|
Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: THE DARK ISLE From: John in Brisbane Date: 03 Nov 98 - 07:42 PM Have been aware of this Scottish classic tune for some time, but was recently blown away by its power when performing it with a total of about 600 musicians (massed bands, pipes and choir including Royal Marines and Russian Army). But I had never realised that it had words. I can picture it being it being sung quietly in front of a fire with a drap of the doings.
Regards THE DARK ISLE
As mists of the evening creep over the hill The old men will tell not a bird or a nest
But tho' they've not seen they'll tell what they know
Tune sequenced by Barry Taylor. Thank you.
MIDI file: darkisle.mid Timebase: 384 TimeSig: 3/4 96 8 This program is worth the effort of learning it. To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here ABC format: X:1 Search for "dark island" threads
|
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: Barry Finn Date: 03 Nov 98 - 09:25 PM John, check the DT for 2 more Dark Islands. Idon't know your tune (can't read that stuff) but the Dark Island #2 in the DT is an old air with newer words, the tune is loved by a good number of great Irish pipers. Barry |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: Joe Offer Date: 03 Nov 98 - 10:38 PM John, do you know anything more about these lyrics and their source? this is one of my favorite tunes, and I really like the lyrics you posted. -Joe Offer- |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: John in Brisbane Date: 03 Nov 98 - 11:55 PM Joe, I was so smitten by the tune I concluded that there just had to be lyrics. I found them at the Volkslieder site at http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/scottish/asmistso.htm. Likewise I like the lyrics.
Barry, thanks for the tip on other names.
Regards |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: Barry Taylor Date: 04 Nov 98 - 02:11 AM FYI... I'm going to pull that midi from my web site. The tune is relatively new (in the 60's I believe) and still very much copyrighted. My info has the composers as MacLachlan and Silver, but I don't know who the publisher is. Anybody got details of this info? |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: John in Brisbane Date: 04 Nov 98 - 02:28 AM Barry - firstly your service to folk music is immense and deserves enormous thanks. I try to give you credit where I know that you are the initial sequencer, and I usually double check your site if the rendition has your feel - details are not always perpetuated on other sites. Any comments please.
Regards |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca Date: 21 Aug 99 - 07:17 AM Has anyone confirmed whether the tune Dark Island/Dark Isle is an old tune? The information I have is that the song, Dark Island, was written by David Silver, and the tune was written by Iain MacLachlan, an accordionist. This was created for a BBC Thriller called The Dark Island, in 1963. The show was filmed in Benbecula, Scotland. Yet, many locations state that it is a traditional tune. As does this new CD mentioned under Celtic Waltzes. There seem to be three sets of words to it. The one shown above apparently is credited to a man named Carl Peterson. I think it is missing a line in the second verse. There are 8 lines in the other two verses, and only 7 in the second verse. Scottish Lass' Home Page Has the Carl Peterson and David Silver words The David Silver lyrics is the one I am familiar with from the singing of Denis Ryan, formerly of Ryan's Fancy |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca Date: 10 Jul 00 - 12:17 AM John. The version of Dark Island you have at the top of this thread seems to be missing a line in the second verse. The other two have 8 lines apiece. Does ANYONE know if there is a line to finish it off? It just seems incomplete. |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: GUEST,Barry T Date: 10 Jul 00 - 03:19 PM I recall seeing an article about this tune in a (bag)piping magazine within the last 18 months. It had a photo of Iain MacLachlan and some notes about the tune. I'll try to track down that info.
To answer your question, George, it is generally acknowledged in the piping world that this is a recent tune, not at all traditional. |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: oggie Date: 10 Jul 00 - 05:01 PM The Dark Island was a radio play in 6 half hour instalments and the tune (which is brilliant) seemed to linger in pub session hell for many years. Brain MacNeill plays the best version I've heard on 'Horses for Courses'where it is credited as composer I MacLachlan, publisher Westminster Music. There is a Gaelic version of the words available on assorted 'Best Gaelic Songs' compilations All the best Steve |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca Date: 03 Jul 01 - 02:13 AM Some new details on the song: |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: rossey Date: 03 Jul 01 - 11:18 PM I might as well add a bit to this page, though you can follow through to another page and see further details about the lyrical side of this song. As everybody will know this is a purely Scottish tune now gone worldwide. In the 1960's there was a rumour that the tune now known as 'Dark Island' was a pipe air from South Uist, dating back to the 19th century. Ian Maclachlan was said to have heard it being played on the chanter by an old man in the Glendale area. Nobody has ever produced any proof whatsoever to support that rumour. People can easily think a tune is far older than it really is, and will swear blindly they knew it long ago. Confusion seems to have lain with the tune being around the Scottish music scene for at least a few years before being copyrighted in 1963 with Ian Maclachlan's name and the then publishers Essex Music. The original names I know of and have in 1960's documents, are 'Dr. Mackay's Farewell to Creagorry' and 'Dr. McInnes's Farewell to South Uist', and there may be more transient titles that Maclachlan gave to it. It was re-titled for the 1963 TV series 'Dark Island' and used as a theme tune. The original way it was played on the first recordings was as a simple accordion slow air, padded out with two contrasting up-tempo trad tunes - forming a set. It quickly took off, both as a Scottish accordion melody and a pipe tune. The grace-note fingering style meant that it crossed over into being ideal for many different instruments. The vocal versions followed on in 1963. Stewart Ross of Inverness wrote the first set of simple lyrics to a much-altered version of the tune believing it to be traditional - a misquoted version which doesn't scan has been included on the DigiTrad database. One month later in response to the Ross lyric having come out on sheet music, David Silver wrote what were supposed to be the only legally available words to the tune. David Silver had prior consent to join the tune to the words. (Gaelic lyrics are usually translations of Silver's.) A dispute therefore followed the Ross lyrics' appearance, and an agreement was reached that the Ross lyrics would be withdrawn, providing the publishers would not exploit the lyrics. This agreement was broken in the publishers' favour. After decades of wrangling during which time the publishers and David Silver financially exploited both versions, and will always be paid for both versions. The matter was supposed to have been resolved and a contract was signed which would at least give a moral credit for the words. This should have formally allowed the Ross words to be joined to the music, but there is still an ongoing dispute over the whole issue of registering the change - and the publishers will not fill in the necessary forms. The Ross lyrics are still PRS registered and were copyrighted separately to the music - and there is a moral right to be named as author. Other parties had also written lyrics to the tune in the early 60s believing it traditional. One set of words recorded by some folk groups was written by W. Gordon Smith (who wrote words for 'Come by the Hills'). These too are subject to dispute - and anybody else who sets words to the tune expecting copyright societies to collect on it will find the same. Beware the snowball effect! Often, one person may stick down 'trad' on a record label, and then a dozen other people follow suit. Instead of checking as much as possible with copyright societies, people don't try and consult as many sources as they can for accurate details of a work. So whilst a good proportion of recordings attribute the work to Maclachlan, a number may not. In one way the Dark Island has been a victim of its own success, sounding old yet apparently not having been around for longer than a Chuck Berry song. The melody has become a true folk tune - but is legally in world copyright until c2065, unless Westminster Music give up their claims in foreign territories. |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: rossey Date: 03 Jul 01 - 11:29 PM Sorry my mistyping with a minikeyboard meant that I gave an extra couple of hundred thousand years to a copyright expiry date, it should be 2065! |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: Ljung Date: 29 Oct 02 - 01:26 PM I heard The Dark Island the first time listening to The North Sea Gas. The Island, I was told to be Mull. The latest album with North Sea Gas is called The Dark Island, and contains of course this beautiful song. |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: GUEST,alancub7@yahoo.co.uk Date: 11 Sep 03 - 02:17 PM anyone send me the music ,chords for my daughter?? |
|
Subject: RE: NEW: The Dark Isle From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca Date: 11 Sep 03 - 02:46 PM Alan, if you look in some of the other threads, there are links to guitar thingies. I think the one with 31 messages has a link from Roger which can help. The one with 17 messages has other information which can help on sheet type music. |
| Share Thread: |
