The Dark Island

waltz

Key signature: Gmajor

Submitted on August 29th 2005 by irishimp.

This tune has been added to 156 tunebooks.

Also known as Dark Island, Dark Isle, Dr Mackays Farewell To Creagorry, Dr. McInnes's Farewell To South Uist.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

• 25 Years Of Celtic Music (Disc 2) by Various Artists
• Barde by Barde
• Bimis Ag Ol by Ronan Le Bars
• Celtic Armadillo by Off Kilter
• Celtic Moon: The Magical Sound Of The Celtic Whistle by Phil Brown And Ken Nicol
• Cornerstone by Celtic Spring
• Encore by Celtic Fiddle Festival
• For As Many As Will by Haste To The Wedding
• Harpbreakers by Sileas
• Keil Road by Donald Black
• Land Of Sunshine by Dan Possumato
• Over The Sea To Skye: The Celtic Connection by James Galway And The Chieftains
• The Houston Sessions by The Alans
• The Lark In The Clear Aire by Will Millar
• The Last Order by Ceol
• The Man Behind The Box by Joe Derrane
• The Pipers' Gathering 2005 by Various Artists
• The Ulster Outcry by Ar Leitheidi
• The Wyndy Turn by Dan Healy And Ciaran O'Raghallaigh

X: 1
T: Dark Island, The
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
R: waltz
K: Gmaj
EG | A4 A2 | G4 G2 | E3 D C2 | D4 GA | [1 B3 A G2 | B d3 G2 | B3 A G2 | A4 E2 :| [2 B3 D dB | A3 D BA | G6 | G4 Bc || d2 B2 d2 | B3 A G2 | E3 C E2 | D4 GA | B3 A G2 | B d3 GA | B3 A G2 | A4 E2 | A4 A2 | G4 G2 | E3 D C2 | D4 GA | B3 D dB | A3 D BA | G6 | G6 ||

This is pretty in a set before The Southwind. This is just how my dad and I play it, so if people have other ideas for a set I'd love to hear them.

# Posted on August 29th 2005 by irishimp

I LOVE this tune and song as well. Oh. So. Beautiful.

Cheers,
Armand

# Posted on August 29th 2005 by fiddlinviolinin

I love this melody as well. Is one of my favourites for playing with harp, but the score I have has some differences.

# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Tari

I believe that this was originally written for a movie, but I do not know the details.

B McKim

# Posted on August 30th 2005 by bmckim

Actually I was right. Googled it and got:
http://www.rampantscotland.com/songs/blsongs_dark.htm

BM

# Posted on August 30th 2005 by bmckim

Dark Island

Here's some infor about the song taken from various threads on the Mudcat Cafe forum:

From George Seto: The information I have is that the song, Dark Island, was written by David Silver, and the tune was written by Iain MacLachlan, an accordianist. This was created for a BBC Thriller called the Dark Island, in 1963. The show was filmed in Benbecula, Scotland.

There is further controversy about this song. Alan Bell wrote words to what he believed was a traditional tune. Also, Stewart Ross of Inverness, Scotland wrote a very well known version of the song in 1963, after being assured that the tune was traditional. There were at least 4 English lyrics that were written in the 60's to versions of the tune. The Ross words were written to a very different version of the tune and are not a straight fit to the accordian tune.

Note: (From Stewart Ross' son) "There were no other words to the tune before my father's were written. David Silver wrote a set of lyrics in response to my father's appearing first - and has been paid and very usually credited for both lyrical versions. The tune had been played on the Scottish music circuit before being formally copyrighted and had earlier titles including Dr. MacKay's Farewell to Creagorry and Dr. McInnes's farewell to South Uist.

# Posted on August 30th 2005 by radriano

Dark Island

I will google further, but from memory it was written "in the tradition" as they say, in about 1948, and was named after a particular individual. It was taken by the BBC and used as the theme for their thriller-style television serial , hence its common name.
Love the tune.

# Posted on August 31st 2005 by Guernsey Pete

The Tannahill Weavers recorded it too,if I'm not mistaken.

# Posted on September 1st 2005 by dafydd

Celtic Fiddle Festival version!

Superb

# Posted on September 1st 2005 by Edgar Bolton

The Dark Island

This lovely tune, is one of my favourites and has been recorded may times. I first heard it played by the Alexander Brothers back in the 60’s and this is still my favourite version, although I also like the version by Ian McLachlan himself. My instrument is the harmonica and the only harmonica version I have heard is by the Geordie Jock, Ernie Gordon

The music (melody and two accompaniment scores with words by David Silver - the only ones I have seen) I have are slightly different to the posted version and come from the songbook “A Song for Scotland”, the score originally being published in 1963 by Westminster Music Ltd.

# Posted on September 4th 2005 by davedrive

I too think this is a really beautiful tune. I'm used to playing it in D - in which key it's playable, incidentally, on the Highland bagpipes: the whole tune falls within the instrument's range. I first heard it very well done on an album by the Tyneside/Northumbrian band The High Level Ranters (I think the album was "A Mile To Ride", recorded in the 1970's); Alistair introduced the tune played slowly on concertina, then the rest of the band came in and took it into a waltz.

# Posted on August 11th 2006 by nicholas

The Trowie Burn / The Dark Island : Interesting set

Barde, a group very popular in Quebec in the late 70s and early 80s played it after the lovely scottish waltz The Trowie Burn. Beautiful moody set.

# Posted on January 13th 2007 by f.pellerin