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Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 26

Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 26
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periodical Publisher
Irish Folk Song Society
periodical Editor
[Periodical]
periodical Title
Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society
volume Number
1
issue Content
8839On this point we must remember that the relations of the Irish and Danes inold times were not always those of strife. There was much friendship and intermarriage,and many young Irish wives went to Denmark with their Danish husbands, while manyPanes remained with their Irish wives in Ireland. We know alithis direct from history,and the records are corroborated by an examination of family names. We have inIreland numerous names of Danish origin, such as MacAuliffe, Danaher, Reynolds,MacManus, Cotter MacOttir), Doyle, Bruadar, &c. Only two months ago I saw over ashop door in Tramore the name Brodarthe very name of the Dane that killed BrianBoru at Clontarf.On the other side, I was lately told by a friend who bad just returned from avisit to Denmark, that he was much astonished at the number of names, obviouslyIrish, that he saw over shop doors in Copenhagen; such as Niall, Kormak, Karthie,Fagan, &c.If the names have survived in the two brancbes, why not the airs? And Ithought it just possibleindeed I half hopedthat in Danish collections of popularmusic I might light on simple and rudimentary versions of our Molly Astore,Garryowen, The Boyne Water, Patricks Day, The Groves of Blarney, &c.In order to hunt this matter up, I procured from a well-known publisher inCopenhagen three fine collections of Scandinavian popular traditional music, mostlywith wordsDanish, Swedish, and Norwegiancontaining 294 Danish melodies(including twelve of the Faroe Islands), 223 Swedish, and 161 Norwegian. All areaccompanied with elaborate notes, but it was tantalising to me that I could not read oneword of them, for they are allas well as the songsin Danish.The music I could read, however; and I went over the threo collections, air byair. In general character and. structure the Danish airs approach nearer to Irish thando the Swedish and Norwegian; but I may say at once that on the whole the result ofmy search was disappointing. I could find no considerable number of Danish airs eitheridentical with, or closely resembling, those of Ireland. Yet I found a few.First as regards the Oruiscin liln, which first set this inquiry in motion. Itappearsaccording to a note in Woods Songs of Scotland that in a collection of oldpopular Swedish ballads with airs published at Stockholm in 1816 there is an air in whichseveral passages remind us strongly of John Anderson my Jo (the Cruiscin Ian). Ihave never seen this collection, but among the Danish melodies in my possession I findthe following simple air, of which the first part, consisting of four bars, may be said tobe identical with the opening strain of our Cruiscin l an. But obviously this air cannotbe the same as the one mentioned above, as in the Swedish collection of 1816.d :itt LJC 4/ 4A I tt Tr 1 14. aSii k , Ij7 1..i 1t J 1.wS STowards the end of my Danish collection, there are eight airs all broughttogether, without words; all called reels evidently dance musicwhich arestartlingly like Irish and Scotch hornpipes and reels; rather, indeed, identical with themas a class. One, I know, is absolutely the same as one of our Irish hornpipes. I haveknown it all my life, and in early days I often heard it called The BlacksmithsHornpipe.- tJ k t4 d0( 1 cA I1j_jj1T1 ,U_ i LLI1 1i LU_ISrrri , p I jj_j_, -jrflji ti_ .i_i .:i i_i_i iit.,.!iij.. iii T Jji& L1TiiI11The last specimen I will select is a very graceful short l)anish melody. I give itas an example of those Danish airs that closely resemble ours in structure and sentiment;though I cannot call to mind any of our airs that can be identified with it. Yet, ifV
issue Number
1
page Number
26
periodical Author
[Periodical]
issue Publication Date
1967-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Volume 1, Issue 1

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