Origin: Dark Rosaleen (James Clarence Mangan)

Subject: Dark Rosaleen
From:
Date: 01 Jun 97 - 06:58 PM

I am familiar witht he poem "Dark Rosaleen;" however, someone resently told me that is was a song as well. I have never heard it as such and was wondering if anyone out there could perhaps tell me more.

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Dark Rosaleen
From: Murray
Date: 03 Jun 97 - 03:03 AM

I suppose the "DR" you mention is that of James Clarence Mangan; I can't find that with a tune in my Irish index. It's based on the Irish "Roisin Dubh", which means the same ("Little Black Rose"); words and music (with a good singable translation) in Donal O'Sullivan, "Songs of the Irish", p. 132.

Subject: RE: Dark Rosaleen
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 06:37 PM

the English is a translation (there are several) of the Irish Roisín Dubh. The tune associated with Roisín Dubh is often played as a slow air. Search for Rosaleen and for Dubh in Mudcat archives and you'll get more lyrics and info,

Subject: RE: Dark Rosaleen
From: GUEST,Phil.
Date: 22 Jun 01 - 06:40 PM

midi and abc at this thread small black rose

Subject: RE: Origin: Dark Rosaleen (James Clarence Mangan)
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 10 Sep 16 - 05:38 PM

It kind of depends on what you mean by song.

The sheet music in front of me, for example, is something very specific. The words are James Clarence Mangan's poetic translation, with the title, "My Dark Rosaleen." And in this case, the music was composed, for voice and piano, by the Anglo-Irish Alicia Adelaide Needham, who included this song in her multi-song cycle, "A Bunch of Shamrocks." Needham was grounded in classical music and had studied composition formally.

This is the very song recorded on 78 RPM by John McCormack. The original song was written for low voice; McCormack, for obvious reasons, had the key transposed considerably higher for his tenor voice, and the song was arranged for a studio orchestra rather than the piano for which the accompaniment was originally written.

"My Dark Rosaleen," the Mangan/Needham setting, is now in the public domain, copyrighted as it was in 1897 by Boosey & Co (not yet Boosey & Hawkes at that point in history), in London.

Subject: RE: Origin: Dark Rosaleen (James Clarence Mangan)
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 10 Sep 16 - 08:15 PM

on youtube:

Tommy Makem    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q9wLRaaEbQ
John McCormack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE04wYivfI0

Best wishes, Thomas.