An Ataireachd Ard waltz

Please note that this is a Gaelic Slow Air andd certainly not a waltz, but there is no category for Slow Air, as you will all know. I got this tune from fellow players at the Lochgoilhead Fiddle Workshop (based in Strachur, Argyll) and we played it recently at the National Mod in Oban, as an ensemble fiddle piece with guitar accompaniment - I played guitar. The harmony part is as played by the fiddlers (there were five, and two played harmony).
I have a version I recorded on mandolin, octave mandolin and guitar on youTube and over on the Mandolin Cafe website in the Song-A-Week Social Group. Here is a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gvbPn2f9PQ

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A lovely tune, and well played, John. It can be used for a waltz, though, and has been on occasion. It’s a beautiful song too, with words in Gaelic and English.

"Alone by the shore I hear the song of the sea;
It brings back the joys of home and childhood to me.
Unceasing, unending, surging onward to shore,
Recalling the days and ways of long, long ago.

My heart would remain where mind and longing find rest,
Where all is at peace in magic mists of the West."
Where folk lived and taught, where Earth and Heaven are free,
And only remains the endless song of the sea."
(as sung by Vicki Ferguson of Tain)

Thanks Nigel, and thanks for the words. when the wee fiddle group was learning this for the Mod we were saying that it would have been great to have words to put to the tune to get a feeling of the rhythm! Now you have provided those words. Thanks again, and I take your point about it being a good waltz too - in fact many slow airs have become waltzes and are known better in that form, probably from folk dancing to them (?)

Capercaillie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGUFwD_k9FQ

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