Subject: Lyr Add: THE IRISH PEASANT GIRL (Charles Kickham) From: Jim Dixon Date: 19 Mar 13 - 01:35 PM From Street Ballads, Popular Poetry, and Household Songs of Ireland collected and arranged by Duncathail (pseud.) (Dublin: McGlashan & Gill, 1865), page 66: THE IRISH PEASANT GIRL.1 Charles J. Kickham. She lived beside the Anner, at the foot of Sliev-na-mon,2 A gentle peasant girl, with mild eyes like the dawn; Her lips were dewy rosebuds; her teeth of pearls rare; And a snow-drift 'neath a beechen bough her neck and nut-brown hair. How pleasant 'twas to meet her on Sunday, when the bell Was filling with its mellow tones lone wood and grassy dell! And when at eve young maidens strayed the river bank along, The widow's brown-haired daughter was loveliest of the throng. O brave, brave Irish girls—we well may call you brave!— Sure the least of all your perils is the stormy ocean wave, When you leave our quiet valleys, and cross the Atlantic's foam, To hoard your hard-won earnings for the helpless ones at home. "Write word to my own dear mother—say, we'll meet with God above; And tell my little brothers I send them all my love; May the angels ever guard them, is their dying sister's prayer"— And folded in the letter was a braid of nut-brown hair. Ah, cold, and well nigh callous, this weary heart has grown For thy helpless fate, dear Ireland, and for sorrows of my own; Yet a tear my eye will moisten, when by Anner side I stray, For the lily of the mountain foot that withered far away. 1 This little poem, when it first appeared in "The Celt" a few years since, was pronounced "a gem" by the late Michael Doheny. 2 Sliav-na-mban. |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Alice Date: 19 Mar 11 - 12:03 AM Here is wonderful singing of this song at a recorded session that I just found: Mary Conway (ne Walsh) sings, "She lived beside the Anner" in 1992. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uol3-5fMwFc Alice |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Alice Date: 18 Mar 11 - 11:12 PM Sean O`Se beautiful recording, as noted by ard mhacha, is here on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cx5vJm6hhg A shorter version, I put my recording together with some images in a video as well, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP8NUvvu5J8 Alice |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Joe Offer Date: 28 Nov 10 - 11:48 PM This song is listed in the Traditional Ballad Index under the title, "Irish Peasant Girl": Irish Peasant Girl, TheDESCRIPTION: Singer thinks about widow Brown's daughter. She crosses the Atlantic to send money home. Her dying wish is that a letter be written to her mother and brother at home. Singer in Ireland thinks of "the lily of the mountain furze that withers far away"AUTHOR: probably Charles Joseph Kickham (1825-1882) EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sparling) KEYWORDS: emigration dying hardtimes Ireland separation money FOUND IN: Ireland REFERENCES (2 citations): O'Conor, p. 126, "The Irish Peasant Girl" (1 text) ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 261-262, 502, "The Irish Peasant Girl" Roud #5687 RECORDINGS: Tommy McGrath, "She Lived Beside the Anner" (on Voice04) Notes: O'Conor has the author as John Banim (1798-1842), who wrote "Aileen," "Soggarth Aroon," "The Reconciliation," "The Irish Maiden's Song," and "The Irish Mother in the Penal Days." Sparling makes Kickham the author and is supported in that by the article "Charles Joseph Kickham" at the New Advent site Catholic Encyclopedia. The first line is "She lived beside the Anner at the foot of Slievenamon"; Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the same was true of Kickham. - BS Colum's An Anthology of Irish Verse also credits it to Kickham. For more on him, see the notes to "Patrick Sheehan" [Laws J11]. - RBW File: RcTIrPGi Go to the Ballad Search form The Ballad Index Copyright 2009 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle. |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Alice Date: 28 Nov 10 - 11:09 PM Someone emailed me today asking for this song, so I decided to upload the MP3 again that was once linked at the start of this thread. http://my.montana.net/aliceflynn/anner.mp3 Old songs and old threads... they grow more dear as time passes. Alice |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: ard mhacha Date: 27 Nov 08 - 04:36 PM A brilliant rendition by Sean O`Se on You Tube, one of the best of Kickhams songs. |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Alice Date: 27 Dec 06 - 07:09 PM DannyC, thanks for more verses. I did not have the third and fourth verse you posted. I'm sorry the MP3.com site no longer exists, so my song file is not on the net any more. I still have the mp3 file on my computer if anyone wants me to email it to them. Just send a personal message. Alice |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: MartinRyan Date: 27 Dec 06 - 05:32 PM DannyC The reference was to the tunes used, which are similar. Regards |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: DannyC Date: 27 Dec 06 - 05:16 PM (1) This (below) is how I recall Oldcastle (Co Meath) Gerry Farrelly's tender version of the song - a modal air to a slowish waltz tempo (2) The song held a special place for the Tyrone fluteplayer, Martin McCann, who drew my attention to it as we would back Gerry at ceilis, etc. a couple of decades or so ago (3) I have no idea how anyone could ever compare this song with "The Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe". Oh she lived beside The Anner at the foot of Slievenamon a gentle Irish colleen with mild eyes like the dawn her cheeks were dewy rosebuds and her teeth were pearls rare a snowdrift 'neath the beechen bough her neck and long brown hair oh happy was to see her on a Sunday when the bell was filling with it's mellow tone lone wood and grassy dell and when at eve young maidens strolled the Anner banks along the widow's brown-haired daughter was the lov'liest of the throng oh brave, brave Irish colleens we well may call yee brave for the least of all your perils are the stormy ocean waves when you leave your quiet valleys and cross the Atlantic foam to hoard your hard-won earnings for the helpless ones at home send word to my dear mother that we'll meet in heav'n above and tell my little brother I send him all my love may the angels ever guard him was the dying sister's prayer and folded in the letter was a braid of nut-brown hair oh cold and my weary heart has grown for all thy troubles Ireland and for sorrows of my own yet with tears my eyes will moisten when by Anner banks I stray for The Lilly of the Mountain Brook who withered far away |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: GUEST,C Joyce Date: 27 Dec 06 - 04:34 PM Alice, where did you say the lyrics were posted? My grandmother, a Mellett from Meath, used to sing it and my parents have always loved the song but my dad doesn't sing it because he says it's too sad. I sing sean nos, and would love to learn it. I found some lyrics but it only had 3 of the 5(?) verses... I'd really appreciate it if you could post or send me the lyrics =) Many thanks! -Catherine |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Alice Date: 25 Jan 02 - 02:36 PM Thank you, Martin. It is pretty much close to the way Mary O'Hara recorded it in the '50's. Alice |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: MartinRyan Date: 24 Jan 02 - 05:49 PM Alice Finally got round to it! Enjoyed your version very much - the air seems a bit different from how I remember it, but none the worse for that. Well done! Regards |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Alice Date: 03 Dec 01 - 04:12 PM Martin, you can listen to it using the free Real Audio Basic player, the same as listening to Mudcat radio. If your computer doesn't already have Real Audio, you can get it free from their site at:www.real.com - scroll down and you will see the link on the left side to download a free player. Alice |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Alice Date: 30 Nov 01 - 08:21 PM Hi, Jean, thanks for adding that. One of my wishes - to get to your archive in Galway some day! I should go look at John Moulden's web site and see if he has an old recording there. I haven't seen John on the Mudcat lately, but I don't spend as much time here myself as I used to. I have a tape of Elizabeth Cronin that I got from John's site. Alice |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie) Date: 30 Nov 01 - 05:30 PM Alice- I THINK I recorded this in the early 50s from Maimi O'Connell in Cork. Married name escapes me, but she is Bess Cronin's niece. Tapes are here somewhere...also are in the Ritchie-Pickow Archive in University College Galway. All the best, Jean |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: MartinRyan Date: 30 Nov 01 - 10:48 AM Paddy Joe Don't get me wrong! It's just that the treatment of this and similar songs has tended to be so hackneyed over the years, that one despairs of hearing them well done. And I do genuinely love when I hear such material revitalised - especially by the unaccompanied voice. I remember, many years ago, hearing a girl sing "By the short cut to the Rosses" at a session on Bere Island in Bantry Bay. The hair stood on the back of my neck..... whereas normally the conventional, drawing room arrangement passes me by - at best. Regards p.s. I promise to wind up some MP3 software and listen to your singing, Alice. Looking forward to it! |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: MMario Date: 30 Nov 01 - 10:38 AM Amen, Alice |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: GUEST,Alice Date: 30 Nov 01 - 10:30 AM Thank you, Paddy Joe. I just wish more people here in the US had as much appreciation for unaccompanied singing. Even with a beautiful song like this one that stands on its own, I get alot of flack for not having instrumental accompaniment. I keep resisting the status quo, and when I find the few people who appreciate that the voice can be a solo "instrument", and that the lyrics alone have alot to offer, I feel grateful. Alice |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: GUEST Date: 30 Nov 01 - 09:32 AM Martin, You seem a wee bit dismissive of a lovely song, I remember hearing a school choir from Derrytrasna on Lough Neaghs shore singing this beautiful Kickham song and I have never ever heard a lovelier arrangment. Well done Alice you sang it beautifully. Paddy Joe. |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Jimmy C Date: 29 Nov 01 - 11:23 AM Alice, I have a recording of this song by a tenor by the name of Fergus Sherlock, I don't know that much about him. This recording is on a collection of 4 CD's called " 100 Irush Fvaourites - The ultimate Irish collection". The CD's have been digitally remastered so I imagine it is an old recording. It sounds like to mid 50's or 60's but I could be mistaken. It is not the typw of song I do but it is a nice one. Jimmy C |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: MartinRyan Date: 29 Nov 01 - 10:44 AM Written by Charles Kickham, who also wrote "Slievnamon" - the "Alone, all alone.." one. Regards |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: MartinRyan Date: 29 Nov 01 - 10:31 AM Alice Haven't got round to listening to music in MP3 format yet - not sure why - maybe the "old-fashioned" in me! Like all good songs that go out of fashion, ,it deserves to be dusted down every so often and shown off! Regards |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Alice Date: 29 Nov 01 - 09:28 AM Running through Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe, I guess there are some similarities, but I think Maid is closer to Fanaid Grove than it is to She lived beside the Anner. Alice |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Alice Date: 29 Nov 01 - 09:14 AM The Mary O'Hara recording from the 50's is where I learned it long ago, and then found the music in Herbert Hughes fourth volume of collected Irish Country Songs. No wonder I don't sell much of my music - my tastes are too old fashioned.
Thanks, Martin. I hope you feel better. I'll have to compare the tune to Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe - or you could listen to my mp3 and tell me what you think it resembles. Alice Flynn |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: MartinRyan Date: 29 Nov 01 - 09:09 AM Oops! Sorry about the blank posting - I'm sitting at the computer with a streaming head cold - and not really responsible for my actions! Regards |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: MartinRyan Date: 29 Nov 01 - 09:07 AM |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: MartinRyan Date: 29 Nov 01 - 06:58 AM Alice The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) lists about 40 recordings. A number of these are instrumental - it was a favourite of ceili bands. The songs seem to divide into : Regards |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: cetmst Date: 29 Nov 01 - 05:31 AM On Mary O'Hara's album "Ireland", Tradition LP 2115 |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: MartinRyan Date: 29 Nov 01 - 04:37 AM Rarely hear it in Ireland nowadays. With the recent fashion for drawing room tenors, it gets the occasional airing on TV specials and the like (the late Frank Patterson?). No doubt it survives as a a "party-piece" around Christmas time! Regards |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Alice Date: 28 Nov 01 - 10:02 PM I would be interested in knowing if anyone else sings this old song these days. I know of only one recording of the song from the 50's, and one other that is, I think, an instrumental.
Any music discussion appreciated. Alice |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: tremodt Date: 28 Nov 01 - 05:33 PM i thought all along it was She lived beside the anus |
Subject: RE: Tune Add: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Alice Date: 28 Nov 01 - 03:17 PM I should also say to those of you in Ireland, pardon my American accent. Alice |
Subject: She Lived Beside The Anner From: Alice Date: 28 Nov 01 - 03:13 PM Here is a sound file of the song
I posted the lyrics in an earlier thread and they are in the DT. I realize now that singing it from memory, I changed a couple of words from the original 19th century verses. Alice |
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