Origins: Tone is coming back again

Subject: Origins: Tone is coming back again
From: GUEST,Dick Holdstock
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 12:45 AM

Can anyone help me find the origin of the song Tone is Coming Back? The words are the same on all current listings I have found but none tells if it was a broadside ballad, a song actually written by someone shortly after 1798, or 100 years after like many of the popular songs about 1798.

This digital tradition says "This song to a traditional air, has been popular in Ulster since days of the United Irishmen". it doesn't offer anything to back that up.

Subject: RE: Origins: Tone is coming back again
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 03:56 AM

Hi, Dick -

I found mention of it in a book called Song and Story: An Anthology of Irish Folk Songs, by Michael D. Morrissey (2001). Since both the book and the Digital Tradition have the same introductory note, I'm guessing they both come from the same source (or else the book took the lyrics from the 1999 entry in the Digital Tradition).
It's not in any of the books in our Irish Songbook Index, but this songbook index says it can be found in a book called Songs and recitations of Ireland, Book 1, "The Flag."
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Origins: Tone is coming back again
From: MartinRyan
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 05:17 AM

I thought it might be in Terry Moylan's "Age of Revolution in the Irish Song Tradition" but it's not (at least not under that title)! I have a vague memory of hearing it sung occasionally. That usually means one of the Goilin Singers guys sings it now and then. I'll make enquiries.

Regards

Subject: RE: Origins: Tone is coming back again
From: MartinRyan
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 05:29 AM

Reading the words in the DT, my immediate reaction is that it's very much in the Young Ireland tradition i.e. written around 1840-50, possibly for The Nation , Thomas Davis's radical newspaper.

Regards

Subject: RE: Origins: Tone is coming back again
From: MartinRyan
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 06:00 AM

Not in the main "Spirit of the Nation" collections, as far as I can see.

Regards

Subject: RE: Origins: Tone is coming back again
From: MartinRyan
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 06:07 AM

Got it! In his book Rich and Rare Sean McMahon prints the song with the following comment:

____________________________________-

Tone is Coming Back again
Thomas Francis Mullan

A song which was part of the '98 Cantata written in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the Rising. The cycle contained ten songs and was revived again in 1948 on the 150th anniversary.

____________________________________________

I'd never heard of the cantata.

Regards

Subject: RE: Origins: Tone is coming back again
From: MartinRyan
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 06:28 AM

McMahon gives the following biographical note on the author:

____________________________

Thomas Francis Mullan was born near Ardmore, Co. Derry in 1860. He taught in Derry and later became headmaster of Faughanvale PES. He collaborated with a Derry music teacher, Edward Conaghan, in the writing of a '98 Cantata devised to commemorate the centenary of the Rising. He died in 1937.

______________________

Regards

Subject: RE: Origins: Tone is coming back again
From: GUEST,Dick Holdstock
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 08:17 PM

Thanks Francis. I was hoping it and about 5 other tunes had been written much earlier. is there a way I can contact you Francis directly?

Subject: RE: Origins: Tone is coming back again
From: Fergie
Date: 13 Dec 08 - 08:46 PM

Francis? Who is Francis?

Subject: RE: Origins: Tone is coming back again
From: GUEST,Dick Holdstock
Date: 14 Dec 08 - 12:41 PM

Francis is the writer. Martin is the information provider. And thank you Fergie for helping straighten that out.

Subject: RE: Origins: Tone is coming back again
From: MartinRyan
Date: 14 Dec 08 - 12:50 PM

OK! GUEST Dick: If you join Mudcat you can use the PM (Personal Message) system to contact me. Otherwise, ask Joe Offer for details.

Regards

Subject: RE: Origins: Tone is coming back again
From: MartinRyan
Date: 15 Dec 08 - 06:11 PM

Done