I had a real treat last Sunday evening. I went down to the cathedral and heard the Yale Whiffenpoofs in concert. They were delightful - gracious, humorous, charming. And really, really good singers.

I have known 'the Whiffenpoof Song' for many years. I'm happy to say that they did a great performance of it, not doing it in the funereal way I've heard it on radio. They knew it was tongue in cheek, and they got that across, even to the kids in the audience.

That song has the words

...the magic of their singing, of the songs we knew so well
'Shall I Wasting' and 'Mavourneen' and the rest...

Somehow I had always thought that it was MavourNEEN, but they sang MaVOURneen. I was inspired to do a little research and find this mysterious MaVOURneen song.

It's a song from 1837, 'Kathleen Mavourneen.' (see Wikipedia for more history). It's got a fine tune, one my husband knows and loves (news to me). So I've made a MIDI of it in the key of C, and I'm practicing it on piano. It's not a folksong, it's more like an aria, but I'm getting it.

This was all made harder by my determination not to learn the words. I consider them sappy to the max and not worthy of the music. Other people are welcome to feel differently.

The Whiffenpoofs did not sing 'Kathleen Mavourneen,' they only mentioned it in their famous song. They did some Yale fight songs, a lot of pop music that I couldn't understand - and a heartbreakingly beautiful 'Down by the Salley Gardens.'

I'm glad I went.