Ar Éirinn Ní Neosfainn Cé Hí waltz

This is my first foray into abc notation…I got an error message before I finished, so I don’t know why this showed up. I would’ve done the "dot" notation, too, but I don’t know how to access that. Was there a form to fill out that I got booted off before I got to it?
Anyway, this is more of a slow air than a waltz, but it works nicely in waltz time. It’s from the Boys of the Lough’s "Recorded Live" album.

I think the "D" in bar 12 should read as "d".

Yes, David is right. Actually Jeremy saved my butt on a number of errors I put in. Some (all?) of the dotted half-notes in the score are actually supposed to be 5 beats long — I didn’t know how to tie a note into the next measure. Still don’t know my ABCs, I guess.

This is more properly a slow air - and the Irish name is
Ar Eireann ni neosainn a anam"

sorry, Irish name is "Ar Eireann ni neosainn ce hi"

Apparently "Buachaill On Eirne" means "Boy from Ireland" and is a different tune to this one. Also used as the tune for the song "Come By The Hills".

does anyone know the lyrics to this song?
Emily

Emily, on a CD of Sligo band Dervish you will hear the lovely singer Cathy Jordan singing this song: http://www.dervish.ie/day.htm
It’s the most beautiful song as far as I know.

H.

THIS IS ABOUT A PRIEST WHO FALLS IN LOVE WITH HIS BROTHERS WIFE !!

Must agree with slainte about the Dervish version. Absolutely class - would make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck!

AR ÉIRINN NÍ N-EÓSAINN CÉ H-Í

Aréir is mé téarnamh um’ neoin
Ar an dtaobh thall den teóra ‘na mbím,
Do théarnaig an spéir-bhean im’ chómhair
D’fhág taomanach breóite lag sinn.

Do ghéilleas dá méin is dá cló,
Dá béal tanaí beó mhilis binn,
Do léimeas fé dhéin dul ‘na cómhair,
Is ar éirinn ní n-eósainn cé h-í.

Dá ngéilleadh an spéir-bhean dom’ ghlór,
Siad ráidhte mo bheól a bheadh fíor;
Go deimhin duit go ndéanfainn a gnó
Do léirchur i gcóir is i gcrich.
Dó léighfinn go léir stair dom’ stór,
‘S ba mhéinn liom í thógaint dom chroí,
‘S do bhearfainn an chraobh dhi ina dóid,
Is ar éirinn ní n-eósainn cé h-í.

Tá spéir-bhruinneal mhaordha dheas óg
Ar an taobh thall de’n teóra ‘na mbím.
Tá féile ‘gus daonnacht is meóin
Is deise ró mhór ins an mhnaoi,
Tá folt lei a’ tuitim go feóir,
Go cocánach ómarach buí.
Tá lasadh ‘na leacain mar rós,
Is ar éirinn ní n-eósainn cé h-í.

i’ve just heard the high kings version of this song but i didn’t knew the name in irish and i started asking myself which music was this, because i knew it.. now i’ve found. Bragi, what an amazing song.

Could someone please give the lyrics in English?

The tune is said to have come from "Tweedside" or "Tweed Side", first printed in 1733:

(from Traditional music in Ireland By Tomás Ó Canainn, p.6)

[ One example of an air first published outside Ireland and absorbed into the Irish tradition may be of interest. It is the tune Tweedside’, first pub­lished in the Orpheus Caledonius Collection in 1733… It was taken into the Irish tradition and combined with a text in Irish in praise of the river Lee, to give the well known ‘Abha na Laoi’ (The River Lee’)… The tune is now better known as ‘Ar Éirinn ní Neosfainn Cé Hí’ (‘For Ireland I would not tell her Name’), with its eighteenth-century text from the Maigue school of poets from Limerick… In this version the air, with its decorations, has been finally put into what traditional musicians of today would recognise as an acceptable Irish mould. ]

The tune to ‘Tweedside’ as it appears in Orpheus Caledonius:

X:1
T:Tweed Side
S:Orpheus Caledonius, 1733
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:A
cB|A2E2F2|A3B {AB}c2|B4cB|A2E2F2|A3B cB|
A4cB|A2E2F2|AG AB cd|B4AB|c2dc BA|B2cB AF|A4||
cd|e2dc BA|e2fe dc|B4cd|e2dc BA|AG AB cd|e4({fg}a2|
e2dc BA|e2fe dc|B4AB|c2dc BA|B2cB AF|A4|]

I’ve heard it played in a nominal ‘G’ on the Northumbrian pipes.

I used to sing a song in English about the Greenland whale fisheries to this air… I believe I picked it up in the Canadian Maritimes,Newfoundland… It has been a long time since I sang it but will see if I can find anymore solid information than my mind…

The Orpheus Caledonius version of ‘Tweedside’ is good but would be better served here as a separate listing from ‘For Ireland I Won’t Say Her Name’. Although the two tunes are similar in their rhythmic phrasing (3-bar groups of 3/4) they don’t coincide in their melody or underlying harmony. Perhaps Tomás Ó Canainn has a very different version of ‘For Ireland’?

"Perhaps Tomás Ó Canainn has a very different version of ‘For Ireland’?"

Nope. He actually prints a version in the book. It’s a more accurate transcription of the commonly played versions than the transcription here.
I suppose it’s down to opinion. I can see the similarities - especially when the two are compared with ‘Abha na Laoi’ , but I wouldn’t say for sure that one came from the other.

"I suppose it’s down to opinion … I wouldn’t say for sure that one came from the other"

Fair enough, Weejie, and neither would I say for sure that one DIDN’T come from the other, but it does seem to me that they are now different tunes.

Make the separate submission and link the two in the comments, leaving the debate open?

Yep, I’ll submit it as a separate tune, but I’ll also add Ó Canainn’s words, which I have to agree with:

[It may come as a surprise to many to find that an analysis of traditional composition and transmission must include the effect of error on the tradition itself. Many a tune has been changed in transmission because a musician made a genuine mistake in learning it. This mistake, compounded in subsequent transmission, could eventually result in a whole new tune-family.]

It is also interesting that when Mixolydian submitted the ABC of a tune looking for a title, the version he submitted brought Tweedside into my head rather than "For Ireland" - though in actual fact, the notes are probably closer to those of the latter (hence my posting Tweedside here).

Ó Canainn’s version of Abha na Laoi:

X:1
T:Abha na Laoi
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:G
FA|B2E2EF|G2A2BA|B4EG|F2E2 (3DEF)|A2F2EF|
D4FA|B2E2EF|G2A2BA|B4EG|F2E2DE|F2E2E2|E4||
Bc|d2e2 (3dBA)|G2B2d2|e4 (3fge)|d2e2BA|GF EF AF|
D4FA|B2E2EF|G2A2BA|B4EG|F2E2DF|F2E2E2|E4|]

And his version of "For Ireland":

X:1
T:Ar Éirinn ní Neosfainn Cé Hí
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:G
GA|B2D2D2|E2G3A|B4GA|B2D2D2|E2G2B2|A3B/2A/2 GA|
B2D2D2|Ec- c3/2d/2c/2 BA|B4AG|E2D2D2|
E G3G2|G4Bc|d2B2 (3ABA)|G2B2d2|e4ge|
d2B2A2|G3A B2|A4GA|B2D2D2|Ec- c3/2d/2c/2 BA|
B4A/2B/2A/2G/2|E2D2D2|E G3G2|G4|]

Note that he set Tweedside in G too.

I love it! - theÓ Canainn quote…

"~ sheer devilment, inspiration, confusion,drink and/or old age…"

Makes a great motto. Let’s try it in my poor Irish:

"Spraoi fórsa, inspioráid, mearbhall, deoch agus / nó pinsean seanaoise!"

Submitted on December 1st 2011 by Weejie.
https://thesession.org/tunes/11612

The first beats of this air are redolent of the song Jamie Raeburn
http://www.allcelticmusic.com/music/4913d160-de90-102a-8020-000f1f67beb1/Light_on_a_Distant_Shore.html
which may or may not have stemmed out of the march (and kin) known as The Soldier’s Return. e.g: http://www.timeriksenmusic.com/everysoundbelow/index.html

What does the title mean?
Bernie

Cathal McConnell had a lovely version of this on one of the early Boys of the Lough albums- haven’t seen my copy for years. if anyone has it maybe they could post it? I’d love to hear it again

Christy, This might be what you’re looking for. Starts at about 33:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv-HLsUVtnU

play video

hey, the whole album! thanks Aidriano yes that’s what I was looking for. its funny I’d remembered it as a flute solo but I guess time plays tricks with your memory, I havent heard some of these tunes for 30 years

Someone played this, pretty well note-for-note, but with a big boom-ching-ching bass, as accordion players do, and then said it was a Blair Douglas tune. (He had it in a book in front of him!) I told him that, melody-wise, it was very close to "Ar Eireann" etc, which was one of the first tunes I ever learned on my B/C box. In the meantime, I had heard Cathy Jordan’s sung version of it in Irish Gaelic, as mentioned by Sligo 12 years ago, and it is indeed fabulous.
So, later, in the evening, I played the tune as I know it, closest to Jack B’s version above, but in very free time. Mr boom-ching-ching still persists in playing his rhythmic boom-ching-ching basses, while I am exercising my full powers of rubato, as befits a slow air, probably pulling it more out of time just to try to throw him off the scent. (and failing!) Afterwards, he protests, "It’s a 3/4 waltz". I say, "No it’s a slow air, and I’ll send you the other versions".

It was in a book, so it must be right ! What was the book ?
"Na Fili" recorded it more than 40 years ago in the early 70s, even before the "Boys Of The Lough". - I used to have the record, and well remember them playing it on John Peel’s late night programme.
I’ll have a look at the "BotL"’s sleeve notes, which I’m sure will confirm that it’s a tune a lot older than Blair Douglas.

https://youtu.be/0IkQc3SeL88

play video

"The Boys Of The Lough" sleeve notes from their "Live" recording - released in 1975 - include the information that the tune was published in "Ceol An Sinsear", pp91, Browne and Nolan, Dublin 1934, and is also to be found in Joyce’s "Old Irish Folk Music and Song" published in 1909. Blair Douglas is not 108.

That was what I tried to tell my friend, Kenny. Afraid I didn’t get the name of the tune or book as in this version I heard last night, but will try to find out.

Just checked Blair Douglas’s website, and the tune played was "Cross Border Love" from his "Angels from the Ashes" album. Not quite note for note but more than a passing resemblance to "Ar Eireann…" On page 7 of his audio clips tab.
Thanks for the clip you posted, very much how I would play it. I also have the sung version on Dervish’s double album, "Live in Palma".

Here’s the words in English from the Dervish video:

There’s a home by the wide Avonmore
That would sweep o’er the broad open sea
And wide rivers, where the waves wash ashore
Whilst bulrushes, they wave to the breeze

Where the green ivy clings round the door
And the birds sweetly sing on each tree
Oh me darling they’re tuning their notes
Is Ar Éirinn ní neosfainn cé hí

Like a sick man that longs for the dawn
I do long for the light of her smile
And I pray for my own cailín bán
Whilst I’m waiting for her by the stile

Oh I’d climb all the hills of this land
And I’d swim all the depths of the sea
To get one kiss from her lily-white hand
Is Ar Éirinn ní neosfainn cé hí

I have toiled sore those years of my life
Through storm, through sunshine and rain
And I surely would venture my life
For to shield her one moment from pain

For she being my comfort in life
Though my comfort and joy she may be
She’s my own, she is my promised wife
Is Ar Éirinn ní neosfainn cé hí

Oh but when I will call her my own
And ‘tis married we both then will be
Like the king and the queen on their throne
We’ll be living in sweet unity

Oh ‘tis then I’ll have a home of my own
And I’ll rear up a nice family
Oh ‘tis then that her name will be known
For, for Ireland I won’t tell here name.

mustn’t forget the classic renditions of Liam Clancy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayOVvGZjZu8

play video