Saddest Tune

[dwest]

..

[Jason Paul]

Are we talking tunes or songs?

With tunes I agree that it depends on how it's played.

For songs, I'll put in a nomination for The Green Fields of France.

And as far as being Irish means we're sad, I think that's a bit limiting. We can also be angry. So it's either sad or angry... and drunk, no?

Admittedly though, I don't drink.

Jason

[slowair]

Carrickfergus and Isle of Inishfree

[fearfaoin]

Are we talking tunes or songs?

Tunes, according to the thread title.
But if we were to talk songs, I'd say "Kilkelly Ireland, 1860".

[crookedtune]

I personally hate most musicals. That said, "Sunrise, Sunset" from 'Fiddler on the Roof'.

(Tevye)
Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?

(Golde)
I don't remember growing older
When did they?

(Tevye)
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he get to be so tall?

(Golde)
Wasn't it yesterday
When they were small?

(Men)
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze

(Women)
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

(Tevye)
What words of wisdom can I give them?
How can I help to ease their way?

(Tevye)
Now they must learn from one another
Day by day

(Perchik)
They look so natural together

(Hodel)
Just like two newlyweds should be

(Perchik & Hodel)
Is there a canopy in store for me?

(All)
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

[WyoBadger]

One the one hand I think it's a bit of a silly exercise, it's a good musician who puts his touch of sadness on the tune, not necessarily the tune itself.

Well, you think lots of things are silly exercises, Peter. You're probably right, too. But then, so is running on a treadmill, but lots of people still do it.

One of the things I love about Scottish music (and Irish music, as well) is the emotional complexity a good player can bring out of the simplest tune. Is it sad, or hopeful, or homesick? Contemplative and peaceful? in love? Or all of the above? A good slow air expresses a longing for beauty, and provides the fulfillment for its own longing. Powerful stuff.

Tom

[MarkP]

Caoineadh na tri Mhuire.

Stunning

Caoineadh Inion ui Mhuirisoa

does anyone have a pointer where I can get a copy of that?

it's what the player brings to it

Exactly so, and a true challenge to combine honest emotion and quality of technique (neither of which I excell at ). Funnily enough I'd posted another thread looking for advice about learning and listening to airs but without much success (only one reply). I guess it might be another 'silly question' really, so full of intangibles and therefore difficult to discuss meaningfully?

[Cayden]

One the one hand I think it's a bit of a silly exercise, it's a good musician who puts his touch of sadness on the tune, not necessarily the tune itself.

Well, you think lots of things are silly exercises, Peter. You're probably right, too. But then, so is running on a treadmill, but lots of people still do it.

One of the things I love about Scottish music (and Irish music, as well) is the emotional complexity a good player can bring out of the simplest tune. Is it sad, or hopeful, or homesick? Contemplative and peaceful? in love? Or all of the above? A good slow air expresses a longing for beauty, and provides the fulfillment for its own longing. Powerful stuff.

Tom

I get a bit uneasy with all that 'sad' and 'haunting' air stuff, it gives me associations of maximum reverb and if at all possible the sound of the distant ocean in the background.

I remember visiting Rochford for the first time (I had known him for a few years, as a piper) and he took down the fiddle and played the Cliffs of Moher, as he said himself 'in the darker key' it was pure emotion. How many can do that though. Mary Bergin said Tommy Peoples' music can make her cry but it's not the tunes that do it, i's what the player brings to them.

But people react differently to these things and I had a few to bring to the topic. Interest enough I just listened to a few versions of By the River of Gems and it was only the Seamus Ennis one that moved me, not any of the others.

Exactly so, and a true challenge to combine honest emotion and quality of technique (neither of which I excell at eek ). Funnily enough I'd posted another thread looking for advice about learning and listening to airs but without much success (only one reply). I guess it might be another 'silly question' really, so full of intangibles and therefore difficult to discuss meaningfully?

I don't think very intricate technique is necessarily the key to air playing, Ennis for example is quite sparse in his use of ornamentation (which is not to say it isn't complex playing), compared to the self indulgent expressiveness of Willie Clancy playing An Buachaill Caol Dubh for example (which I love too), and I have heard examples of very simple playing that was still very moving.

I spotted your thread and I am mulling things over, especially as I am going through a spate of air-teaching. Getting to the bones, separate the important notes from the ornamentation and the correct phrasing would be the obvious starting point. Keep the voice of the singer in mind.

[Steamwalker]

A lot of tunes can take all added poignance when one knows the original lyrics. Hey, it's not Irish, but the American Civil War traditionals, "All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight", "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" and "Mother, Is the Battle Over?" have been known to bring about a tear in me.

[arnie]

An Feochan. Played by Altan it's so, so beautiful.

[pastorkeith]

"One the one hand I think it's a bit of a silly exercise, it's a good musician who puts his touch of sadness on the tune, not necessarily the tune itself."

I always found that silly exercises usually get to the deeper truths after awhile, Peter

As you rightly point out, how the musician interprets the piece is key, no?

Yet, might not some laments in the hands of a master - musician and tune together - produce something truly evocative - touching sadness and loss, the ephemeralness, as it were, of life? Do not at least some tunes carry something of that in their very construction (even if a gifted musician could make them sound as jolly a driking song?)

Now, I have no credentials to ask such a question, but I 'll ask it anyway - I'm in a spunky mood this morning.

pastorkeith

[Traveler]

Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings. It's especially sad as used throughout "Platoon" (and most especially during the demise of Sgt. Elias -- at around 5:00 in this video collage).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxVkXj26qds

In the ITM world, however, I'd have second fearfaoin's vote for The Battle of Aughrim. Joanie's rendition with CTL on "Threads of Time" is particularly evocative.

[WyoBadger]

Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings.

Heartbreaking, I agree. Not exactly whistle fare, though.

[WyoBadger]

I get a bit uneasy with all that 'sad' and 'haunting' air stuff, it gives me associations of maximum reverb and if at all possible the sound of the distant ocean in the background.

You mean like this? Sort of like anything with the word Celtic in the title I suppose.

I agree completely that it is mostly the player, and that it doesn't have to be complex. I have heard children sing songs that were simple but moving.

T

[MTGuru]

I nominate Danny Boy.

I'd say Congratulations is onto something:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU

OK, I promise, this is the last time I'll post this link.