Sixteen comments
Simple but pretty tune. From the playing of Seamus Ennis on “The Bonny Bunch of Roses”. It also appears in Bill Och’s Clarke tutorial as “The Eagle’s Whistle” and is obviously a 3/4 version of the tune listed here:
https://thesession.org/tunes/1837
A tune by this title is also on The Chieftains 9/Boil the Breakfast Early album, played as a slow air, but bears little resemblance to this or the other tune. The liner notes on the Chieftains album suggest it is a fragment of a longer piece and this might explain the discrepancies.
This is most commonly known as the Eagle’s whistle but more importantly for me (as an O’Donovan) this is the O’Donovan Clan March. As such it is argued that it should be in a 2/4 or 4/4 time signature but there are other marches in 3/4 so that can be disputed.
Great tune - but then I’m biased.
On the Hill/MacMahon "Music of Dreams" (in the database), Tony plays it as an air, and follows it with a jig he calls "Cnocan An Teampaill", but which sounds like another clan march to me.
The tune on the Bonny Bunch of Roses refered to as Gol na mBan San Ar is in fact the Eagles Whistle.
The tunes are not related. Some one just got the wrong info for the track listing and typed it up.
Tommy
Micky ‘Cumbaw’ O’Sullivan’s on Gusty’s Frolicks (1975)
On his 1975 CD, Sean Keane plays an air that I’d say is what The Chieftains - his Chieftains after all - have called "Gol Na MBan San Ar" (see fidkid’s comment above). I wonder if the so-called Micky ‘Cumbaw’ O’Sullivan’s Air is related. It sure sounds alike to me.
I would tend to put those as versions of one another.
If you can shed llight on this, I’ll appreciate.
The Eagle’s Whistle is not part of Mici Cumbaw’s version of Gol na mBan san ar. Cnocan An Teampaill is. If you don’t know the cylinder recording, a full transcription of the piece by Pat Mitchel appeared in An Piobaire and was reproduced in the collection Ceol an Phiobaire
Mici Cumbaw’s cylinder recording is here by the way:
http://ephemer.al.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/sullivan.mp3
A further posting
Also check out the info at https://thesession.org/tunes/9853
Duplication! ~ by any other time signature
The previous link is to a mis-timed transcription, where a swung 3/4 march is given a 9/8 identity, but remains a march…
Well tompipes, the ABC posted here has every thing to do with the tune recorded by Seamus Ennis on the Bonny Bunch of Roses, whatever its title be.
Well ceolochan why would the previous link mis-timed (apart that it has already been posted?)
=>These are slightly different avatars of the same tune and they are indeed been played in these different ways.
To summarize:
9/8 version: https://thesession.org/tunes/9853/
2/4 Polka version: https://thesession.org/tunes/1837
3/4 version: https://thesession.org/tunes/4192 (this very page)
As far as I’m concerned, the tune could also be played, and why not, in 6/8 (read 3/4 as 6/8).
Once words are added, of course, there is no mistaking the time signature, as in this Manx version bellow:
Arrane Ny Niee
X: 1
T: Arrane Ny Niee / The Washing Song
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
R: waltz
K: Dmaj
FF AF ED | FF AF ED | E2 EF ED | E2 EF ED |
FF AF ED | FF AF ED | E2 EF EB, | D6 ||
B2 A2 B2 | F2 E2 D2 | B,E E2 (ED) | B,E E2 E2 |
B2 A2 B2 | F2 E2 D2 | A,D D2 DC | A,D D4 ||
to which are sung the following words:
<<Bee dty host, my villish,
Bee dty host, my villish,
Niee mish dty laueyn,
Niee mish dty cassan,
Aalin t’ou, my lhiannoo,
Bane as rea dty challin,
Sheidey dty coamrey meein.
Dagh laa cur aalid ort,
Vyrneem lhiam ny folt cassagagh;
Ree ny rollagyn cur bannaght ort,
O my chree, my stoyr!
Chooid nagh gaase ’sy voghrey,
Ligh eh gaase ’syn keeiraght,
Niee mish dty laueyn,
Niee mish dty cassan,
Chooid nagh gaase ec munlaa,
Lhig as gaase ’syn oie,
Cur ort dy chooilley grayse.
Dagh laa cur niartys ort,
Vyrneen lhiam ny folt cassagagh;
Ree ny rollagyn cur bannaght ort,
O my chree, my stoyr!>>
I stumbled on The Manx National Song Book (vol 2, Compiled by Charles Guard, Shearwater Press 1980) in a charity book
recently and at first it seemed to be full of Drawing room songs but I decided to take it home with me when I realised a score of them were actually traditional. These notes and words are taken from it.
Mona Douglas’s translations (which I slightly rearranged) reads: "Quiet now, my sweet one, Hands I am washing, Feet I am washing, You beautiful child… Each day puts strength on you… What grows not at morning let it grow at twilight, what grows not at midday let it grow at night time. All graces on you. Each day puts beauty on the little sweet heart. The king of the
rowlocks (!) bless you, a stóir mo chroi!"
A Fairy tune
The lyrics -and the entire song- have the mesmerising effect of a lullaby on me (perhaps because I’m not an infant being washed in ice-cold water!) Or simply because it is a fairy tune. Only dewdrops warmed by the morning sun seemed to have been used in the process!
Collected from James Kelly of Ballachrink, Ellan Vannin, by Mona Douglas.
‘He told Mona that he used to walk down by the farm stream in the early morning and would hear ‘Themselves’ singing this song as they wahsed their babies’
Oops, I must be tired: for the above typos, read; … ’ link be mis-timed’ … ‘indeed played’ … ‘Manx version below’ & ‘washed’!
You wouldn’t know I was a sometime English teacher!
Been too long in front of the screen today! Slán!
The Eagle’s Whistle, X:5
In G Major