mairis wedding

Yesterday I was approached by a drunken irishman who claimed he was a connoisseur of Irish music requesting Mairis Wedding, does anyone have any suitable replies, if i should encounter this one again.

Too late now, Dick.

Tell him she got a divorce.

Maybe Màiri married an Irishman.

Ask him if he’d rather have a Scottish tune ?

You could just play it for him. It’s a simple enough tune that even an Irish musician should be able to manage it.

It’s a cracking good tune. Pity to reserve it just for Burns Night. Make sure it has plenty of Scotch snap in it.

You could play it a la Andy Irvine (part Scottish,part Irish) in 15/8 time-that would make walking over those hills more interesting

I think a suitable reply is to play the tune for the person. I consider it a priviledge to do anything I can to spread a little joy in the world, so I generally play any song or tune I know whenever it is requested. And I know a lot of people who like Irish music who like that tune and a lot of other tunes of Scots origin, regardless of where they came from.

DRUNKEN IRISHMAN?? I’m shocked and stunned!

At least your parents had a sense of humour.

The next time a drunk from Belfast requests a tune, the simplest way to handle that is to say " No sir I don’t know the tune. Do you have the sheet music for it?".

Was he a" connoisseur of Irish music requesting" as your post suggests,
or a connoisseur of Irish Music, requesting Marie’s wedding. Perhaps you misunderstood the entire encounter?

Mairi’s wedding for Burns Night? It’s not Burns!

Trish, that’s probably it! The drunken Irishman was probably suffering from terrible Burns!

Afterthought…. "My love has got a red, red nose"

Of course it’s "not Burns"! As a bunch o’ blokes who play nearly all Irish, we’ll desperately grab anything even remotely Scottishy for that one night per annum. No-one’s complained yet…here in Cornwall… ;-)

I was supposed to be playing a man in a pub for a movie today ( no names, no pack drill ). The makeup lady gave me a red nose and a black eye !
What do you think of that Gobby ?

What, literally?

With make up?

Great little tune, whatever the tradition it’s from.

Hey Pete, I watched that show ‘Extra’s’ on the telly, so I know what goes on with you people (and why you got a black eye).

The composer was Sir Hugh S. Roberton (1874 – 1952), born Glasgow. He also wrote Westering Home.

I met his grandson when I was a pupil at Stamshaw Junior School in Portsmouth in the 1960’s and the local schools gave a concert of Sir Hugh’s songs in the Guildhall, with the grandson conducting.

"The composer was Sir Hugh S. Roberton (1874 – 1952), born Glasgow."

The story goes that Roberton wrote the English words, after John Bannerman had written some Gàidhlig words to a traditional tune:

"John Roderick (Johnny) Bannerman (1865-1938) from South Uist wrote the original Gaelic words of the song in 1935, for 1934 National Mod gold medalist singer Mary C. MacNiven of Portnahaven, Islay. Mary’s actual wedding (to sea captain John Campbell) didn’t take place until 1941. Sir Hugh S. Roberton (1874-1952), founder of the acclaimed Glasgow Orpheus Choir and a leading choir master of the time, came up with the well-known English lyrics – only very loosely related to Bannerman’s Gaelic ones – in 1936. Mary had been born in 1905 and passed away on 25 March 1997, at age 91. "

http://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/4102/

I believe there was a court case re Roberton’s Mairi’s wedding and the original Gaelic song/tune. Someone had broadcast the latter and called it Mairi’s Wedding. There was another English version whose words my dad used to sing:

Morag bheag of the golden hair
Fair as the dawning, fair as the dawning …

My dad didn’t like the way Roberton behaved, or the way he changed and ‘owned’ the traditional tune.

I will play Mairi’s Wedding for a connoisseur, which I define as a person with coherent speech and at least a five dollar bill in hand. The Rankin Family version will always be my favorite.