Then there are also certainly tunes and songs that share a title, but perhaps little else, such as this song "The Lark in the Morning" by Steeleye Span, recently linked in:
I know that the line between song and tune can get somewhat blurry, but I am thinking about pieces known primarily as tunes.
I'm interested in other tunes with lyrics associated with them. Any ideas?
A few in Northumbria (North-East England), including:
Felton Lonnin, Elsey Marley (jigs),
The Keel Row (schottische), The Blaydon Races (Hornpipe)
- The above are best known as songs, but very often played just as tunes.
The Peacock Followed The Hen, Shew Us The Way To Wallington, Andrew Carr (slip jigs)
- All the above, I think, had songs or at any rate snatches of verse associated with them.
There are bound to be more. The song "Dance To Thy Daddy" works as a three-two tune, for example.
Anach Cuin: a beautiful air, a nice sad song, and a lovely jig.
Sleabh geal cGua: a beautiful song, and I've heard it as an air a few times.
Paidin O'Rafferty, in its various guises.
Lots of traditional Irish nursery rhymes have passed into the dance tradition in one form or another, I believe.
Haste to The Wedding - check out Fairport Convention's version for the way it should really be played (blisteringly fast). "You votaries all, attend to my call, come revel in pleasures that never can cloy. Come, see plural felicity which love and innocence ever enjoy." Top lyrics. They don't write them like that any more.
And has anyone noticed how Rabbie Burns' "Ye Banks And Braes O' Bonny Doon" has the same tune as "The Foggy Dew", and sounds surprisingly similar?
Then there's The Great Big Sea's "Billy Peddle", mentioned on a thread a few weeks ago - the tune is "The Soldiers Joy".
jfother - there ARE two Foggy Dews. I thought about mentioning it as I typed, and it looks like the one I know better is not so well known elsewhere. It's the one that starts "When I was a young man I lived all alone, and I followed a roving trade. The only thing that I ever done wrong was in courting a fair young maid. I courted her in the Summer time, and part of the Winter time too. And often times I would hold her tight to keep her from the foggy dew." It's sung to the same tune as Bonny Doon, and the rhyming similarity between the two names seems like too much of a coincidence. I don't know which would be earlier, but I suspect the Irish one.
No I don't know that one at all but I have heard another one where the girl is enticed into bed to shelter from the foggy dew and they all live happily ever after ( rare in trad song that). As well as the obvious irish one
I admit that Burns picked his tunes up everywhere and there are several where there a different songs of his to the same tune. The structure of Ye Banks and Braes makes me think that the tune is Scottish - I have always assumed that songs that feature quite big jumps in the melody tend to be Scottish. I might be wrong as I have known it so long that I don't remember not knowing it and it is stuck in my mind .
When I became involved with the Irish Community in Sheffield I found that they had nicked all our tunes and had different words. Red is the Rose Indeed. Couldn't be anything but Loch Lommond
Scottish music is rife with songs that have been beaten into different shapes and tempos to make "tunes" and songs made of words set to existing tunes to make "songs".
I'd be surprised if Irish music was all that different in that respect. At the heart of any good song or tune is melody that must stick in the brain somehow, it would be surprising if they weren't used for both purposes. I think it's a false distinction anyway, which is what I was thinking of when I posted this: http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/10119/comments#comment210551
"Rosin the Bow" is one that springs to mind that I've heard played as a jig, a waltz, and the basis for many songs. Which one came first, I've no idea, and I'd be suspicious of any source that claimed to know
An Sean Duine Dóite is one I play frequently, although most people around my area play a different version which is quite different from the song. I got my version from the singing of Bridget Fitzgerald from Connemara.
Tunes as songs
Tunes as songs
The recent discussion on The Rocky Road to Dublin got me thinking about tunes as songs and songs as tunes. TRRtD is great as a song OR as a tune.
There was a prior discussion on "songs as tunes" but it did not really address tunes as songs:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/2149/comments
Then there are also certainly tunes and songs that share a title, but perhaps little else, such as this song "The Lark in the Morning" by Steeleye Span, recently linked in:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/13795
which to my ear does not have much in common with the jig:
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/62
I know that the line between song and tune can get somewhat blurry, but I am thinking about pieces known primarily as tunes.
I'm interested in other tunes with lyrics associated with them. Any ideas?
# Posted on May 23rd 2007 by Jameson Stew
Re: Tunes as songs
I heard "the rights of man" turned into a song on a CD entitled concert for Joe Doherty.
# Posted on May 23rd 2007 by Kheelch
Re: Tunes as songs
The Pratties are Dug and the Frost is All Over
# Posted on May 23rd 2007 by dinn2
Re: Tunes as songs
Just about any Burns song will swing both ways
# Posted on May 23rd 2007 by Bren
Re: Tunes as songs
A few in Northumbria (North-East England), including:
Felton Lonnin, Elsey Marley (jigs),
The Keel Row (schottische), The Blaydon Races (Hornpipe)
- The above are best known as songs, but very often played just as tunes.
The Peacock Followed The Hen, Shew Us The Way To Wallington, Andrew Carr (slip jigs)
- All the above, I think, had songs or at any rate snatches of verse associated with them.
There are bound to be more. The song "Dance To Thy Daddy" works as a three-two tune, for example.
# Posted on May 23rd 2007 by nicholas
Re: Tunes as songs
Anach Cuin: a beautiful air, a nice sad song, and a lovely jig.
Sleabh geal cGua: a beautiful song, and I've heard it as an air a few times.
Paidin O'Rafferty, in its various guises.
Lots of traditional Irish nursery rhymes have passed into the dance tradition in one form or another, I believe.
# Posted on May 24th 2007 by Robert Ryan
Re: Tunes as songs
Haste to The Wedding - check out Fairport Convention's version for the way it should really be played (blisteringly fast). "You votaries all, attend to my call, come revel in pleasures that never can cloy. Come, see plural felicity which love and innocence ever enjoy." Top lyrics. They don't write them like that any more.
And has anyone noticed how Rabbie Burns' "Ye Banks And Braes O' Bonny Doon" has the same tune as "The Foggy Dew", and sounds surprisingly similar?
Then there's The Great Big Sea's "Billy Peddle", mentioned on a thread a few weeks ago - the tune is "The Soldiers Joy".
# Posted on May 24th 2007 by bc_box_player
Re: Tunes as songs
Also, Cailleach an Airgead
# Posted on May 24th 2007 by dinn2
Re: Tunes as songs
Mist covered Mountains
I don't see the similarities between the Ye Banks and Braes and the foggy dew at all. Is there a different version of the Foggy dew then ?
J
# Posted on May 24th 2007 by jfother
Re: Tunes as songs
I thought that was Cailleach an Fharraige - Witch of the Sea, dinn2, rather than Airgead - Silver......
Also known as Si do Mhamo. ("She's your grandmother")
# Posted on May 24th 2007 by RockyRoader
Re: Tunes as songs
I've always seen that translated as "The Hag with the Money", so I'm pretty sure the original is "silver"
Other tunes/songs: Thank God we're surrounded by water", "The Scholar", "Carolina Rua" (I think it's The Pullet reel),.
# Posted on May 24th 2007 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Tunes as songs
jfother - there ARE two Foggy Dews. I thought about mentioning it as I typed, and it looks like the one I know better is not so well known elsewhere. It's the one that starts "When I was a young man I lived all alone, and I followed a roving trade. The only thing that I ever done wrong was in courting a fair young maid. I courted her in the Summer time, and part of the Winter time too. And often times I would hold her tight to keep her from the foggy dew." It's sung to the same tune as Bonny Doon, and the rhyming similarity between the two names seems like too much of a coincidence. I don't know which would be earlier, but I suspect the Irish one.
# Posted on May 24th 2007 by bc_box_player
Re: Tunes as songs
Hi bc_box_player
No I don't know that one at all but I have heard another one where the girl is enticed into bed to shelter from the foggy dew and they all live happily ever after ( rare in trad song that). As well as the obvious irish one
I admit that Burns picked his tunes up everywhere and there are several where there a different songs of his to the same tune. The structure of Ye Banks and Braes makes me think that the tune is Scottish - I have always assumed that songs that feature quite big jumps in the melody tend to be Scottish. I might be wrong as I have known it so long that I don't remember not knowing it and it is stuck in my mind .
When I became involved with the Irish Community in Sheffield I found that they had nicked all our tunes and had different words. Red is the Rose Indeed. Couldn't be anything but Loch Lommond
J
# Posted on May 24th 2007 by jfother
Re: Tunes as songs
Scottish music is rife with songs that have been beaten into different shapes and tempos to make "tunes" and songs made of words set to existing tunes to make "songs".
I'd be surprised if Irish music was all that different in that respect. At the heart of any good song or tune is melody that must stick in the brain somehow, it would be surprising if they weren't used for both purposes. I think it's a false distinction anyway, which is what I was thinking of when I posted this: http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/10119/comments#comment210551
"Rosin the Bow" is one that springs to mind that I've heard played as a jig, a waltz, and the basis for many songs. Which one came first, I've no idea, and I'd be suspicious of any source that claimed to know
# Posted on May 24th 2007 by Bren
Re: Tunes as songs
RockyRoader maybe there is a song Cailleach an fharrige but the one im reffering to is the Connemara son Cailleach an Airgead.
# Posted on May 24th 2007 by dinn2
Re: Tunes as songs
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/351
# Posted on May 24th 2007 by dinn2
Re: Tunes as songs
Bren - I've even seen that one titled "Rosin the Beau". Conjures up some nice mental images.
# Posted on May 25th 2007 by bc_box_player
Re: Tunes as songs
An Sean Duine Dóite is one I play frequently, although most people around my area play a different version which is quite different from the song. I got my version from the singing of Bridget Fitzgerald from Connemara.
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1029
# Posted on May 25th 2007 by alison kale