An Traigh Mughdhorna

reel

Key signature: Dmajor

Submitted on January 10th 2003 by Trevor Jennings.

This tune has been added to 158 tunebooks.

Also known as Down By The Sally Gardens, Gort Na Saileán, Maids Of Mourne Shore, The Maids Of Mourne Shore, The Maids Of The Mountain Shore, Mourne Shore, The Mourne Shore.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

BBC Recordings by Richard O'Mealy
Beltaine: Celtic Harp by Jennifer Van Der Harten
In Concert by Clannad
In Ireland by James Galway And The Chieftains
Mist And Stone by Maggie Sansone
Musical Ireland by Derek Bell
One by Murphy Roche Irish Music Club
Rhythm And Rhyme by Tamalin
The Ancient Voice Of Ireland by Mick O'Brien
The Lark In The Clear Air by Geraldine O'Grady
The Uilleann Pipes Of Ireland by Jean-Yves Le Pape

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

X: 1
T: An Traigh Mughdhorna
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
DE|F2ED EDEF|A4 B2dA|B2AF E3D|B,4 A,2DE|
F2ED EDEF|A4 B2dA|B2AF E3D|D6||
A2|d2cA B3d|c3A F2FA|B2AF ABde|d6 DE|
F2ED EDEF|A4 B2dA|B2AF E3D|D6||

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

As down by the sally gardens
My love and I did stray

# Posted on January 10th 2003 by milesnagopaleen

I heard this beautiful tune played by the Celtic Orchestra on an oldish compendium tape my wife has. On the tape it is called "Sally Gardens" but it is not the fast Sally Gardens reel generally played in sessions. I eventually tracked it down in O'Neill, but not under that name (details below). In fact, it is not a reel at all; it is a slow air based on an 18c song "The Rambling Boys of Pleasure", the first line of which is "It's down in Sally's garden O, there hangs rosies, three". This is probably the origin of the tune title on the tape. I suggest it should be played no faster than 1/4=90. The two parts of the tune are not repeated.

The Irish title means "The Mourne Shore", and the tune is also known as "The Maids of the Mourne Shore". It is in O'Neill's 1850, as #49, but in F. I have transposed it down into D for a number of reasons: to take advantage of the increased sonority of the fiddle in that key, to have a lovely descent onto the G string at the end of an important phrase in the A part, and to avoid using the E string, which, to my mind, is too strident for this gentle slow tune. In the only bar where the high E occurs (bar 3 in the B part) as an unaccented passing note I suggest it is best played on the A string with the 4th finger.

Here follows a variation in which I have added ornaments (the first one of which is in O'Neill) and phrasing, which indicates the bowing. Where sections of the tune reoccur I have changed the phrasing (i.e. the bowing), to sometimes bow across the beat, so as to get variety in the way these sections are played. This, of course, is only one of many ways in which this tune may be phrased and ornamented. This variation prints out accurately on ABC2Win.

(DE)|(F2ED) (E{FE}DEF)|(A4B2)(dA)|({d}B2AF) (E3D)|(B,4A,2) (DE)|
(F2E)(D E{FE}DEF)|(A4B2) (dA)|({d}B2A)(F E3D)|D6||
A2|(d2c)(A B3d)|c3(A F2FA)|({d}B2A)(F ABde)|d6 (DE)|
(F2ED E)({FE}DEF)|(A4B2) (dA)|({d}B2AF) ({EF}E3D)|D6||

The tape with this tune on is no longer available but there is an equivalent CD "All Ireland Songs & Heroes" on Dara label GAELD1. It is a compendium of songs (mostly) relating to various place names in Ireland.

trevor

# Posted on January 10th 2003 by Trevor Jennings

Sally Gardens

The words I posted above were by W.B. Yeats and commonly sung to a variant of the air. If it's not a reel, why post it as one?

# Posted on January 10th 2003 by milesnagopaleen

Unfortunately, because airs and song tunes can take a large variety of time signatures, and possibly none at all if the air is rather free in form, they cannot be defined by a single time signature which apparently is required by the way in which The Session database is organised. So the only way in which you can submit a slow air or a song tune (which are usually much slower than the dance tunes) is to define it as a reel, waltz (a popular choice), strasphey or whatever is closest, and then in the comments tell everyone that it is in fact a slow air or song tune and should be performed accordingly. Which is what I've done in my comment.

trevor

# Posted on January 10th 2003 by Trevor Jennings

I get your point but I can't imagine this tune being played or danced as a reel.

# Posted on January 10th 2003 by milesnagopaleen

He's not saying it should be played as a dance or a reel. Please read the explanation again.

By submitting this tune under the category "reel", all it says about the tune is that it is in 4/4 with 1/8 length notes.

Trevor has already explained very succinctly why there can be no "air" category. His choices were to either post this tune as a reel, waltz, polka, whatever or else not post it at all.

# Posted on January 10th 2003 by Jeremy

Apologies

Apologies Trevor and Jeremy,
It was late and Trevor's explanation of why an air should be listed under reels went over my head. I should have read it more carefully.

# Posted on January 10th 2003 by milesnagopaleen

Choices

I love Jeremy's email: "His choices were to either post this tune as a reel, waltz, polka, whatever or else not post it at all." As usual, he refrains from saying which one would have been the correct choice.

# Posted on January 13th 2003 by glauber

LOL

# Posted on January 13th 2003 by Zina Lee

Heard THis on a CD

..Called *Celtic Charms*

Nice way of doing it with a Harp and a Harmonica, of all things.

Sounded lovely, though.

Liam

# Posted on April 4th 2003 by Pádraig

Sally Gardens

Does anyone have any information on the history of the tune "Down By the Sally Gardens"? When was it written and by who? Thanks!

# Posted on May 15th 2003 by hawk

Re: Sally Gardens

Song lyrics by W.B Yeats, I think, and the air may be a hymn tune. Not 100% sure about this though.

# Posted on May 15th 2003 by Kenny

Re: Sally Gardens

I have a set of song books (Folksongs & Ballads Popular in Ireland - publ. by Ossian ISBN 0 946005 01 X). The notes about "Down by the Sally Gardens" read as follows:

Although the words are in a poem by W.B. yeats in a publication of 1889, a song called 'The Rambling Boys of Pleasure' was composed in the 18th century. Its first verse goes: 'It's down in Sally's garden O, there hangs rosies three.' Yeats certainly found his inspiration in these lines. The air is 'The Maids of Mourne Shore'. [end of quotation]

'The Maids of Mourne Shore' is a tune you'll find in O'Neill, so that itself is of fairly venerabl

# Posted on May 15th 2003 by Trevor Jennings

Re: Sally Gardens

A beautiful version of this song is on the Clannad in Concert CD - track #7. On the album it is known as "Down by the Sally Gardens"

# Posted on September 7th 2003 by jazz_man

A little poem by AE Housman fits the tune well:

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
"Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free."
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
"The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue."
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

Dave

# Posted on February 7th 2004 by showaddydadito

AE Housman

But the definitive version of that song is the Butterworth version, which is, of course, English Folk Song (classical).

# Posted on February 7th 2004 by Jamie

This song is called Maids of the Morune Shore in a book i have.

# Posted on July 26th 2004 by irish_fiddler2

Might i add that Black 47 puts their song "40 shades of blue" to this air.

# Posted on July 26th 2004 by irish_fiddler2

Alternative version of Sally Gardens

# Posted on February 15th 2007 by Falkbeer

Tune research question?

Hi-
I'm a fledgling Baltimore fiddle player, and also a writer. I'm working on a book of which part is a fictionalized account of my great-great-grandfather's immigration from Ireland around 1850. My question is, if this character in the book plays the tune in 1850 as The Maids of the Mourne Shore, or An Traigh Mughdhorma, would that be accurate, for the time?
(I love playing this tune very slowly.)
suzing

# Posted on March 28th 2007 by suzing

Gaelic lyrics

Is thíos i nGort na Saileán
sea casadh dom mo rún
Ba luath a cos ar féar ann
is ba luaineach a leagan siúil
Sé dúirt sí liom bheith suaimhneach
mar a fhásann duilliúr is bláth
Ach bhí mise óg is uaibhreach
is níor éist mé le guth mo ghrá.

Is thíos cois abhann go déaneamh
sea sheas mé le mo ghrá
Gualainn ar ghualainn le chéile
is leag sí orm lámh
Sé dúirt sí liom bheith suaimhneach
mar a fhásann féar aníos
Ach bhí mise óg is uabhreach
'stá na deoira anois mo chloí

# Posted on April 28th 2009 by DonallDubh

"An Traigh Mughdhorna" / "The Mourne Shore" / "Down By the Sally Gardens" ~ in 3/4

Key signature: D Major & G Major
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/9596
Submitted on May 10th 2009 by ceolachan.

# Posted on May 10th 2009 by ceolachan

This one's a real pleaure to play. I've transcribed the sheet music version down to G on the fly so as to play it on a D whistle, and it's one of those tunes where I found myself ornamenting it even while hashing it out from the dots, it fits so nicely on my fingers.

# Posted on December 8th 2010 by Red Menace