Lyr Req: The Fairy Boy (Samuel Lover)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Fairy Boy (Samuel Lover)
From: MartinRyan
Date: 11 Dec 12 - 02:42 AM

Thanks for that, GUESTDonal.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Fairy Boy (Samuel Lover)
From: GUEST,Donal
Date: 10 Dec 12 - 07:11 PM

Here you are, Martin. Page 362

Click here

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Fairy Boy (Samuel Lover)
From: MartinRyan
Date: 10 Dec 12 - 03:35 PM

GUESTDonal

Have you a date for that publication, please? Better still - post a link!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Fairy Boy (Samuel Lover)
From: GUEST,Donal
Date: 10 Dec 12 - 03:03 AM

I didn't realise that I had this, the Gaelic version came from an online copy of 'Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge - The Gaelic Journal' but I
don't know which is original and which translation.


Do tháinic bean go sroth cois leasa,

Le h-eirghe 'n Lae ag gul 'sa caoidh,

So mar dubhairt 'si bualladh a bas 'sa

Glaodhach ós árd air ríoghan na sigheadh;

"Cad fá 'r mheall tu leat mo leanbh,

Á chur fé dhraodheachd le cealg suiridhe,

Táimse 'nois 'san saoghal gan taithneamh,

Cad fa 'r fhuadais searc mo chroidhe?"



"Air na sléibhtibh, trís na gleanntaibh,

Mar ?? mo leanbh súgra tráth,

Le bláth 'gus mín-sgoth 'g fás 'na theannta

An rúd am' fhánuighe táim gach lá;

Am fhánuighe tnáite, le croidhe cráidhte,

I n-diagh mo leinbh an fhuilt buidhe,

Ag glaodhach le h-uaill air mhachaibh-alla,

Go saorfadaois mo báibín sighe."



"Acht monuar! ní thugthar aire

Air mo chaoidh ná 'r mo ghearrán,

Leis an sluaigh ág sgléip 'sa gáire,

'Seadh beidheas feasda mo leanán;

Slán go deóigh leat! 'nois am aonar,

Táim ad' dhíagh gan aon sólás.

Acht beidhmíd fós araon go seunmhar

I bhflaitheas Dé le cungnamh a Ghrás."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Fairy Boy (Samuel Lover)
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 12 - 04:52 PM

Where can I get the words
in Irish of "An Leanbh Sí" ? Any ideas?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Fairy Boy (Samuel Lover)
From: GUEST,Nan
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 01:54 PM

I first heard this from an old 78 record by the MacPeake family, dated from the 1920's or 30's, and it was very droning and haunting...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: Willa
Date: 17 Nov 03 - 12:22 PM

An Puca

A link to Samuel Lover http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_datasets/authors/l/Lover,S/life.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: GUEST,An Púca
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 09:08 PM

Malcolm, you are a man of reference to whom I become a man of reverence.   Numbers in series and indices of which I have never heard. I'll be back to this site.

I think (but have no means of checking) that the University of Washington (Or "U Dub" as they call it in Seattle) may have a recording of Joe Heaney singing the song to the Anach Cuain tune.

I notice from the links to the sheet music in your earlier message that Samuel Lover is credited with writing and composing. Is he known for composing music? Truly original or derivative?

Subject: Tune Add: FAIRY BOY (Samuel Lover)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 08:17 PM

I made a start on Gaelic (Scottish in my case) some years ago, but unfortunately haven't applied myself as I should, so my understanding of it is very sketchy indeed: not adequate for proper reading, I'm afraid.

From oral tradition (disregarding examples mentioned by other people earlier on), I know only of Angela Mulkere's set, of which only the text has been published, so far as I know (my earlier reference), and my guess that it was sung to the Anach Cuain tune is based only on the fact that Dave Arthur, who published it, had recorded it to that tune. It's a reasonable guess, but not a certainty. The original is on BBC recording 22833 (tape; copies held in various specialist libraries). So far, it's the only example listed in the Roud Folk Song Index, where it is number 9293.

On revisiting both Seamus Ennis' 1959 recording (I have a copy of the 1972 one as well, but can't find it at present, so I don't know if it's the same or not) and the Lover sheet music, I'm pretty sure that Ennis was playing the tune published by Lover in c.1839 (making allowances for that very individual piping style). That would suggest either that Ennis' father learned it, directly or at some remove, from Lover's sheet music; or that he and Lover both had it from, ultimately, the same independent source. Here is the melody line from Lover, as seen at the Levy collection:

X:1
T:The Fairy Boy
C:Samuel Lover
B:Songs of the Superstitions of Ireland, c.1839
S:Sheet music pub. John Cole, Baltimore, n.d.
N:Lester Levy Collection Box 043 Item 038
N:Roud 9293
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
M:3/4
K:A
"Tenderly"
A|A c E2 (FG)|A c f2 e2|f e c3 A|B A F2 z2|
w:A Mo-ther came when_ Stars were pa-ling, Wail-ing round a lone-ly spring,
A c E2 (FG)|A c f2 e2|f3 e c A|c3/ 2B/ A3 z|
w:Thus she cried While_ tears were fal-ling, Cal-ling on the Fai-ry king.
e c f3 e|c A (cB) A z|e c f2 (ec)|{c}HB A HB2 z2|
w:"Why with spells my child car-ess-*ing, Court-ing him with_ fai-ry joy,
A c E2 (FG)|A c f2 e2|f e c3 A|{c}B3/2 A/ A3 z|]
w:Why de-stroy a_ Mo-ther's bles-sing, Where-fore steal my ba-by boy!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: GUEST,Mickey
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 06:44 PM

I knew of an Irish version from Ennis' note on the record. Regarding versions of Lover's Fairy Boy and the tune, is the Grehan version mentioned above sung to the Anach Cuain tune or to the Ennis tune? I also seem to remember that the McNulty family may have recorded a version but I haven't heard it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: GUEST,An Púca
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 06:39 PM

Thanks for the Ennis quotation Malcolm. I have confirmed that Joe Heaney did sing the Fairy Boy to the tune used for Anach Cuain, so Ennis could have heard it from him also. I think you said previously that the Angela Mulkere recording used the same tune. It would be interesting to know if Lover's words coupled with the Fairy Boy tune had not taken hold in the oral tradition or had become disassociated. Do you know of any oral versions collected except with the Anach Cuain tune?

Whatever about Ennis' surmising about the original and the translation, I find it interesting that, in his note, he associates the tune with the "song in Gaelic". He must have heard it sung. I have heard one verse of it but must do some work to gather it together again.

Mickey - how did you know there was an Irish version?

I don't think Lover wrote in Irish at all. However he based most of his work on traditional material (whether heard in Irish or in English) and there are a number of possibilities:

1) There was an Irish song of which Lover produced a translation and,
a) That song is the one called an Leanbh Sí or,
b) It was another song of the same type.

Or

2) Lover composed a song based on a tradition he heard in prose telling and,
Lover's song was translated as an Leanbh Sí.

Or (to drive the archivists and verbal archaeologists mad)

3) There was an existing song and,
Lover produced the Fairy Boy as a translation of it and,
Lover's song was translated as an Leanbh Sí.

By the way Malcolm, I don't know if you can read Irish but you might be interested in an artible by Diarmaid Ó Muirithe (unfortunately I don't have the reference) titled "Of English Fayre I am Scarce Indeed': Amhráin Ghaeilge agus a nAistritheoirí c. 1700-1850 (Irish songs and their translators c. 1700-1850). He is mainly concerned with guaging the level of competence in the English language among the translators but there is much in it that could be of interest.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 06:24 PM

Seamus Ennis' back-catalogue is a bit convoluted, so I missed an earlier reference first time around. He also recorded the melody on The Bonny Bunch of Roses (Tradition TLP 1013, 1959), which later re-emerged, reissued under license under various titles (I have it, for instance, as Visit to Ireland volume three) but generally without any notes that may have accompanied the original issue. An ambiguous note on Peter Kennedy's website suggests either that Ennis was aware of the Sam Lover connection and just didn't mention it on The Pure Drop, or else found out about it later.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: GUEST,Mickey
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 06:01 PM

An Púca

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. I'm leaving it to yourself and Malcolm. How much more can you guys know?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 05:54 PM

Ennis recorded the tune as The Fairy Boy on The Pure Drop (1972) and it later appeared on at least one compilation as An Leanbh Sidhe. Ennis wrote:

"This is the tune of the song in Gaelic of a mother whose boy-child was taken by the fairies in accordance with the fairy changeling mythological tradition. I have heard a free translation sung, the first verse of which commences: 'A woman come when the stars were paling...' and ends 'wherefore steal my fairy boy?' It was one of my father's favourite airs."

Ennis had in fact recorded the English language set I mentioned earlier (Mrs Angela Mulkere, late of Co. Clare, living in London, March 1956) while he was working as a collector for the BBC, and presumably that is what he is referring to in his note. He seems not to have known of Lover's connection, however, or the fact that it was already more than a century old when he heard it; so his assertion that it is a translation -though it is not particularly unlikely- is really only anecdotal until supported by other evidence. It is a pity that he didn't mention where his father learnt the tune, and whether he also knew a Gaelic text for it; though we should remember that that gentleman was not yet born when Lover published.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: GUEST,An Púca
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 05:25 PM

Managed to speak to one person. These international calls can't be cut short - this could be the most expensive bit of information ever posted here.

The first line of the Irish version is "Tháinig bean go sruth cois leasa. I might get more from other aunts in totally different time zones later in the day/night.

Seán Ryan has the air of it on a tin-whistle album, derived from Séamus Ennis who probably has it on some album before him.

Mickey, you have me totally confused with chickens and eggs? Are you sure its not ducks and drakes?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: GUEST,An Púca
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 03:05 PM

I know people who do indeed have Irish words to the tune of the Fairy Boy and who call it an leana sí. And there would seem to be a similarity with Dónal (one 'l' or two?) Óg in one of the melodic lines.

Very good references from Malcolm which I appreciate. I think Joe Heaney used to sing the Anach Cuain version too, whether he picked it up on his travels or heard it at home.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: GUEST,Mickey
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 03:09 AM

I think there were words in Irish and that it was called An Leanbh Sí or An Leana Sí. Seamus Ennis had the tune under the Irish name. Whether Lover wrote ab initio or was actually translating or transliterating would require examination of both texts. And it would probably be a fruitless task - the most that could be decided is which version was the chicken and which was the egg.

I am still interested in any fragments of it that people might have in Irish.

As to the music of it (not he AnachCuain version), does anyone else hear a line of Dónall Óg as the third line?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 07:58 PM

I don't think Lover wrote songs in Irish, did he? Someone may well have translated it into Gaelic, I suppose. There are now (Scottish) Gaelic translations of many of Burns' songs, for example.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: GUEST,Mickey
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 06:57 PM

Now, does any one know the lyrics of this in Irish?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Jan 01 - 05:16 PM

There are two copies of sheetmusic for Lover's song at The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music:

The Fairy Boy
The Fairy Boy

There are also broadside copies at the  Bodleian Library Broadside Collection;  here are two pasted together:

The Fairy Boy  (a)Printed between 1836 and 1842 by D. Batchelar, 14, Hackney Road Crescent, London, and (b) between 1838 and 1859 by [Ryle and Paul] 2 & 3, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials, London.

Another set was found in tradition sung by Angela Mulkere of County Clare, in 1956; Dave Arthur published the text in English Dance and Song (vol.58 no.1, Spring 1996).  Her words were identical to Lover's poem (assuming that the last bit in the text from Martin's link should be "...sever, There I'll find..."), but her melody (I'm assuming that it was her version that Dave and Toni Arther recorded back in 1971) is a version of the one used for Anach Cuain and Derry Gaol.  Lover's melody actually sounds a little reminiscent of that tune; it may well be that he had it in mind when writing.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: GUEST,Guest,Yorksire
Date: 18 Jan 01 - 03:31 PM

MMario,Snuffy, Martin Ryan, Joe Offer; You've made my day!Thanks, everyone.I really am in my dotage,and it's fascinating to have you confirm what I thought I 'knew' about the background to the song. Zebedee; not the right song but a lovely one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: Snuffy
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 09:43 PM

MEZ files of the Samuel Lover and the Grehan Sisters version sent to Joe Offer

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: Snuffy
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 07:54 PM

I've got MusicEase, which will do the same thing. I've saved that tune, and I'll also have a go at the Grehan Sisters' tune.

But not till tomorrow.

Wassail! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 06:16 PM

The tune is on This Page. Anybody got time to extract the basic turen and match it to the first verse of the lyrics in a Noteworthy File?
Thanks.
-Joe Offer (click to e-mail)-

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FAIRY BOY (Samuel Lover)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 06:07 PM

Just in case Martin's link expires, I'll post the lyrics here.
-Joe Offer-

---

THE FAIRY BOY
(Samuel Lover)

When a beautiful Child pines and dies, the Irish Peasant believes the healthy Infant has been stolen by the Fairies and a sickly Elf left in its place.

1.
A Mother came when Stars were paling,
Wailing round a lonely spring,
Thus she cried while tears were falling,
Calling on the Fairy king.
"Why with spells my child caressing,
Courting him with fairy joy,
Why destroy a Mother's blessing,
Wherefore steal my baby boy!"

2.
"O'er the mountain thro' the wild wood,
Where his childhood lov'd to play,
Where the flow'rs are freshly springing,
There I wander, day by day,
There I wander, growing fonder
Of the child that made my joy,
On the echos wildly calling,
To restore my Fairy boy."

3.
But in vain my plaintive calling
Tears are falling all in vain,
He now sports with fairy pleasures;
He's the treasure of their train!
Fare thee well my child for ever,
In this world I've lost my joy,
But in the next we ne'er shall aever
There find my Angel boy.


"The Fairy Boy" (circa 1840s)
(From the Songs of the Superstitions of Ireland)
Written & Composed by Samuel Lover

MR

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: MartinRyan
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 05:02 PM

The same idea, of course, lies behind Yeat's "Stolen Child" - but from the fairy's angle!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: MartinRyan
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 08:43 AM

Bah! Getting careless in my dotage! Click Here

Regards

p.s. bloody laptops!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: MartinRyan
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 08:41 AM

Samuel Lover (1797 - 1868) was Irish. Wrote a poetry and a number of books on Irish Legends and Folktales. A Google search turns up lots of references, including THIS set of words to the Fairy Boy.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: Snuffy
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 07:11 AM

Made a right mess of the formatting there - try again

I have that song (almost identical words, but different tune on the Grehan Sisters 1967 LP "On the Galtymore Mountains" where it's given as "trad, arr Grehans". The sleeve notes say:

This is a traditional balld which the Grehans learned from their mother, who does not sing, but used to recite "The Fairy Boy " as a poem. The story was probably based on an old tradition prevalent in Ireland many years ago. When a beautiful child died, a mother believed that the original child had been taken by the fairies and a sickly elf left in its place. Some mothers used to dress thier little boys in frocks to fool the fairies. This tradition is still carried out in some parts of Ireland.

I'll post the Grehans tune in the next few days if I get time. The Lover tune is hymn-like: Berni(c)e Grehan sings hers like an Irish air, unaccompanied apart from a low drone-type accompaniment on guitar

A Mother came when stars were paling,
Wailing round a lonely spring,
Thus she cried while tears were falling,
Calling on the Fairy king.
"Wildwood spells my child caressing,
Courting him with fairy joy,
O why take a Mother's blessing,
Wherefore take my baby boy!"

"Over hills and down through valleys,
Where his childhood lov'd to play,
Where the flow'rs are freshly springing,
There I wander, day by day,
There I wander, ever fonder
Of the child who made my joy,
Calling on the wild winds blowing,
To restore my Fairy boy."

"But in vain my plaintive calling
Tears are falling all in vain,
He now sports with fairy pleasures;
He's the treasure of their train!
Fare thee well my child for ever,
In this world I've lost my joy,
In the next we ne'er shall sever
There I'll find my Angel boy."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: MMario
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 08:55 PM

American Civil War - mid 1800's roughly

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 08:33 PM

If anybody called Bubba Luke a FairyBoy, he'd whack 'em one!!

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FAIRY BOY
From: Snuffy
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 08:12 PM

Mmario

I have that song (almost identical words, but different tune on the Grehan Sisters 1967 LP "On the Galtymore Mountains" where it's given as "trad, arr Grehans". The sleeve notes say:

This is a traditional ballad which the Grehans learned from their mother, who does not sing, but used to recite "The Fairy Boy" as a poem. The story was probably based on an old tradition prevalent in Ireland many years ago. When a beautiful child died, a mother believed that the original child had been taken by the fairies and a sickly elf left in its place. Some mothers used to dress their little boys in frocks to fool the fairies. This tradition is still carried out in some parts of Ireland.

I'll post the Grehans tune in the next few days if I get time. The Lover tune is hymn-like: Berni(c)e Grehan sings it like an Irish air, unaccompanied apart from a low drone-type accompaniment on guitar

A Mother came when stars were paling,
Wailing round a lonely spring,
Thus she cried while tears were falling,
Calling on the Fairy king.
"Wildwood spells my child caressing,
Courting him with fairy joy,
O why take a Mother's blessing,
Wherefore take my baby boy!"

"Over hills and down through valleys,
Where his childhood lov'd to play,
Where the flow'rs are freshly springing,
There I wander, day by day,
There I wander, ever fonder
Of the child who made my joy,
Calling on the wild winds blowing,
To restore my Fairy boy."

"But in vain my plaintive calling
Tears are falling all in vain,
He now sports with fairy pleasures;
He's the treasure of their train!
Fare thee well my child for ever,
In this world I've lost my joy,
In the next we ne'er shall sever
There I'll find my Angel boy."

Who's Samuel Lover? Irish? American? thief? And what's the Secession?

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 18-Jul-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: Zebedee
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 04:51 PM

Or maybe this one?

Ed

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fairy boy
From: MMario
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 04:47 PM

this one? from the about the time of the secession?

Subject: Fairy boy
From: GUEST,Guest,Yorkshire
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 04:41 PM

Does anyone know the lyrics of Fairy Boy?