Songs that give you goose bumps

[WyoBadger]

...why has probably the C20th's most gifted piper spent most of his career doing that sort of thing and not just main-lining the pure drop????? (Rhetorical question!).

Make enough money to play music without having to live in a rat hole and wait tables to eat? (Rhetorical answer with gratuitous question mark.)

I do believe you might have nailed it.

[FJohnSharp]

The Butterfly slip jig is really nice played slow. Fast its just another slip jig, but slow is lovely.

The recording to listen to here is Kevin Burke Solo Live

[chas]

"The Sunset," Cathal McConnell's slow reel as played by Frankie Kennedy.

[monkey587]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vphVICb8I-E

[Impempe]

I was learning The Dark Island when I got the phone call that my dad passed away. That tune always evokes a little something extra in me. And they always let me start it at session.

I'll second "The Dark Island".....never forgot it after the first time I heard it.....

Hear, hear.

and here too...
Lyrics for The Dark Island...is it the isle of Lewis?

Away to the westward, I'm longing to be
Where the beauties of heaven’ unfold by the sea
Where the sweet purple heather’ blooins fragrant and free
On a hill-top, high above the Dark Island
Oh Isle of my childhood I'in dreaming of thee
As the steamer leaves Oban, and passes Tiree
Soon I'll capture the magic, that lingers for me
When I'm back, once more upon, the Dark Island
.
So gentle the sea breeze’ that ripples the bay
Where the stream joins the ocean, and young children play
On a strand of pure silver, I'll welcome each day
And I'll roam forever more, the Dark Island
Oh Isle of my childhood I'in dreaming of thee
As the steamer leaves Oban, and passes Tiree
Soon I'll capture the magic, that lingers for me
When I'm back, once more upon, the Dark Island
.
True gem of the hebrides, bathed in the light
Like a midsummer dawning, that follows the night
How I long for the cry, of the seagulls in flight
As they circle high above’ the Dark Island
Oh Isle of my childhood I'm dreaming of thee
As the steamer leaves Oban, and passes Tiree
Soon I'll capture the magic, that lingers for me
When I'm back, once more upon, the Dark Island

[jemtheflute]

You see! Put "song" in the thread title - you get suggestions of ......wait for it....... songs , presumably by people who haven't read the OP. (Yes, I know I suggested one )

Simple topic, simple purpose: Name ONE tune that takes your breath away, gives you goose bumps, or otherwise makes you completely ecstatic. The purpose is to introduce new tunes we might have overlooked.....

BTW, I'm not criticising the songs suggested or their suggesters - as I said, good songs well sung sure can raise the goose-flesh - and there's no reason not to take the tunes of the songs and play 'em as slow airs. But that wasn't what the OP intended/was asking for, despite his thread (mis)title. The vast majority of folkies generally and I would think of folk on this Board see the word "song" and think of actual songs! Amazing!

[DrPhill]

Dark Island - thanks, I had never heard that one before. It is a lovely tune/song(/melody/musicthing .

I found some ABC in Dmix that goes to a low C so its time to try transposing it for My low D. Perhaps I want to transpose up a couple of semitones?. Any experienced folk out there give me some clues? I bet the answer is a lot more complicated than that......

But the sentence starting "I found.." would have been gobbledy-gook to me before I started hanging out on this forum. So I am learning or maybe just going mad?

[Rhadge]

Dark Island - thanks, I had never heard that one before. It is a lovely tune/song(/melody/musicthing .

I found some ABC in Dmix that goes to a low C so its time to try transposing it for My low D. Perhaps I want to transpose up a couple of semitones?. Any experienced folk out there give me some clues? I bet the answer is a lot more complicated than that......

But the sentence starting "I found.." would have been gobbledy-gook to me before I started hanging out on this forum. So I am learning or maybe just going mad?

You can use Audacity or The Amazing Slow-Downer to transpose audio. The latter works just as implied, amazingly.
If you want to transpose the ABC/sheet music, I'm not sure if there are functions for that in the notation programs, but you could always just rewrite them yourself. That is, move each note up a given number of semitones.

I take it that your low C is the lowest note. Then you move the notes up two semitones, so that the C becomes your D. This makes the ABC fully playable (without bending the octaves) on your low D.

Here is a progression of semitones: E - F - F#/Gb - G - G#/Ab - A - A#/Bb - B - C - C#/Db - D - D#/Eb (and then repeated)
Since you raise each note as much as the others, the scale remains intact.

[DrPhill]

Thanks Rhadge,

I am planning on transposing the ABC mandraulically. ABC explorer uses ABC2ABC which claims to transpose, but I have to drive it from the command line, and the results are not always what I would want.

Dmix makes me think D minor, and I know a low D will play E minor, so I assumed an easy transposition. For a beginner like me I just follow the cycle C, -> D .....A->B->c etc and hope that writing the correct key signature will sort the sharps and flats for me. It worked (as far as my ears tell me) for 'Hector the Hero' in Dmix, but I though that might have been a fluke (it does not use many notes, but those it does use it uses beautifully) and decided to check my theory here.

The cycle of semitones works better if you know which keys have which semitones - and I dont (yet) so I would wind up with a list of pitches, then try to work out which key I had landed in. Maybe when I learn more music theory...... There is a whole world of stuff to learn, not that I am complaining. Learning is fun. But I have to prioritise and learning to play a musical instrument is the priority.

Sorry to hijack your thread Haggis13. There are too many lovely tunes for me to choose one, and because of your thread I have heard some more.

[Rhadge]

The cycle of semitones works better if you know which keys have which semitones - and I dont (yet) so I would wind up with a list of pitches, then try to work out which key I had landed in. Maybe when I learn more music theory...... There is a whole world of stuff to learn, not that I am complaining. Learning is fun. But I have to prioritise and learning to play a musical instrument is the priority.

Well, if you're just going to play the melody, transposing the notation is enough. You don't need to know the key for that.

[DrPhill]

The original text of this post added nothing to the thread. So I erased it as best I could.
Next time engage brain before keyboard.
Sorry.

[Achill]

Fisherman's Lilt/Ship in Full Sail/Out on the Ocean- Matt Molloy

[Infernaltootler]

I know it's corny, but Carrickfergus.

This because my sister decided our Irish mum said she liked it so it was played (badly from a CD - no idea who) at the crematorium as the coffin sashayed between the curtains.

I didn't take up the whistle until years after Mum died - what a tragedy - as now I think about it she was steeped in ITM as a girl and it sometimes came out - she'd have a go on the spoons, attempt the odd step dance, sing 'Giddee Up a Jockey Horse' to the babies dandled on her knee.

So when I hear that tune it reminds me of something we never shared when she was alive.

[tinman]

I find Cape Clear very appealing and especially like this version on Clips & Snips Cape Clear

Another is Taimse 'Im Chodladh HERE

[Haggis13]

No apologies sought or required! MTGuru warned you about TLB! We like what we like and that's fine, as long as we don't expect or set too much store by others' agreement/shared taste, though consensus opinions and higher "good taste" (whatever that is!) are both relevant. (Haggis might be a good case in point! ) No discouragement was intended either, by myself or others who expressed similar feelings - leastways, not on playing music!

As for linguistic murder, well, that's another matter. Songs by definition have words and are sung with a voice (unless you're Mendelssohn!). The air, melody or tune of a song without its words being sung is..... a tune, albeit a song-tune! Melodies (especially ones for dancing) that have no association with lyrics cannot sensibly be termed "songs" (unless there is some rider, as in Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words" for piano), and well/long established normal usage in trad music circles is to call them "tunes". As songs are also important in trad music, there is a serious distinction to be maintained and understanding to be preserved/sought.

Fair enough, I see I stand corrected I did intend this topic to be about songs, though, not just tunes. A fine example I stumbled across a few days ago would be Rapalje's version of Caledonia / Inis Oirr: http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqa82hSWohc