A collection of Ireland's greatest and best-loved ballads, including the lyrics, music and chords, along with an introductory piece on each song. Illustrated with photographs and woodcuts. A beautiful guide to the cream of the Irish ballad tradition. Songs of love, yearning, revolution, celebration, emigration, mourning, fun, famine, drinking and more. A collection of powerful yet beautiful ballads of Ireland, placed in and reflecting historical events and traditions. All have stood the test of time and present to the world the uniqueness of Irish history and her musical and revolutionary traditions. Including: Are You Right There Michael? Danny Boy Kevin Barry I'll Tell Me Ma The Irish Rover Molly Malone The Rare Old Mountain Dew The Rocky Road to Dublin The Rose of Tralee Whiskey in the Jar Best-Loved Irish Ballads celebrates the songs and tradition of Irish music.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
Excerpt from Old Irish Folk Music and Songs: A Collection of 842 Irish Airs and Songs, Hitherto Unpublished If the names have survived in the two branches, why not the airs? And I thought it just possible - indeed I half hoped - that in Danish collections of popular music I might light on versions of our Molly Astore, Garryowen, The Boyne Water, Patrick's Day, The Groves of Blarney, &c. In order' to hunt this matter up, I procured from a well-known publisher in Copenhagen three fine collections of Scandinavian popular traditional music, mostly with words - Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian containing 294 Danish melodies (including twelve of the Faroe Islands), 223 Swedish, and 161 Norwegian. All are accompanied with elaborate notes; but it was tantalizing that I could not read one word of them; for they are all - as well as the songs - in Danish. The music I could read, however and I went over the three collections, air by air. In general character and structure the Danish airs approach nearer to Irish than do the Swedish and Norwegian; but I may say at once that on the whole the result of my search was disappointing. I could find no considerable number of Danish airs either identical with, or closely resembling, those of Ireland. Yet I found a few. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Excerpt from Songs of the Gael: A Collection of Anglo-Irish Songs and Ballads Wedded to Old Traditional Irish Airs As to the songs - I have aimed at selecting those which have in them the true national ring. We want in the Ireland of to-day an antidote to the Spirit of Anglicisation which is abroad. I know no more effective barrier against the encroach ment of that Spirit, next to the Irish Language and Irish Song, than the general singing at concerts and gatherings of good anglo-irish ballads and songs. The music hall and concert room may be made a very powerful agency in de-nationalising and even in debasing our people. From a national and moral point of View what effect can empty, Vulgar, mawkishly sentimental songs have And such songs are only too often heard at our so-called Irish Concerts. Or the song whose lewd allusions are thinly veiled? Or the songs that ignore and deliberately eschew the glories and noble deeds and sacri fices of our past heroes - what effect can such songs as these have on Irish youth It has been truly said that in a nation's ballads we find the history of its struggles and pro gress and triumph. A nation's habits, too, and its traditions and recollections are enshrined in its ballads. The wandering bards and minstrels became the keepers of the records of the nation and hence they were hunted down by the oppressors. A well-known collector of Irish ballads claims for Ireland as high a rank in ballad literature as that of any other nation. In this collection which I now give to the public, Irish men and women will find songs which are all racy of the soil. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
