Tune Req: Kathleen

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kathleen
From: GUEST,Gwyn Parry
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 04:28 PM

I have now go an MP3 version of this song sung by T Gwynn Jones (Poet and ex-Archdruid) - I can send it to you if you let me have an e-mail or Facebook contact

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kathleen
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Nov 13 - 01:17 PM

Hi,
I googled the words of this song and found them here. I have the "Bethesda/Canada" version on an LP which I need to transcribe at some point. I'll try an upload it to YouTube afterwards - my YT handle is Lleifor2.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kathleen
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 21 Apr 13 - 04:49 PM

The British Library has several scores titled just Kathleen pre-1931 (it that's the time frame).

Morton/Eaton, London : Howard & Co, 1894.
Grosvenor (polka), London : Mathias & Strickland, 1895.
McDonald/Graham, London : Houghton & Co, 1897.
Warner (waltz), London : Wickens & Co, [c. 1900]
Cobb/Edwards, New York : F. A. Mills, [1902]
McDonald/Philpot, London : Francis, Day & Hunter, [1905]
Lewis/MMC, London : W.H. Broome, for the Author, 1908.
Demers/Stevens, Cincinnati, etc : J. Church Co, 1909.
Yale/Lowden, Philadelphia : T. Presser Co, 1909.
Braley/Huhn, New York : G. Schirmer, 1909.
Terrance, awaiting full cataloguing, ca1920
Noyes/Lewis, awaiting..., ca1920
Cholmondeley, awaiting..., ca1921
Ted Snyder ; Arr.F E Ahlert, ca1921
Groff, ca1922
Chandler, ca1929


Mick

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kathleen
From: Pibydd
Date: 21 Apr 13 - 03:55 PM

Joe, I tried that. It didn't work very well. Better was 'Kathleen Mavourneen', which was also definitely around before 1900. I still wonder if there's another tune.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kathleen
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Apr 13 - 03:38 PM

Well, the ABC Tune Finder (click) has a number of tunes with "Kathleen" in the title - but none specifically named "Kathleen."

I was wondering if "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" would work, with a little adaptation.

-Joe-

Subject: Tune Req: Kathleen
From: Pibydd
Date: 21 Apr 13 - 03:28 PM

Shwmae. I've been tracing a song which was very common in north Wales (and maybe further afield) in the first half of the 20th Century. It's written as if by a man, forced to move away from his home, to work abroad - the version I've tracked down talks for sawing wood in Canda, although the first version I heard was set in the South Wales coalfield.

So. I know A tune to it, but wonder whether this is the tune mentioned in the newspaper in which the lyrics were quoted in 1931. I'm indebted to Dr Gwen Gruffydd for these words:

HIRAETH Y BARDD AM BETHESDA PAN YNG NGHOEDWIG CANADA
Ton: "KATHLEEN"

Mae hiraeth fel cleddyf yn trywanu fy nghalon
Pan gofiwyf am Gymru, fy hoff gartref gynt,
'Rwy'n cofio ei llynoedd a'i gloewon afonydd,
A llawer pen mynydd lle bum ar fy hynt;
'Rwy'n cofio Bethesda, hon ydyw'r dre' hardda'
A welais yn unlle lle sangodd fy nhroed;
O! na bawn i yno ar noson fel heno,
Yn lle bod yn llifio yng nghanol y coed

'The longing of the poet for Bethesda, whilst in the Canadian Forest'
Tune: Kathleen.

I translate roughly. So, the poet's homesickness is like a sword in his heart, when he thinks of his dear home in Bethesda. He remembers its lakes and rivers and mountains where he wandered. He remembers Bethesda, the finest town he wver walked; Oh! that he couldn't be there that night, rather than sawing in the middle of the woods.

Any ideas of a song that would fit these words, that was around c.1900?