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Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

My whistle teacher taught me this tune and I can't seem to find any info on it anywhere. Does anyone know it by a different name by any chance?

It's a slow tune. Here are the notes (capital letter is 2nd octave and c- means c natural)

dddegab c-babaged
gfedgabc- DEDbagg
abDDbagg abDDbaga
bDDbagg abc-babaged

Sorry I haven't learned proper ABC notation yet

Thanks

# Posted on August 14th 2009 by waraf

Re: Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

Mo ghille mear? Here's a page:
http://www.celticartscenter.com/Songs/Irish/MoGhileMear.html. with the lyrics.
I'm not an Irish speaker but I remembered something about adding h to G after a word ending in o. Irish is harder than banjo but not as hard as golf!

# Posted on August 14th 2009 by Tony O'Rourke

Re: Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

Is this song also known as Sé Mo Laoch? I seem to recall a show on TG4 known by this title,He is my hero?

# Posted on August 14th 2009 by Tony O'Rourke

Re: Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

Wow that was quick. Thanks a million :-)

# Posted on August 14th 2009 by waraf

Re: Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

Tony - Known more as "Mo Ghile Mear", but those are the first words of the song.
The word ending in o is usually "mo" meaning "my" or "do" meaning "your", and indeed they both take the aspiration "h" after the first letter of the next word (where that is feasible)

Interestingly, Sting recorded a version of Mo Ghile Mear with the Chieftains that he learned phonetically, and it sounds OK!

# Posted on August 14th 2009 by RockyRoader

Re: Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

This is (in my opinion) one of the finest Irish traditional songs. However, while Sting may make a good attempt at it, you need to listen to the maestro, Séamus MacMathúna to hear the song in its full glory!

# Posted on August 14th 2009 by Bannerman

Re: Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

http://www.celticartscenter.com/Songs/Irish/MoGhileMear.html

The Irish rendition is reasonable, but not quite accurate. The translation is literal. Rather romantic rendition of the Stuarts in the opening too (!) Some Scots out there might clarify, but I had always thought BP Charlie was the "Young" Pretender - not the "Great" Pretender as rendered ?

You'll also find a rendition here :

http://chrsouchon.free.fr/moghile.htm

The Irish is more accurate, and the translation, while considerably less literal, conveys the meaning, I think better.

# Posted on August 14th 2009 by Sean Lead Liath

Re: Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXQTjz6Orm8

# Posted on August 14th 2009 by grego

Re: Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1550
Track 3

# Posted on August 14th 2009 by Kenny

Re: Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1056
Track 10

# Posted on August 14th 2009 by Kenny

Re: Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

and of course, Sting.

# Posted on August 14th 2009 by Kenny

Re: Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

Poor Bonny Prince Charles

# Posted on August 15th 2009 by Premierflute

Re: Anyone heard of tune "Mo gila mar"?

Julie Fowlis & Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh also sing the song A Riogain Uasail with the same melody on their excellent duet album, Dual. As far as I remember, in the liner notes they say the melody has been used for that song as well as Mo Ghile Mear for a long time:

http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/3244
Track 12

It's a lovely melody, whatever the song, and there's some great versions out there (I have to admit the first time I heard it was from Sting's version, so I am quite fond of it, even if he did only learn it phonetically!)

# Posted on August 17th 2009 by -ronan-

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