This is from 'At Swim-Two-Birds' by Flann O' Brien
'Oh it was all the fashion at one time,you were bloody nothing if you couldn't do your Walls Of Limerick.And here too were my men with the fiddles and the pipes playing away there at the reels and jigs for further orders.Do you know what I mean?
Oh I know what you're talking about all right,said Shananhan,the national music of our country,Rodney's Glory,the Star Of Munster and the Rights Of Man.
The Flogging Reel and Drive The Donkey,you can't beat them said Furriskey'
They're all on the site except Drive The Donkey. Does anyone else have examples of tunes in literature?
I was reading a John McGahern short story there last night called 'Swallows', in which a aging rural Garda sargeant recalls his youth when he played the fiddle for local dances - "The Rakes of Mallow" and "Devil Among the Tailors" he recalls. This is brought on when he spots a fiddle of the back seat of a visiting official's car and asks him to play but yer man plays Paganini .. very wonderfully. When the sarge takes down his old fiddle case off the shelf it's covered in thick dust and one of the strings are broken etc., so he can't oblige and it's sort of a analogy for his lost years etc.
BTW, John McGahern's novels are a great insight into a rural Ireland that is steadily slipping away.
I read Joseph O'Connor's Star Of The Sea recently.
a character overhears My Love Is In America getting played on an immigrant ship. (the same character is a failed ballad singer, good description of him writing his first lyrics)
also someone walks into a Dublin Brothel whilst someone plays Bucks Of Oranmore on a piano.
Two other O'Brien things which come to mind - the piece on 'The Minstrel Boy' in Miles Away from Dublin (I think) - and the automatic tin whistle playing device - in one of the Cruiskeen books. Another hilarious passage is where Kreisler plays a traditional tune for 'Myles' during a typically fantastical encounter.
There's tons of music mentioned in O'Brien's books overall though...
How about Patrick McCabe's The Dead School - 'She Lived beside the Anner' and other songs play a big role in the book.
Dunno Dave, if it was on BBC radio. I can't recall if it was John McCabe or John McGahern, on a radio interview a couple of years ago saying that there was nothing better for ones sanity than 'scratching away on an 'ol fiddle of an evening' or words to that effect.
Not a quote exactly, but a book. Father's music by Dermot Bolger deals with the music itself, its relationship with us as irish people, our relationship with England, our relationship with the modern world, family relationships. A truly great and important book
Don't forget the Buccanaers by Edith Wharton.There's a discussion in the drawing room to the backdrop of the young ladies reeling to a piano accompaniment, and the old lady of the house insists that the Americans learnt the Virginia Reel from the Indians, to which it is pointed out that it is merely Sir Roger de Coverley...can't remember what tune they were playing though...oh, sorry, not quite Itm.
Irish tunes in literature.
Irish tunes in literature.
This is from 'At Swim-Two-Birds' by Flann O' Brien
'Oh it was all the fashion at one time,you were bloody nothing if you couldn't do your Walls Of Limerick.And here too were my men with the fiddles and the pipes playing away there at the reels and jigs for further orders.Do you know what I mean?
Oh I know what you're talking about all right,said Shananhan,the national music of our country,Rodney's Glory,the Star Of Munster and the Rights Of Man.
The Flogging Reel and Drive The Donkey,you can't beat them said Furriskey'
They're all on the site except Drive The Donkey. Does anyone else have examples of tunes in literature?
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by dafydd
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
Plenty of examples in Thomas Hardy.
Under the greenwood tree mentions the following (and plenty more that I can't recall).
Haste to the Wedding http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/582
Off She goes
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1133
Jacon (Enrico)
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/2690
Arguable whether they're Irish or English or a bit of both though?
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by Ceratonia
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
'Oh it was all the fashion at one time,you were bloody nothing if you couldn't do your Walls Of Limerick.'
ha,you've got no idea how much of a favourite line that is in my dodgy personal pantheon,dafydd!
it goes through my head all the time but with 'Walls of Limerick' substituted by whatever the prevailing fashion dictates.
that's also my favourite flann o'brien book.
the pookah and the pint of plain etc.not to mention the great 'plunge 'section.
of more recent invention is the,imo,fantastic book by Kate Thompson:
THE NEW POLICEMAN
Kate Thompson
Greenwillow Books
Fantasy
ISBN-10: 0061174270
ISBN-13: 9780061174278
448 pages
it's primarily for children/teens but i found it a good read.
more info is at:http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/0061174270.asp
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by biggus dave
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
I was reading a John McGahern short story there last night called 'Swallows', in which a aging rural Garda sargeant recalls his youth when he played the fiddle for local dances - "The Rakes of Mallow" and "Devil Among the Tailors" he recalls. This is brought on when he spots a fiddle of the back seat of a visiting official's car and asks him to play but yer man plays Paganini .. very wonderfully. When the sarge takes down his old fiddle case off the shelf it's covered in thick dust and one of the strings are broken etc., so he can't oblige and it's sort of a analogy for his lost years etc.
BTW, John McGahern's novels are a great insight into a rural Ireland that is steadily slipping away.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by the wounded hussar
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
Barry-was that story on bbc radio 4 recently do you know?
it certainly rings a bell.
i will have to give him a go anyway.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by biggus dave
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
I read Joseph O'Connor's Star Of The Sea recently.
a character overhears My Love Is In America getting played on an immigrant ship. (the same character is a failed ballad singer, good description of him writing his first lyrics)
also someone walks into a Dublin Brothel whilst someone plays Bucks Of Oranmore on a piano.
theres a couple more in there somewhere.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by DubChieftain
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
Or someone walks into a gay bar as `the boy in the gap ` is played.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by cos
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
Two other O'Brien things which come to mind - the piece on 'The Minstrel Boy' in Miles Away from Dublin (I think) - and the automatic tin whistle playing device - in one of the Cruiskeen books. Another hilarious passage is where Kreisler plays a traditional tune for 'Myles' during a typically fantastical encounter.
There's tons of music mentioned in O'Brien's books overall though...
How about Patrick McCabe's The Dead School - 'She Lived beside the Anner' and other songs play a big role in the book.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by continuo
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
"Haste to the Wedding" makes a significant appearance in "Some Experiences of an Irish RM".
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by Innocent Bystander
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
Dunno Dave, if it was on BBC radio. I can't recall if it was John McCabe or John McGahern, on a radio interview a couple of years ago saying that there was nothing better for ones sanity than 'scratching away on an 'ol fiddle of an evening' or words to that effect.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by the wounded hussar
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
That reminds me of another one - the ceili dancing episode in Philadelphia Here I Come.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by continuo
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
Talking about McCabe, what about The Butcher Boy?
Great song.
Banish Misfortune - was that Dermot Bolger?
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by Rudall the time
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
Great subject for discussion
Not a quote exactly, but a book. Father's music by Dermot Bolger deals with the music itself, its relationship with us as irish people, our relationship with England, our relationship with the modern world, family relationships. A truly great and important book
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by Pól
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
Don't forget the Buccanaers by Edith Wharton.There's a discussion in the drawing room to the backdrop of the young ladies reeling to a piano accompaniment, and the old lady of the house insists that the Americans learnt the Virginia Reel from the Indians, to which it is pointed out that it is merely Sir Roger de Coverley...can't remember what tune they were playing though...oh, sorry, not quite Itm.
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
Maybe it was Sir Roger De Coverly.
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1196
# Posted on July 5th 2007 by dafydd
Re: Irish tunes in literature.
Isnt that strange, a tune named after a dance, or was it vicky verky ?
I haven't looked it up in the book, saw the tv adaptation though.
# Posted on July 6th 2007 by Guernsey Pete