Key signature: Gminor
Submitted on July 25th 2002 by chicagofiddler.
This tune has been added to 93 tunebooks.
Also known as Banks Of The Danube, Cailin Tighe Moir, Captain Henry O'Kain, Captain O'Kain, Captain O'Kane, Captain Oakhain, The Chevalier’s Lament, The Dying Hussar's Lament, The Dying Hussar, Fwyn Seren Fain Syw, Giolla An Bimhoir, Lament For A Dying Hussar, Lament For A Wounded Hussar, The Wounded Hussar's Lament.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Wounded Hussar, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmin
G/2F/2 | DGA B2 A/2G/2 | A/2B/2c/2B/2A/2G/2 FGA | BdB d/2c/2B/2A/2G/2F/2 | DGG G2 G/2F/2 |
DGA B2 A/2G/2 | A/2B/c/2B/2A/2G/2 FGA | f3/2e/2d d/2c/2B/2A/2G/2F/2 | DGG G2 G/2A/2|
Bdd d2 c/2B/2 | Acc c2 f/2e/2 | dg3/2g/2 gab | dg^f g2 g/2a/2 |
bag fed | cA f F2 G/2A/2 | BdB d/2c/2B/2A/2G/2F/2 | DGF G2 ||
Wounded Hussar (Lament)
Someone was asking about this tune - or at least one by this name. I think I've heard an accordian player playing what he called the wounded hussar lament that was a fair bit different. Anyway, I learned this one from Peter Cooper's Irish Fiddle Player book. It is really an air, not a jig and should be played in a slow, rather meandering way (according to Peter).
This version is based on that of a 19th century English fiddle player, John Moore of Shropshire (in the collection "Thr Ironbridge Hornpipe" - Dragonfly Music, 1991). Peter has a recording of it on his 1993 "Wounded Hussar" album. There is an Eminor version in O'Neill's Music of Ireland. John Doherty recorded a version - possibly in E minor - on the "Pedlar's Pack" album.
Peter has quite a bit to say about the air in his book (which I recommend, lots of good stuff in that). Apparently this lament was composed by O'Carolan for Captain O'Kane. A quote from Patrick O'Leary (in O'Neill's Irish Minstrels & Musicians), described O'Kane as 'the hero of a hundred fights from Landon to Oudenarde, who, when old and war-worn, tottered back from the Low Countries to his birthplace to die, and found himself not only a stranger, but an outlawed, disinherited, homeless wanderer in the ancient territories that his fathers ruled as Lords of Limavady. His friend and sympathizer, the illustrious Turlough O'Carolan, has immortalized his name in strains the most plaintive and touching.'
Indeed, when you play the tune, it is easy to see in front of you, a battle-torn forlorn soldier, limping lost through desolate lands.
# Posted on July 25th 2002 by chicagofiddler
Just come home from a wonderful concert in Bonn, Germany, given by Christy Barry, Gerry O'Connor and Tony MacMahon who played the wounded hussar as a slow air. It was very impressive and you really could leave your thinkings fly around and feel the wounds. I'd like to get the air version.
# Posted on October 8th 2004 by craics90
The Wounded Hussar
It's hard for me to see how the tune, as written here, is the same one played on Lunasa's The Kinnity Sessions. Is this really the same tune?
# Posted on December 17th 2004 by LeAnn
The Wounded Hussar (song air)
Sung by Rita Gallagher: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/ceilihouse/rams/27august.smil (starts around 48:00)
From Ceili House Archive 2005:
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/story/1034199.html
Played by Catherine McEvoy: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/thelatesession/rams/21july.ram (starts around 14:30)
From The Late Session Concert Listing: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/story/1015109.html
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by slainte
A big, big applause to the two women!
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by slainte
Captain O'Kane
this is a beautiful song composed by O'Carolan. i heard a very haunting version on the fiddle by Seamus McGuire.
# Posted on April 22nd 2007 by The Whistle Collector
"Captain O'Kane / O'Kain" ~ The Fiddler's Companion
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/CAPT_CAPU.htm
"CAPTAIN O'KANE/O'KAIN. AKA and see “Cailin tighe moir,” "Captain Henry O'Kain," “Giolla an Bimhoir,” "The Wounded Hussar," "The Small Birds Rejoice." Irish, Air or Planxty (6/8 time). E Aeolian (Matthiesen, O'Neill): G Aeolian (Gow): A Minor (O’Farrell): D Minor (Martin). Standard. AB (Complete Collection, Matthiesen, O'Neill): AAB (Martin): AABB (Gow, O’Farrell). O’Farrell directs: “Slow.” ~
“Captain O’Kane” is thought to have been composed by blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670 - 1738) for his friend Captain O’Kane (or O’Cahan), a sporting Irishman of a distinguished County Antrim family well-known in his day as “Slasher O’Kane” (Donal O’Sullivan, Carolan, The Life and Times, based on information in Hardiman’s Irish Minstrelsy, 1831). O’Neill (1922) says: “We learn from Alexander Campbell’s song ‘The Wounded Hussar’ printed with the music in Smith’s Irish Minstrel (Edinburgh, 1825) the O’Kain was Captain Henry O’Kain who died of his wounds ‘on the banks of the dark rolling Danube.’” O’Sullivan’s attribution is based on a comment by Hardimann (who said O’Carolan wrote it) and because of stylistic similarities with other O’Carolan works. O’Neill (1913) quotes Patrick O’Leary, an Australian correspondent, who wrote that the Captain of the title was “the hero of a hundred fights, from Landon to Oudenarde, who, when old and war-worn, tottered back from the Low Countries to his birthplace to die, and found himself not only a stranger, but an outlawed, disinherited, homeless wanderer in the ancient territory that his fathers ruled as Lords of Limavady.” The earliest printing of the tune Captain Francis O’Neill could located was in James Aird’s 1788 Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs (Vol. 3), although he also found it (under the title “Captain Oakhain: A Favourite Irish Tune") in McGoun's Repository of Scots and Irish Airs, Strathspeys, Reels, etc.(Glasgow, 1803)—the same title and presumably the same tune was printed in Alexander McGlashan’s 1786 collection.
***
The song “The Wounded Hussar” was written to the melody by Alexander Campbell (O’Sullivan gives his name as Thomas) and appears in Smith's Irish Minstrel (Edinburgh, 1825). It was also included in Surenne's Songs of Ireland without Words (Edinburgh, 1854). The Scots poet Robert Burns wrote his song “The Chevalier’s Lament” to the tune of “Captain O’Kean”.
X:2
T:Captain Oakhain
L:1/8
M:6/8
N:”A favourite Irish Tune”
S:McGlashan – Reels (c. 1786)
K:g minor
|: G/F/ |
DBA B2 A/G/ | A/B/c/B/A/G/ FGA | BdB cB/A/G/F/ | DGG G2 :|
|: G/A/ |
Bdd d2 c/B/ | Acc c2 f | d>g^f g>ab | dg^f g2 g/a/ |
bag f>ed | d/c/B/A/f FGA | BdB d/c/B/A/G/F/ | DGG G2:|
# Posted on April 22nd 2007 by ceolachan
Oakhain? That's certainly not an Irish spelling. It's O'Kane in O'Neill's of Ireland.
# Posted on August 12th 2007 by t4kne
Why isn't it played in E minor ? A cellist who plays it at an eclectic session I attend had this suggestion from another cellist on a first visit.
Yes, indeed, why ?
# Posted on May 29th 2008 by Guernsey Pete