Sheet music for slow air..

[keithsandra]

DENNY - Yer a flamin' genius - see proof above of said genius in my slavish obedience to your instructive clarification and its magic results.... Amazin'. Very satisfying. Many thanks.



K.

[Denny]

2nd generation computer geek....

[pancelticpiper]

That music well illustrates the phrasing of sean nos songs, having the phrases slurred together.

When I write out airs for myself, say when somebody has requested that I play an air at a wedding or funeral and I don't have time to memorise it, I don't use bar lines, and use commas ' to indicate the seperations between the phrases (and breathing on the whistle or a seperation on the uilleann pipes). I use various note values to suggest the length of various notes but the music isn't intended to be read in a metrical way.

[robert schuler]

Many thanks for turning me on to this beautiful song. Being an untrained musician I learn by ear. I downloaded a few versions and came to my own conclusion as how the song is generally played. It took me an hour to get the notes in a row. Another two days to be able to play it smoothly on the whistle. Now I'm in the process of hanging on the colorful ornaments. The hardest part is trying to figure out how to pronounce the name... Bob.

[keithsandra]

Does anyone happen to have the words to this?

I looked up the various descriptions of Sean Nos, to discover that Sean Nos is not for musical instruments, just the voice, and they're sung as laments, historical poems, dirges, in one long unpunctuatred sound. The sound examples I came across were meaningless in terms of language. but in their visceral sense they must have triggered the Irish in my black British soul as the hairs on the back of my neck rose and my mood became deeply lachrymose. As I can't sing, I want to work on bringing out the special feeling of this piece on my flutes and/or whistles if I can, so would appreciate getting the words in English if anyone has them. (Even in American would do as I'm getting pretty good at interpreting that 'language' too ... Heh, heh. ).

K.

[Denny]

I found this in the IRTRAD-L archives

AMHRÁN NA LEABHAR (The Song of the Books). AKA and see "Cuan Bhéil Inse,"
"Valentia Harbor," "Valentia Lament." Irish, Air (4/4 time). E Dorian.
Standard. One part. Cranitch relates that the song to this air was written by
Tomás Rua Ó Súilleabháin (1785-1848), a poet and musician from Iveragh or
Derrynane, County Kerry. Ó Suilleabhain had been acting-schoolmaster at
Caherdaniel and was forced to transfer to Portmagee when another schoolmaster
was appointed to the permanent position. As he was leaving he placed his
treasured and huge (for the times!) library of leather-bound books for
transport on a boat going from Derrynane to Goleen (Goilin, Valentia Harbor),
while he himself travelled by road. The boat struck a rock and was lost,
tragically along with the priceless collection of books, prompting Ó
Súlleabháin to seek solace in song. The air is known in modern times as a
slow tempo piper's tune. Tomas Ó Canainn's translation begins:
***
By Valentia harbour I happened once
Near sweet Goleen Dairbhre
To be the master in Portmagee
Where ships set sail for the ocean deep.
Soon all had the sorrowful story then
Of the sturdy craft, lost at Owen Finn,
Sad was my heart for the ship that failed;
Better this land had it survived the gale.
***
The melody is very popular as a slow air with pipers, although is also
(usually?) known by the titles "Valentia Lament" or "Cuan Bhéal Inse."
Cranitch (The Irish Fiddle Book), 1996; pg. 102. Ó Canainn (Traditional Slow
Airs), 1995; No. 31, pg. 31 (appears as "Cuan Bheil Inse"). GN1, Joe Thoma -
"Up the Track: Traditional Music from Kenmare" (appears as "Valentia
Lament"). Sceilig Records SRCD 002 Tim Dennehy - "Farewell to Miltown Malbay."
X:1
T:Amhrán Na Leabhar (The Song of the Books)
M:4/4
L:1/8
Z:transcribed by Paul de Grae
K:Edor
B2|E2 EF G2 A2|Be e5 f|e3 d B3 A|Bc d4 e2|
E3 F G3 F|GA B3 B2 A|G2 E5 D|E5 z B2|
E3 F G2 A2|Be e5 f|e3 d B3 A|Bc d5 z |
E2 EF G3 F|GA B3 B2 A|G2 F E4 D|E5 z e2|
e2 ed e3 d|ef g4 f2|e3 d B3 A|B5 z Bc|
d2 dc d3 c|dd e4 ed|B3 A G3 A|B5 z B2|
E2 EF G2 A2|Be e4 ef|e3 d B3 A|Bc d5 e|
E2 EF G3 F|GA B4 BA|G2 F E4 D|E6 ||

there is this on Mudcat

[keithsandra]

Thanx for the information Denny. Good stuff. What with losing his job and his life's work poor old Tomás Rua Ó Súilleabháin was not having a good day, eh? No "luck of the Irish" there. God bless him, I hope he recovered.

Thanx again.

K.

[keithsandra]

Does this tune really come under the heading of Sean Nos? Or is it just an ordinary aire? My research shows that Sean Nos songs have very little scale variation, unlike this tune. The version of Cuan Bheil (Amhran na Leabhar) I posted here has high and low notes that you can blow to produce a lot of pathos, but does that scale variation disqualify the tune from being Sean Nos?

Just wondering?

K.

[MTGuru]

The hardest part is trying to figure out how to pronounce the name.

I think OW-ron na LYOW-ir will get you close, with "OW/LYOW" as in cow.