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Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Volume 2, Issue 11, Page 8

Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Volume 2, Issue 11, Page 8
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periodical Publisher
Irish Folk Song Society
periodical Editor
[Periodical]
periodical Title
Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society
volume Number
2
issue Content
26ing 36 airs. Mr. Graves then gave a graphic description of a characteristic sceneduring a sort of session at a cottage near Kilronan, in the Aran Islands, wherewere assembled people who were known to possess old or characteristic airs. EugeneOCurry would first note the Irish words; then, during several repetitions of the air,Petrie would take down a careful record, which he subsequently played over on hisviolin to the delight of the large audience of peasants. Referring to the airs, Petriesopinion was quoted, that, generally speaking, the oldest among them were the ploughtunes, the caoines and the lullabies. The last-named were very much akin to theEastern lullabies, found among the Persians and Hindustani.MUSICAL EXAMPLES.Specimens of the airs collected by Petrie were rendered. Mr. Arthur Darley,himself an authority on the whole subject of Irish airs, played a number of the oldeston the identical violin used. by Petrie. First came three plough tunes, and then alullaby, named The Cunning Young Man. Played without accompaniment, andnnharmonjsed, it was possible to realise the sheer beauty of melody which marks the01(1 Irish music. A little later Mr. Darnley played a set of marches. One of them,the Vive la! has been set by Stanford to words by Mr. Gr tves under the title,Clams Dragoons. Another was an ancient clan march, and in this connectionMr. Graves paid a tribute to Mr. Darleys unique knowledge of the old clan marches.He expressed the hope that Mr. Darley would publish a collection of them. All theIrish marches, he l)ointed out, were of quick-step character, and were probably usedalternatively as jig-tunes. A planxty was also played by Mr. Darley, Mr. Gravesstating that Carolin, the hard-composer, was possibly the originator of those festalairs. At all events, he invented a great number of them. Mr. Darleys final contri-bution was a set of jig tunes. Mr. Graves spoke . warmly of the work of the GaelicLeague in encouraging the dancing of the old jigs and reels, and mentioned thatLord Dunraven was credited with being able to dance 6 steps. Mr. Darley (as thelecturer afterwal (ls remarked) played himself, not only into the hearts of the audience,but into their toes a d heels. He made it easy to call up those scenes of whichMr. Graves spoke, when he, as a boy in the country, danced round the tar-barrels oi,St. Johns Eve.FATHER OFLYNNS PROTOTYPE.All the vocal airs were sung to words written by Mr. Graves himself, with theexception of one The Yellow Boreen to whioh Petrie himself wrote the words.The only other set of verses written by Petrie for an air was The Snowy-breasted27Pearl. The arrangements used were those of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and Dr.Charles Wood, both distinguished Irish composers, to whose work a suitable tributewas paid by the lecturer. One of the airs given by Petrie to Moore, and set by thelatter to the words, No, not more welcome, was to have been sung, but it had to beleft out. The vocalists were Mrs. Fitzsimon, Miss Pigot, and Mr. Percy Whitehead,who were accompanied at the piano by Mrs. William Jellot. Mr. Whitehead sangThe alarm, The lament.for Owen Roe ONeill, Remember the poor, Molleen . .. 7Oge, The yellow boreen, and Eva Toole. Mrs. Fitzsimon sang, V hen sheanswered me, The cuckoo madrigal, and The battle hymn. Miss Pigot sangLove at my heart, The song of the woods, and Ejijers farewell. Regardingeach of the airs the lecturer made a few comments. He quoted Sir Hubert Parrysjudgment that Emers farewell is the most beautiful of all folk songs, whetherIrish, Continental, or English. It was sent to Petrie by Miss Ross, .of NewtownLimavady. The batTtle hymn, he remarked, was sent to Petrie by the prototype ofFather OFlynnPathei Michael Walsh, a County Kerry priest, whom Mr. Gravesand his brother Arnold used to visit as boys.Acknowledgments followed, the lecturer praising and thanking the performers,and expressing his joy at the appreciation shown of the true Irish musicnot, lieremarked, the sham Irish music, of which so much was heard.The Chairman subsequently expressed the cordial thanks of the audience to thelecturer.In the afternoon Mr. T. P. Gill opened a collection of works relating to Petrie atthe National Museum. It includes several books full of Petries delicate sketches,many volumes of Irish airs, a number of his letters, his unpublished treatise on themilitary architecture of Ireland, and a series of finished drawings, as well as his pub-lished works. The collection has been organised by Count Plunkett, Director of theMuseum.EErtATA.In writing, in Vol. X., about the Hud on Collection in the Boston PublicLibrary, U.S.A., I named the gentleman who has devoted his life to forming a valuablemusical collection, and donating it to the Public Library, as Mr. Brown Allan, hispame being Mr. J. Allan Brown.C. M. Fox,IIF
issue Number
11
page Number
8
periodical Author
[Periodical]
issue Publication Date
1967-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Volume 2, Issue 11

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