My Lagan Love polka

This is an air, not a polka. The setting is taken from Roche’s Traditional Irish Music, vol. 3, where it is marked “from Hughes”. There is supposed to be a fermata (“birdseye”) at the end of each of the last three lines.

The meter as given is noticeably “crooked”. That the rhythm is meant to be free is supported by the listing of this tune in John Loesberg’s “An Irish Tunebook”, vol. 2 (Ossian, 1999), where the tune is given on four lines, with no time signature or division into measures:

L: 1/4
K: Cmaj
G A _B c4 G2 F/E/ C _B z/ C E F/E/ C C C2 ||
G A _B/A/B c2 G2 F/E/ C _B2 C E F {FE} C C C2 ||
C/C/ E F A2 G G/F/_E/ F z/ A/_b c2 F A/G/A/ =B c2 ||
_e/ c _B/ c2 G2 F/E/ c _B z/ C E F/E/ C C C2 ||

Again a fermata appears over the final note on each line.

This tune was recorded on the Horslips album “Book of Invasions” where it was given a slightly unorthodox treatment. I won’t bother add it to the recording database as it’s hardly what we think of as Irish traditional music. In my younger days, I listened to all sorts of quasi traditional/ folk rock musics before realising that the real thing was best.

John

I believe this is the same song Niamh Parsons does a stunning unaccompanied rendition of on her CD “Heart’s Desire”. It’s a great version to listen to for a lesson on ornamentation and pacing!

Definitely not a polka. My Lagan Love is a song best sung unaccompanied without meter and with ornamentation unique to each singer. It is a song I sing. I found it from an out-of-print copy of Herbert Hughes collected Irish songs and the old 1950’s era record of the singing of harpist Mary O’Hara. Hughes says in his notes in the 1904 publication in “Songs of Uladh” (yes a hundred years ago) about this tune:"I got this from Proinseas mac Suibhne who played it for me on the fidil. He had it from his
father Seaghan mac Suibhne, who learned it from a sapper working on the Ordnance Survey in Tearmann about fifty years ago. It was sung to
a ballad called the “Belfast Maid,” now forgotten in Cill-mac-nEnain."

Hughes set the tune to a poem, My Lagan Love, written by his friend Joseph Campbell. It is the Lagan river in Belfast that is referred to.

If anyone is interested in all the verses, send me a message.

Alice Flynn

How can we said the my lagan love is a polka??? It’s a very beatiful air that has a lot of versions. The last I heard and for me the best is the The Corrs one. It’s very touching. I almost cry listening to it

Nobody said it was a polka. It was placed in the polka category because Jeremy doesn’t want airs posted to the site and some people can’t accept that policy. They post airs in whatever category has the same meter as the one they’ve used to notate the air. This one was notated in 2/4. Polkas are 2/4. Therefore this air is a polka. Twisted logic, but it solves the “problem” of how to circumvent the ban.

I wear my steel-toed Redwings to dance to this one.
They’ve got jingle toe taps too.
It’s especially good played full-bore on a chemnitzer.

I actually pasted the ABC into BarFly, took out the slurs, sped it up, and played it as a polka. It sounded terrible.

Dance outside the box, Gary. Listen to it through a bottle of Redbreast.

Stumbled into this exquisite tune by way of “Champions of Ireland; Harp” 2003, cd, played by Lynn Saoirse. Played slow, sensuous, lots of pith, too much added synthesizer for my taste, but the harp work is lovely….on my way to learn it now on double strung harp!

I came across this beautiful air on YouTube where Lynn Hilary sings an amazing version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYT5NKAIYI8

play video

I thought it would sound lovely with the harp so came up with an arrangement of it (here’s my attempt at an artsy video version). The harp accompaniment is really easy; for any harp players who want to play it, you can figure it out readily from listening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w34T-H3z7LY

play video

Here is a transcription of A Jean Redpath performance. More descriptive than prescriptive, not the usual thing here. So, please let me know if you find it useful.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ghtg0ol956evxsb/My%20Lagan%20Love%20B%20Minor%20copy.pdf?dl=0

Someone has posted Desi Wilkinson’s version on “Youtube” :

https://youtu.be/i4idZWBHbh0

play video

Margaret Barry does a great rendition, learned from Kohn McCormacks recordings

Nice whistle version
perhaps better at 4:4 instead of 2:4

Sandy Denny recorded the Richard Farina song ‘The quiet joys of brotherhood’ to this tune on her LP, ‘Sandy’ (Island Records, 1972). Exquisite!

It’s a lovely song - we had it on a family LP, Kenneth McKellar’s Songs of Ireland, and he sang it beautifully.
I have just been looking up the lyrics. -
https://www.google.com/search?q=my+lagan+love+-+lyrics&rlz=1C1GCEA_enGB982GB982&oq=my+lagan+love+-+lyrics&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30i625l6j0i22i30j0i10i15i22i30j0i22i30.11823j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I still remember the words but at least I’ve cleared up one incomprehensible bit - what ‘lennan shee’, more properly ‘leanan sidhe’ means. (A fairy lover.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leanan_s%C3%ADdhe