Lyr Req: Savournin deelish

Subject: Lyr Req: Savournin deelish
From: Whistleworks
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 02:57 PM

Dear Friends,

A good friend asked me for the words and/or music to Savournin Deelish (it could be spelled differently). He said that he heard a reference of this song being sung by John McCormack in the very early 1900's. Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Savournin deelish
From: MartinRyan
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:01 PM

Think there's a version around here somewhere - the spelling varies a lot.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Savournin deelish
From: Whistleworks
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:10 PM

Thanks, Martin. I am a patient man.

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Savournin deelish
From: MartinRyan
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:10 PM

There are, in fact, several songs with this title. We need to check which is McCormack's version.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Savournin deelish
From: MartinRyan
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:14 PM

Here's some startup info, taken from a British John McCormack Society site:
_______________________________________________________________
Savourneen Deelish (My Sweet Love)(Words attrib. George Colman/Old Irish Air: "Sa mhuirnin dilis," O Dear Love)
Lx 2133[-1], -2 (1907)
Notes: Credits above are given after Nichlolas Carolan, who idendifies Colman (1762-1836) as a playwright who wrote "The Surrender of Calais," in which the verses appeared.
___________________________________________________

You can take it Nicholas is correct!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Savournin deelish
From: MartinRyan
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:15 PM

Here you go!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Savournin deelish
From: MartinRyan
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:19 PM

And here's an earlier thread about the song, as I suspected.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Savournin deelish
From: Whistleworks
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:22 PM

Hi Martin,

You are, as we quietly say, THE MAN !!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Savournin deelish
From: DannyC
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 07:51 PM

A setting of the air can be found in O'Neill's (Number 309; page 54).

There is a reference to the air/song in an Anglo-Irish officer's first-hand account of life among The Connaught Rangers (who, on the following day, were to rush into a brutal breach in the walls of Badajoz near the Portugal borders) during the Napoleonic Wars in Spain, as follows:

"The band of my corps, the 88th, all Irish, played several airs which exclusively belong to their country, and it is impossible to describe the effect it had upon us all; such an air as "Savourneen Deelish" is sufficient, at any time, to inspire a feeling of melancholy, but on an occasion like the present it acted powerfully on the feelings of the men: they thought of their distant homes, of their friends, and of bygone days. It was Easter Sunday, and the contrast which their present position presented to what to what it would have been in their native land afforded ample food for the occupation of their minds..."