Tune Add: King of the Fairies

Subject: King of the fairies
From: alison
Date: 10 Mar 00 - 02:16 AM

I played King of the fairies on hearme earlier and was asked for a MIDI. So it is now at Mudcat MIDIs.

It is a set dance tune. It also has words to it the song is called "The Girl with the buckles on her shoes."

slainte

alison

---

Click for lyrics

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: Grab
Date: 10 Mar 00 - 08:09 AM

Check out this link. Lots of fiddle tunes in standard notation, plus some ABC. KOTF is in there too.

I'm sure I've mentioned this site b4, but you can never have too much of a good thing! :-)

Grab.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: Gypsy
Date: 10 Mar 00 - 04:31 PM

So, do you have the lyrics that you mentioned? Checked out the digitrad...no luck. Would love for you to post. Thanks!

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 10 Mar 00 - 04:48 PM

Nice, midi, Alison. Is that the tempo you usually play? I've been trying to learn this tune and the only recording I have ("The Lilting Banshee") has it much faster. This tempo I can actually follow!!

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: alison
Date: 10 Mar 00 - 11:58 PM

I do usually play it a lot faster (Horslips have it on a CD where they start it slow , and then half way through they double the speed... great.)...... I'm off to a gig now.... but remind me and I'll see if I can find the words tomorrow sometime.

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 03:05 PM

The very first tune I learned to play properly on the fiddle, though I had it from a recording by Kevin Burke, with a lot of decoration.  As Alison says, it's a setdance, best taken at a reasonably measured pace.  A lot of people nowadays seem to play it as a fast reel, which to my mind is ridiculous (unless done as part of a set -the Horslips example); a waste of a fine melody.  Incidentally, there is a (quite unrelated) King of the Faeries on the DT: filename KINGFAER,  here.  It's described as "Irish traditional", but it's actually three verses of William Allingham's poem, "The Fairies" (publ. 1850).

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: Helen
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 06:21 PM

Malcolm

I agree - playing it too fast is a waste of a really good melody, one of the best tunes I know.

Helen

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: Áine
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 09:33 PM

Dear alison,

I do hope that you'll post the words -- I love the tune.

-- Áine

(P.S. Still working on getting you that tune I promised you the other night on Hearme -- I've been busy repairing various guitars this weekend)

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: Gypsy
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 11:48 PM

Come back, come back. I second, I third, I beg the motion that you post the lyrics that you so blithely mentioned, without sharing!

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: alison
Date: 12 Mar 00 - 12:19 AM

hahaha I'm trying to find them

slainte

alison

Subject: Lyr Add: THE GIRL WITH THE BUCKLES ON HER SHOES ^^
From: alison
Date: 12 Mar 00 - 12:39 AM

got them off an old piece of music from 1960. words by Sidney Bell, and Traditional Irish tune arranged by Havelock Nelson.

The tune doesn't repeat the "A" section of the tune, and does the "B" section twice.

I'll sing it for you in hearme sometime

THE GIRL WITH THE BUCKLES ON HER SHOES – Sydney Bell

I always will remember as the days go by
The dark girl dancing with the twinkle in her eye
I know I shall remember her until the day I die
The girl with the buckles on her shoes

A fairy dancing to the fiddles as they sing
Until the rafters and the dust echoes ring around her
If I had her she would never want a thing
And I would buy her golden buckle for her shoes

Heel and toe she goes a ribbon in her hair
Of all the girls I've ever seen there's no one to compare with her
Sure I know that in my dreams I'll see her there
The girl with the buckles on her shoes

I always will remember as the days go on
The dark girl dancing with the lightness of the fawn
I know I shall remember her until my life is gone
The girl with the buckles on her shoes

My Pride of Erin with the magic in her toes
Of all the flowers that bloom I've never seen a rose to match her
Dancing lightly while the fairy music flows and ripples
From the silver buckles on her shoes

With her merry footsteps drumming on the floor
Still heel and toe and up and down and all the fairy lore she knows it
Och I'll see her in my dreams forevermore
The girl with the buckles on her shoes
with the buckles on her shoes

^^

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: Áine
Date: 12 Mar 00 - 09:50 AM

Thank you so much, alison! Knew you'd come through for us. How did the gig go, by the way?

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: Alice
Date: 12 Mar 00 - 10:42 AM

thanks for those lyrics, alison!!

alice

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: alison
Date: 12 Mar 00 - 11:32 PM

wonderful gig..... always is... it's a regular one we do to help raise money for the bush fire brigade..... great people.. great craic...

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: Alice
Date: 13 Mar 00 - 09:51 AM

I have a recording by Waxies Dargle slow, then fast, of King of the Fairies - a very nice version. This is one of our session tunes that my son is learning on the fiddle... now if I can only get him to play it there.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: Gypsy
Date: 13 Mar 00 - 10:07 PM

Yay! Now that we have words, will make the playing of the tune ever so much more fun. Thank you so much!

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: Barry T
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 11:14 PM

Here is yet another midi version... with a bit of cello and a dash of mist.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: GUEST,Kelly
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 07:43 PM

Thank you so much for providing these lyrics. I have been trying to learn this set dance and have been having a horrible time with the timing on the set. Part of my problem is that I haven't been able to get the set part of the music (I believe what you're calling part B) in my head and I thought maybe lyrics would help with that! Hopefully, now I can get it.

Thanks Again.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: s&r
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 06:41 AM

Up the aery mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go ahunting
for fear of little men;

Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, Red cap
And white owl's feather.

Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes,
Of yellow tide foam;

Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain lake,
With frogs for their watchdogs,
all night awake.

High on the hilltop the old king sits;
He is now so old and grey
He's nigh lost his wits
With a bridge of white mist...

Columkille he crosses
On his stately journies
From Slieve
League to Rosses.

Or going up with music
On cold starry nights,
To sup with the queen
Of the gay Northern Lights.

They stole little Bridget
for seven years long,
And when she came down again
Her friends were all gone.

They took her lightly back,
Between the night and morrow,
They thought she was fast asleep,
But she was dead from sorrow.

They have kept her ever since
Deep within a lake,
On a bed of flag leaves,
Watching till she wake...

By the craggy hillside,
Through the mosses bare,
They have planted thorntrees,
For pleasure here and there.

Is any man so daring,
As dig them up in spite,
He shall find their sharpest thorns
In his bed at night.


William Allingham
Stu

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the fairies
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Dec 07 - 02:14 PM

Posted here seven years ago:

THE FAIRIES (William Allingham)

Subject: RE: Tune Add: King of the Fairies
From: GUEST
Date: 03 May 13 - 09:34 AM

The lady whom this song was written about (Sadie (Fearon) McGuigan) passed away on Wednesday 1st May 2013 in Warrenpoint. She was involved in Irish Dancing all her life and took many teams to Provincial and National awards