The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #10469   Message #3787709
Posted By: keberoxu
28-Apr-16 - 08:31 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Ard Ti Chuain/Quiet Land of Erin
Subject: Ard Ti Chuain
Mary O'Hara recorded this air more than once.

"Amhráin Ghrá," a CD anthology released in the past five years and still available online, comes from Gael-Linn records; the songs selected for the CD were all recorded in the past for the Gael-Linn label, and most, though not all, were published on recordings released earlier on the same label.

Gael-Linn published the recording of a live concert which Mary O'Hara presented in the National Gallery, this was I believe in the 1980's, so she was all grown up by then. Two tracks from that recording appear on the "Amhráin Ghrá" album. One of them is "Róisín Dubh," sung without accompaniment. The other is "Ard Tí Chuain," sung with the harp, in the Gaelic of origin.

Ms. O'Hara no longer had, by this time, an unearthly-sounding voice; she sounds like a woman made of flesh and blood, who knows rather a lot about singing a tune like this, which is a rather demanding one, exposing the voice in long-breathed passages. She is very closely miked, as well; the audience must have heard a lot of echo and reverberation sitting there (you can hear the discreet coughs), but both singing voice and harp are clean, clear, and up-front in this production.