroque ones, it serves nicely as a slow air.

[Innocent Bystander]

Eleanor Plunkett.

[narrowdog]

An Raibh Tu Ar An GCarraig, 'Were you at the Rock'
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/9695

edit... Mr Gumby posted a beautiful version here some time back
but I don't know if it's still there.

[Ian Parfitt]

The Wild Geese/Lament for Limerick

Ian

[riverman]

I love it when people put sound samples with their preferences (though I can't)! Now I get to browse through those slow songs and pick the first one to start learning! Please don't stop!!

[Lars Larry Mór Mott]

I don't know how i could forget Sliabh na mBan?! From the first time i heard Johnny Doran play it, until this very day i get a baseball-size lump in my throat.
It was in a RTE documentary about Johnny Doran that i have recorded, sister Mary Dominic told the story of how Johnny was admitted to S:t Vincents hospital in Athy and how he died there, and she believed 'he was dear to God' accompanied by Johnnys playing of Sliabh na mBan in the background. Very moving indeed!

http://youtu.be/thTCrs9JR68