Lyr Add: Fanny Power (Alfred Percival Graves)

Subject: Lyr Add: FANNY POWER^^
From: judy
Date: 29 Oct 97 - 04:16 PM

FANNY POWER
words: W.B. Yeats
music: Turloch O'Carolan

Verse I (music part A)
When all but dreaming was Fanny Power
A light came streaming from out her bower
A heavy thought at her door delayed
A heavy hand on the latch was layed

Verse II (music part A)
Now who dare venture at this dark hour
Unbid to enter my maiden bower
"Oh, Fanny, open the door to me
And your true lover you'll surely see"

Verse III (music part B)
"My own true lover so tall and brave
He lives in next isle o'er the angry wave"
"Your true love's body lies on the pier,
"His faithful spirit is with you here."

Verse IV (music part B)
"Oh, his look was cheerful and his voice was gay,
Your face is fearful and your speech is gray
And sad and tearful your eye of blue
Ah, but Patrick, Patrick, alas tis you"

Verse V (music part A)
The dawn was breaking, she heard below
The two cocks shaking their wings to crow
"Oh, hush you! hush you! both red and gray
Or will you hurry my love away?"

Verse VI (music part B)
"Oh, hush your crowin', both gray and red
Or he will be goin' to join the dead
And cease you calling his ghost to the mold
And I'll come crowning your wings with gold"

Verse VII (music part A)
When all but dreaming was Fanny Power
A light came streaming beneath her bower
And on the morrow when they awoke
They knew that sorrow, her heart had broke.

(play music part B)

Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: SONG OF THE GHOST (Alfred P Graves)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 04:55 PM

This song has now appeared in the new edition of the Digital Tradition: FANNY POWER. Unfortunately, it has been ascribed to the wrong writer and given the wrong title and tune. Perhaps the person from whom Judy learned it was responsible; perhaps the mistakes are of longer standing. It looks as if someone has become confused about the heroine's name and decided that there must be some connection with the well-known Carolan tune; or perhaps the name was changed to make it appear so.

At all events, the lyric was written, not by Yeats, but by Alfred Percival Graves; father of the poet Robert Graves and a prolific songwriter. Many of his pieces were set to traditional melodies (see My Love's an Arbutus, for example) and the story here is based on Sweet William's Ghost (Child 77). Graves called it The Song of the Ghost, and set it to an air of that name in George Petrie's collection of Irish music (Stanford-Petrie 580.) There are other mistakes in the DT transcription, so rather than note corrections I'll add Graves' lyric here.

THE SONG OF THE GHOST

(Alfred Percival Graves; tune traditional)

When all were dreaming but Pastheen Power,
A light came streaming beneath her bower;
A heavy foot at her door delayed;
A heavy hand on the latch was laid.
            
"Now who dare venture at this dark hour,
Unbid to enter my maiden bower?"
"Dear Pastheen, open the door to me,
And your true lover you'll surely see."
            
"My own true lover, so tall and brave,
Lives exiled over the angry wave."
"Your true love's body lies on the bier,
His faithful spirit is with you here."

"His look was cheerful, his voice was gay;
Your speech is fearful, your voice is gray;
And sad and sunken your eye of blue,
But Patrick, Patrick! alas! 'tis you!"
            
Ere dawn was breaking she heard below
The two cocks shaking their wings to crow.
"O hush you, hush you, both red and gray,
Or you will hurry my love away."
                                                         
"O hush your crowing both gray and red
Or he'll be going to join the dead;
O cease from calling his ghost to the mould,
And I'll come crowning your combs with gold."
            
When all were dreaming but Pastheen Power,
A light went streaming from out her bower;
And on the morrow when they awoke,
They knew that sorrow her heart had broke.


I quote the tune here as it appeared in Graves' The Irish Song Book (1894). A few note values differ from those given by Petrie, and in bars 2, 4 and 8, the g sharps have been flattened to g. The speed I indicate has no traditional authority and is a matter of personal taste only.

X:1
T:The Song of the Ghost
C:Alfred Percival Graves
B:The Irish Song Book, 1894
N:Tune from Stanford-Petrie, no.580
L:1/8
Q:1/4=75
M:3/4
K:C
E A B|c2 B A G F|E3
w:When all were dream-ing but Pas-theen Power,
E c d|(c3/2B/) A G A c|B3
w:A light came stream-*ing be-neath her bower;
B e d|c2 B A G3/ 2E/|G3
w:A hea-vy foot at her door de-layed;
A A G|E2 G A B3/ 2c/|A3|]
w:A hea-vy hand on the latch was laid.

Whoever set the song to Fanny Power surely can't have been aware of the tune intended for it, which is vastly more suitable.

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: Fanny Power
From: Pinetop Slim
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 05:32 PM

Thanks for clearing that up, but it was nice to think, if only for a few minutes, that Yeats had set words to a Carolan tune.

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: Fanny Power
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 05:01 AM

I always thought that "Fanny Power" was the earliest feminist tune.

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: Fanny Power
From: Mr Furrow
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 05:31 AM

We couple "Planxty Irwin" and "Fanny Power" in our live sets and it's one of the few things that will silence a noisy bar and induce sighs of pleasure from an audience. They're both beautiful melodies although we reckon "Lord Inchiquin" has a little more depth.

You can pleasure your ears with these toons on our MP3.com page should you choose.

Cheers
Jon

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 09:14 AM

I was hoping it was a natural, non-toxic, renewable source of energy. Come to think of it....

BJ

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: GUEST,regular
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 09:28 AM

If you do a search for "Fanny Power" in the Mudcat searchbox, you'll find a few previous threads and would have been better to refresh one of these than to start a new thread.

Thanks for input anyway

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 09:33 AM

Earlier than Oct 97 GUEST,regular?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: Leadfingers
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 02:40 PM

I always thought O Carolan wrote this for the Spice Girls

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: Gypsy
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 10:51 PM

Oh man, i thought this was a little difficult to sing, even as an aire. Sigh.......whatta nice thought, tho

Subject: ADD: The Song of the Ghost
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 11:45 PM

Sing the song to the tune intended for it, and you'll have no trouble. I thought long before reviving this old thread, as I feared that it would attract pointless comments from people who wouldn't bother to read what I had posted, and who would instead immediately trot out all the tired old jokes about Fanny Power (which, I should repeat, is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT TO THE SONG POSTED HERE), or who would repeat comments made in the numerous past discussions here in which the Carolan tune -pretty, but simple to play and fairly inconsequential melodically- has already been discussed.

Quite a few people have set their own little songs to Fanny Power in recent years, but I haven't yet heard one that could stand on its own without using the extremely well-known and popular melody as a crutch. Speaking as someone who has had to play that tune many hundreds of times over the years, and who grew heartily sick of it in the process, I'd rate it on about the same level as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: Vinland
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 12:10 AM

Malcolm,

Planxty Fanny Power is one of the most beautiful tunes ever written in my humble opinion. Simple, yes, but so is Greensleeves, The Rights of Man, Give Me Your Hand, and any number of other great tunes. I've done a a dozen different arrangements of the tune over the years and still find new ways of interpreting it.

By the way, I doubt if Carolan ever sung the lyrics he wrote for it. It is generally felt that he recited (or chanted) the lyrics while playing the tune - in the style of the ancient harpers. This might explain the difficulty in singing the melody, which is very instrumental in character. I've accompanied singers performing it, and never felt that it worked as a song. Maybe Carolan was an early rapper!

EW

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 12:39 AM

Malcolm, I agree entirely with your thoughts on the usage of FP for this song and your thoughts on the other tune (not that I remember coming across the song before and I happen to like FP as a tune) and thanks for posting the correct tune - I wonder how many others have bothered to go across to concertina.net or use other resources to hear for themselves how it fits (FWIW, I did a few hrs ago).

Not much help, I know and it's adding further BS to what was a correction and an opinion but... at least take heart that some do quietly take notice.

Jon

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: GUEST,Fanny Boy
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 05:03 AM

Might be irrelevant, Malcolm, but I like to do this tune along with the Derry Air

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: Declan
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 05:46 AM

Having fun may not add to the corpus of collected folk material, but its why a lot of people come here. You should try it some time Malcolm.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: Mr Furrow
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 05:53 AM

Good grief Malcolm, I don't know if it was intended, but you come off sounding really miserable & po-faced in that last posting. So someone didn't perceive the depth and value of your erudite post. So what.

And BTW, what's the problem with tired old jokes anyway? I'm one!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 09:08 AM

If someone doesn't giggle when they hear a joke for the 30th time, it's probably not because they don't have a sense of humor.

Vinland, what lyrics did Carolan write? I've never heard previous mention of any. From Lesley Nelson-Burns's Turlough O'Carolan pages at Contemplator, Thomas Davis wrote these lyrics:

Her eyes are darker than Dunloe,
Her soul is whiter than the snow,
Her tresses like arbutus flow,
Her step like frightened deer
Then still thy wave, capricious lake,
And ceaseless, soft winds round her wake,
Yet never bring a cloud to break
The smile of Fanny dear!

Was Fanny Poer (Power) the same person as the subject of 'Mrs Power' ('Carolan's Concerto')?

I've grown tired of hearing/playing some of them. Being Turloughed to pieces at least inspired me to write my first tune,
Farewell to Reason.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: Vinland
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 11:36 PM

Jeri,

O'Carolan's lyrics for Fanny Power were in Gaelic, and can be found in Donal O'Sullivan's biography Carolan - The Life, Times, and
Music of an Irish Harper (published in 1958; probably found at a good library). This is the standard reference on the harper. O'Carolan wrote Fanny Power for the wedding of the daughter of a close friend of his; I believe the "Mrs. Power" of 'Carolan's Concerto' is a relative of Fanny Power, possibly her mother. Check O'Sullivan's book to be sure.

Certainly some of O'Carolan's tunes are played to death - but there are plenty that aren't. Coming up with imaginative arrangements is the key. I've done about 40 solo guitar arrangements of his tunes, and still finding others I'd like to learn. Although O'Carolan wrote his pieces on the harp, they don't all necessarily work best on that instrument. The compilation called Celtic Legacy (on Narada I believe) gives a good selection of approaches; musicians from all over contribute, on a variety of instruments. Give it a listen.

EW

Subject: Lyr Add: Fanny Power
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 08:50 AM

if you look at the first few messages, it seems the DT has still not been suitably corrected

meanwhile, Irish Gaelic lyrics:

Madame Trench or Fanny Power, lyrics given in Donal O'Sullivan and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin's edited publication of Bunting's Ancient Music of Ireland.Cork University Press, 1983. Bunting published his collection 1840. O'Sullivan and Ó S úillebh áin worked from Bunting's original manuscripts. O'Sullivan's writes of the words, "Noted from William Bartley by Bunting's amanuensis Patrick Lynch. This piece is included in my edition of Carolan: the air in Vol. 1, p.246 and notes in Vol.II, p. 97. Fanny Power was the daughter and heiress of David and Elizabeth Power of Coorheen, Loughrea, County Galway. She married, on the 13th March, 1732, Richard Trench of Garbally in the same county. Their eldest son, born in 1741, was created Baron Kilconnel in 1797."

FANNY POWER

Is mian liom labhairt ar óig-mhnaoi shuairc,
Is uaisle geanamhla gnaoi 'gus cáil;
Do bhíos ar a' mbaile tá ar bhruach Loch Riach,
Táim buidheach gur casadh mé láimh léi.
Nár fhágaidh mé an saoghal go raibh mé go h-acmhuinneach
A' damhsa go h-aerach is mé ar a bainis-se;
Fuagraim an té sin a d'iarrfadh choidh 's spré leat,
A phéarla linibh na mbán-ghlac.

Siúd í an ainnear ar thaobh a' chuain,
'S na mílte fear dul a dh'eag dá grádh;
'S í Fanny is geanamhla na ndlaoi 's na ndual,
Fuair buaidh ar mhaise 's ar áille.
Is aerach 's is tr éitheach an mhaighdean bhreagh sgafanta,
Mian croidh na h-Éireann an péarla deas galanta;
Ó laighid a sláinte 's ná déanaigidh faillighe
Fá thuairim Fanny 'íon D225ibhidh.

translation
I wish to speak of the gracious girl, Noblest and loveliest in face and character; I was in the village on the shores of Loughtea, I am grateful that I happened to meet her. May I not quit this life until I am energetically Dancing with joy at her wedding; I denounce anyone who whould ever ask a dowry with you, Beautiful young lady of the white hands.

This is the maiden beside the lake, With men in their thousands dying for love of her; 'Tis Fanny is fairest in tresses and locks, Who excelled in grace and beauty. Pleasant and accomplished is this lovely, spirited girl, the heart's desire of Ireland, the pretty tasteful beauty; Drink her health and do not fail To toast Fanny, the daughter of David.