Key signature: Aminor
Submitted on May 22nd 2007 by OrganicPeatCreature.
This tune has been added to 20 tunebooks.
Also known as Da Day Dawns, Day Dawn, The Day Dawn.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Da Day Dawn
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
R: polka
K: Amin
AB | cd BA | cd BA | B2 AG | cd BA | cd BA | e2 AB | cd BA |
cd BA | B2 AG | A2 GE | DE GA | BA Bc | dc BA | e2 ||
AB | A2 a2 | e2 dc | B2 AG | A2 a2 | e2 dc | e2 AB | A2 a2 |
e2 dc | BA BG | A2 GE | DE GA | BA Bc | dc BA | a2 ||
Whoa! Before you go slipping into your dancing shoes, this isn't a polka. In fact, posting it here contravenes the terms and conditions governing the use of this site dedicated to the propagation of Irish Traditional Dance Music, since it is not Irish and it's not a dance tune. However, a recent discussion about Shetland music reminded me that this tune appeared in the requests list some weeks ago (I was quite surprised that it hadn't been posted already) and I thought I'd do the requestor a favour and post it here.
I first heard this tune played on the fiddle by Kathryn Tickell (she having attended Tom Anderson's Shetland fiddle workshops as a youngster). As I remember it, she said it was one of the oldest tunes in the Shetland tradition and in the early years of Scottish rule in Shetland, a fiddler was commissioned by some laird or other to play this tune annually at dawn on New Year's Day.
The setting you see posted here has been severely got at by the vultures. This tune is classed in Shetand as a 'listening tune' and is played without strict metric rhythm. Listening to Tom Anderson and Aly Bain's rendition on 'The Silver Bow', there is quite a lot of ornamentation and wavering of tempo, and some of the quaver groupings are quite uneven in timing, tending towards Scotch snaps.
The following ABC is an approximate transcripition of Tom and Aly's version - with a little of the flesh put back onthe bones. However - the Scotch snaps are not really Scotch snaps, in the true Scots or Cape Breton sense, but rather, a gentle 'pushing' of the second quaver in the group. Some of the high Es sound like unisons - i.e. played on the open E-string and on the A-string simultaneously - but with two fiddles playing, it's hard to tell for sure. The trills (T) are short and tight - it's hard to tell without the aid of slowdowning software exactly how they are executed, but it sounds like there are two alternations between the principal note and the grace note (either above or below - possibly not the same every time).
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
K: Amin
AB | c.d TB<A | c.d TB<A | TB2 A<G | c.d TB<A | c.d TB<A | e2 A<B | c.d TB<A | c.d TB<A | TB2 A<G | A2 GE | DE GA | BA Bc | dc B<A | e2 ||
AB | A2 {^g}a2 | e2 dc | TB2 AG | A2 {^g}a2 | e2 dc | e2 A<B | A2 {^g}a2 |
e2 dc | TBA BG | A2 GE | DE GA | BA Bc | dc B<A | e2 ||
That's probably enough to be going on with.
# Posted on May 22nd 2007 by OrganicPeatCreature
There is a lovely version of this tune on Rachel Hair's album, Hubcaps and Potholes.
To emphasise what is said above this is a really slow graceful tune. Anyone that tries to play this as a polka should be shot, and no doubt about it (I feel that this subject is beginining to dominate my posts a little!)
# Posted on May 22nd 2007 by No Cause For Alarm
This is a great tune. I first heard it on Sileas' first album, then Catriona MacDonald's "Opus Blue." I especially like the mysterious feel Irish airs don't have. Very haunting on the flute.
# Posted on May 22nd 2007 by slainte
I have this on a Boys Of The Lough live album released back in the '70's.
# Posted on May 22nd 2007 by dafydd