Help: Gol na mBan san Ar

Subject: Gol na mBan san Ár
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 03:58 PM

I have been using the book Traditional Slow Airs of Ireland by Tomás Ó Canainn for a while. I cannot pronounce or understand many of the tune titles. So a couple of questions, where can I find translations of the individual words, and what in English is the title of the tune above. Just that I was playing it last week and someone recognised it but couldn't remember the english name.

roger

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ár
From: Áine
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 04:55 PM

Dear Roger,

I don't know what it's called in English, but the literal translation of this title goes as follows:

gol - weeping, crying
na mBan - of the women
san - in the
ár - slaughter

I hope this helps. I'll try to find a link to an online Irish/English dictionary for you.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ár
From: Áine
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 05:02 PM

Dear Roger,

Click here to go to a page with several links to Irish Dictionaries online. I don't use online dictionaries, so I can't personally recommend any of them; however, I'm sure you'll find something useful there. Good luck!

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ár
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 17 Oct 00 - 02:21 PM

Thanks Áine, that explains why I have heard it played slower than I play it. I used to play it in a bouncy cheerful style not knowing the meaning of the title. I will slow it down and reinterpret the piece now.

Roger

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ár
From: JTT
Date: 17 Oct 00 - 02:33 PM

Dunno - bouncing it might be a good alternative version.

Dictionaries are not necessarily going to be a great help with Irish; it's an elusive language. For instance "ar chor ar bith", meaning "at all" is literally translated "on circle on world".

Pronunciation: Gol na mban san aer is pronounced (roughly) "gull nuh monn sun air", with the emphasis on gull, monn and air.

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ár
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 14 Feb 02 - 03:07 PM

Revisiting the excellent Whistle workshop site I noticed a tune title, and remembered that someone had mentioned the tune sounded like one with 'eagle' in the title
So I clicked this 'The Eagles Nest' link and its the same tune
So thanks David Auty for a bit more info on the tune - which I play a whole lot slower as a slow air.

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ar
From: GUEST,John
Date: 21 Nov 11 - 04:44 PM

I learned the tune under the English name "The Eagles Whistle"

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ar
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Nov 11 - 09:39 PM

Hello, Roger. I have that book too, and I've been playing from it as I learn the flute. Some of those tunes are real beauties.

have you played 'The Month of January'? (#110) I played it for a friend, and she said "It gives me chills down my spine."

Needless to say, I felt thoroughly flattered.

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ar
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Nov 11 - 11:05 PM

Guess I got stung there! Roger hasn't posted since 2001. (I thought I was talking to Roger the Skiffler.)

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ar
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Nov 11 - 11:24 PM

Info on the tune here.

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ar
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Nov 11 - 11:24 PM

Beautiful rendition of it here on Youtube.

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ar
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Nov 11 - 11:25 PM

http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=www.thesession.org/tunes/display/4192.no-ext/0000

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ar
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 22 Nov 11 - 02:25 AM

Gol na mBan and the Eagle's whistle are not the same piece. They had their names confused. Gol na mBan is a descriptive piece depicting the Battle of Cnoc na nDos, also known as Allusdrum's March. The Eagle's whistle is a marching tune, clan march sort of a thing , something different altogether. The mistake goes back to one of the first Seámus Ennis recordings.

A cylinder recording of the playing of Mici 'Cumba' O Suilleabhean of Sneem:

Gol na mBan san Ár

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ar
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Nov 11 - 11:55 AM

Thanks for the link, Peter. I listened to the cylinder. That is quite different from the piece that Tomas O Canainn calls 'Gol na mBan Ar' in his book.

I think he made a mistake. It's hard to picture his tune being sad. It comes out like a march, not a slow air.

The music on the cylinder is more credible as a song about a slaughter.

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ar
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 22 Nov 11 - 12:30 PM

It's one of a few pieces of programme music. One of a few in existence in Irish Music (the Foxchase being probably the most well known one with it's scope for playing to the gallery and going over the top on the animal sounds on the pipes) O'Suillebheann had fragments of it when recorded in 1899 but that's what we have. The piece ends with the jig allegedly danced by the women on the grave of the commander of the defeated army.

Anyhow, Seámus Ennis recorded the Eagle's Whistle a number of times but the earliest of those, on the Bonny Bunch of Roses was called Gol na mBan on the cover of the lp. I guess the mistake was repeated by those who learned the tune from that recording. Ennis later always referred to it as 'The Eagle's Whistle'.

Subject: RE: Help: Gol na mBan san Ar
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Nov 11 - 04:02 PM

I believe you, but as a dedicated birdwatcher, I find the concept of an eagle whistling quite strange.