Lyr Req: Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge

Subject: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 06:15 PM

I play two tunes on the Celtic harp as a mini-medley. They are called the Water Kelpie, and the Great Silkie. I can find the words of the second one but the only reference I can find in the DT database refers to a tune called:

Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge ("Lullaby of the Water- Horse") with reference to a tune called Can You Sew Cushions.

Does anyone know the lyrics of the Water Kelpie tune or know where I can find them? I have always known *somehow* that the tune was about a sea creature which has turned into a human and then turns back again to its original form, but I don't know where I found this information or whether I have ever seen the lyrics or only heard the story.

Any help would be appreciated.

Helen

This is what I found in the database.

CAN YOU SEW CUSHIONS
O can ye sew Cushions, and can ye sew Sheets,
nd can ye sing balluloo when the bairn greets?
And hee and baw birdie, and hee and baw lamb,
And hee and baw birdie, my bonnie wee lamb.
Hee O, wee O, what wou'd I do wi' you?
Black's the life that I lead wi' you;
Monny O you, little for to gie you,
Hee O, wee O, what would I do wi' you.
________________________________________________________ SMM V (1796), 456 (no. 444), with music; supplied by Burns [punctuation added]. Stenhouse, in his notes (394) gives a second verse:

I've placed my cradle on yon holly top,
And aye as the wind blew, my cradle did rock;
O hush a ba, baby, O ba lilly loo,
And hee and ba, birdie, my bonnie wee dow.
Hee O! wee O! What will I do wi' you, &c.

The complete song in Chambers PRS (1847), 177, m.; (1870), 14; music p. 15, from SMM, as is Ford CR 127 (4 stanzas of 8 lines, chorus), Montgomerie SNR 127 (4x4, = 1 st. chorus, with music also. ODNR 61-2 (no. 22), under "Hush-a-bye, baby" [as in Halliwell NRE (1842), 102 (CLXVII); first ref. to Mother Goose's Melody, c. 1765] which may be connected with the 2nd stanza B[from Stenhouse]. Lady Nairne added 2 stanzas. See Lucy Broadwood in FSJ (JFSS) no. 19 (V.2), 1915, p. 243, identifying the air as = Crodh Chailein; and further, the tune and the words of the chorus recall another Highland song, "Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge" ("Lullaby of the Water- Horse") noted by Frances Tolmie in Skye (FSJ no. 16 [IV.3], 1911, 160): The neighing refrain "Hee-o, wee-o," etc. ["Heigh O, heugh O" in MacLeod-Boulton, Songs of the North, I.14- 15], in the English text seems quite pointless; but, when compared with the Gaelic original, the grafting together of the two Highland lullabies becomes clear and the chorus invested with some importance, seeing that in the Highland "Water-Horse" we have an ancient Norse survival, and that the poor "Kelpie," neighing his child to sleep, was the lonely husband of "brown-haired Morag" who, homesick, fled, to live on dry land once more; regardless of the tender lamentations of her forsaken merman. @Scots @lullaby filename[ CUSHION2 MS

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Bruce O.
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 06:30 PM

As MS (Murray) noted the tune "O can ye sew Cushions" is in 'The Scots Musical Museum', #444, and a reprint is available.

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 14 Mar 98 - 01:09 AM

Thamks Bruce, but it's not the tune that I need for Can Ye Sew Cushions. I would like to know where I can get the lyrics for the Highland song mentioned in the notes called "Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge" ("Lullaby of the Water- Horse"), which I am assuming (rightly or wrongly) will fit the traditional tune I know called "The Water Kelpie". I have this tune from a book on arranging music for harp, written by Sylvia Woods, but there are no lyrics in the book.

Helen

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 16 Mar 98 - 05:21 PM

I'm just bringing this to the top again to see if anyone has any more ideas on where I can find the words to The Water Kelpie/Lullaby of the Water Horse/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge.

Also Bruce, can you tell me something, please. Is the Scots Musical Museum a book? I am in a provincial city (in Oz) with not much chance of finding a book like that in our libraries and definitely not in book or music shops. Can you tell me what it is and how I could find it?

Thanks, Helen

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Bruce O.
Date: 16 Mar 98 - 08:18 PM

The most recent reprint I saw of SMM (about a year ago) was a two volume edition, (originally six books of 100 songs each) without the big volume of Stenhouse's 'Illustrations' and Laing/ Sharpe's 'Additional Illustrations'.

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From:
Date: 03 Dec 98 - 11:25 PM

The Gaelic words for the Water Kelpie Song were presented in Margorie Kennedy-Fraser's Songs of the Hebrides Collection. This is a three volume set which may be back in print again. Check your local library to see if they have the book.

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From:
Date: 03 Dec 98 - 11:25 PM

The Gaelic words for the Water Kelpie Song were presented in Margorie Kennedy-Fraser's Songs of the Hebrides Collection. This is a three volume set which may be back in print again. Check your local library to see if they have the book.

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Annraoi
Date: 05 Dec 98 - 09:32 AM

Shape changing seems to be a product of seaside-dwelling peoples. Note the Irish song "an Mhaighdean Mhara" (The Sea Maiden) telling the story of a water dweller who had taken on human shape for love etc. Beautiful tune. However, I don'tknow how to transfer it by computer. Clannad may have it on one of their albums.

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 05 Dec 98 - 06:43 PM

Hi all, I haven't found the books referred to here so if anyone knows a site on the internet with the gaelic words I'd love to know. Also I am still unsure as to whether the Lullaby of the Water Horse is the same tune as The Water Kelpie.

I promise I'll learn how to use the MidiText programme and post the tune of the water Kelpie. It might help my search.

And Annraoi, I assume you saw the movie called The Secret of Roan Innish? Based on the idea of a woman who changed from seal to human form & back again. Similar to the Great Silkie of Sule Skerry song about a seal/man.

Helen

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Philippa
Date: 06 Dec 98 - 06:56 AM

Tha deagh-fhortun agaibh. By happy coincidence, I happen to have borrowed a book from the local library which has info. on the each-uisge:

Ethel Bassin. 2The Old Songs of Skye: Frances Tolmie and her Circle". London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977.

p.35-36

"From Kate MacDiarmid (Catriona Mhòr, who had led the singing with much gusto at the waulkings, Fanny learned and noted 'Cumha an each-uisge' (Example 9).

"The each-uisge (water-horse) is a familiar figure in Gaelic folklore. In the guise of a man he might lay his head in the lap of a girl and invite her to 'dress' his hair. The tales vary between the girl who does, or does not, discover in time from the sand in his hair and on his breast what he really is. Mòrag in this instance, does not make the discovery until after she has borne him a child. In terror she flees, leaving the baby with him. This song - a lullaby still current in oral tradition - is the each-uisge's entreaty to Mòrag to return, alternating with his affectionate lulling of the child.

"In the Journal Miss Tolmie remarks that her pleasure in these old wive's songs was considered very odd by her contemporaries, 'for they were not deemed "poetry" or worthy of notice by song-collectors of that period'. Some of her elders, fortunately, were of her own way of thinking, notably her aunt, Mrs Hector Mackenzie (Annabella Tolmie), whose only son, John Tolmie Mackenzie was harbour- master at Dunvegan as well as being factor to MacLeod of MacLeod."

example 9 in Bassin's book, from Tolmies Journal, 7, collected from Kate Macdiarmid, cottar, Minginish, Isle of Skye, 1862

staff notation is in the book - slow, c# and F#- D/AAAF/DBAF/EEEE/EEE//refrain: DFE/DFED/AAF/f-AAD/d-bAFE/EFE/EFE [this doesn't show you timing, but you should be able to tell if it's similar to the air you play]

A Mhórag dhonn! A Mhórag dhonn! Till gud' mhacan; 'S gheibh thu 'm bradan breac o'n loch.

chor: A-hó hi. A-hó hi. A-hó hó-an, A-hó hó-an, A-hó hi. A-hó hi.

Tha 'n oidhch' an nochd
Gu fliuch frasach,
Aig mo mhac-sa ri sgàth cnocain.

Gun teine, gun tuar,
Gun fhasgadh
'S tu sìor chonràn.

Mo shean-a chab liath.
Ri d' bheul beag baoth.
'S mi seinn phort duit am Beinn Frochdai.

O brown haired Morag, come back to thy little son, and thou shalt get a speckled salmon from the loch.

The night is wet and showery for my son in the shelter of the knoll without fire, pale, forlorn, and wailing without cease.

My unsightly old grey mouth, against thy silly little mouth, while I sing dandling songs to thee in Ben Frochdai.
------
- I give the translation as in the book. If you plan to devise a singable translation, there's no particular reason to use 'thou' and 'thy'
- a footnote says "This song appears as 'Oran an t-Each-Eisge - Nuair Theich a Bhean Bhuaidh', 'The water Kelpie's song when his wife left him', in 'Gesto', p.20 [MacDonald, The Gesto Collection]
- In 1897, Tolmie collected 'Oran-tàlaidh an eich-uisge' (lullaby of the water-horse)[ this title uses the standard genitive - 'eich'/ of the 'each' - horse] and 'Caoidh an eich -uisge' (Lament of the Water-horse) both from Mary Ross, Killmaluag, Skye (so apparently two distinct songs)

I've recently heard Skye residents talk casually of a water-horse in a loch in the Sleat peninsula, and one enterprising soul has erected a large skeleton purported to be of an "Equs aquea" (or something like that|)

The mermaid/seal-human stories are a bit different from kelpie stoires. It's nice that the tunes about the water horse and the selchie go well together! and in Bassin's book the next song given, collected by Tolmie from her aunt Mrs Mackenzie, is a mermaid song 'oran mu'n Ghruagaich-mhara'. The singer describes seeing the sea-maiden in a grey robe, stretching and changing her appearance to that of 'an animal without horns' - patently a seal. There are several different songs on this theme - the Irish one Annraoi mentions (recorded by Clannad and Altan) has a child singing of the mother who returns to the sea, while in Oran an Mhaighdean-Mhara (recorded by Ishbel MacAskill/NicAsgaill), the sea-maiden herself sings. The 'great silkie' or 'selchie' song as I've heard it is unusual in that the seal is a man, a father, rather than a mermaid.

Bassin quotes W T Dennison, Orcadian Sketch-book : "every true descendent of the Norseman looks upon the seal as a kind of second-cousin in disgrace."

It might be worth looking up the School of Scottish Studies, Edinburgh website to see if they have any kelpie and/or selchie tales. http://www.pearl.arts.ed.ac.uk/

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Philippa
Date: 06 Dec 98 - 01:31 PM

Kennedy-Fraser's book is in our library. Shall I look it up or is the excerpt from Bassin/Tolmie above sufficient? I correct myself on Oran na Maighdean-Mhara; the songs is the words of the deserted husband whose wife has returned to the sea. I've put the words of that song in another thread. I also typed in an Irish song with a similar theme, though I fear there are minor inaccuracies in the text.

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 06 Dec 98 - 07:33 PM

Philippa, Thank you very much for all that wonderful information. I will copy it and read it all off-line and see how the tune fits with the notes you posted. I'll also post the tune, hopefully later today or tomorrow morning. DYou don't need to look up the other book for me. I think what you have given me is plenty.

Helen, in Oz

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Philippa
Date: 07 Dec 98 - 11:19 AM

for readers interested in more about kelpies and selchies (not particularly songs)there's lots of sources including: "The People of the Sea" D. Thomson Edinburgh:Canongate[ I myself have been meaning to get ahold of this book and read it - for about the past three years] / Selchie - see: www.cgocable.net/~sbutler/selkies/selkies.html ; www.orcades.dircon.co.uk/selkie.htm ; www.oz.net/~bpickett/Selkiesound.html for a short story: www.intertext.com/Zines/InterText/v4n6/sea.html for a bit of information about an Amazonian legend of dolphins assuming human form: whale.wheelock.edu/archives/whalenet94/0111.html Kelpie- see: J F Campbell. POPULAR TALES OF THE WEST HIGHLANDS, VOL.IV McKay. MORE WEST HIGHLAND TALES, VOL.II websites (some of which have info on selchies and other fairies as well): http://www.scifi-fantasy.com/~zmjett/fey.htm#kelp; http://www.gryphonheart.com/Creature_Pages/kelpie.htm ; . http://www.ecnet.net/users/gemedia3/Faery/Faery.html ; http://www.teaandsympathy.com/children.htm ; http://www.songworm.com/lyrics/songworm-parody/Electrocity.html

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge/
From: Philippa
Date: 07 Dec 98 - 06:05 PM

I revoke or modify my correction of 6 Dec. On the Maighdean Mhara thread I just pasted in the translation as it appears on a site for lyrics of the Sioda album ( a very good collection altogether - I recommend the recording - MacMeanma, Isle of Skye, Scotland). But despite the translation, "Ged gur maighdean mhara mi" - means "although I am a mermaid" not "although you are a mermaid" Some say the song is the cry of the seal maiden who has gone back to the sea, some say it's the lament of her deserted lover. Maybe the words of both are represented in different verses - the reference to trickery in the chorus would seem to belong to the human who didn't know his lover was a seal and would have to leave him.

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 07 Dec 98 - 09:08 PM

Philippa,

Just when I thought it was safe to get out there on the net and you give all of these site addresses. I can see I'll be burning the midnight oil again, chained to my computer for eternity just chasing up these interesting sites.

Thanks, heaps Helen

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Philippa
Date: 08 Dec 98 - 12:13 PM

Regarding my corrections and uncorrections of the Maighdean Mhara song, one can also sing "Ged is maighdean mhara i" = although SHE is a mermaid - just use í instead of mí

and 'is' is right, not 'gur' - I tend to mix up my Irish and Scots Gaelic

Kenneth Macleod in the Kennedy-Fraser book says that the kelpie is really the same as the Gaelic 'Peatan', no the Each-Uisge. I know nothing (yet) about an Peatan but the kelpie appears to be quite a nasty beast, whereas the Each-Uisge just chases human women. Often he just falls asleep as they're stroking him, the woman notices the sand and leaves as maiden as she came (is this the origin of "Geaftaí Bhaile Bhuí" ??) And when the each-uisge does father a child, somehow in songs he often gets stuck rocking the cradle and lamenting where has the babe's mother gone.

Helen, did the tune fit? approximately?

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 09 Dec 98 - 08:27 PM

Hi again, Philippa

No I don't think that your tune is the same as the one I have called the Water Kelpie. I don't know the notation you used - does and upper case letter mean a higher note, and lower case is a lower note or vice versa, or is it something different altogether? The tune I know is in the key of A minor (no sharps or flats) A A|GAB|CDC

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 09 Dec 98 - 08:32 PM

Hi again, Philippa

No I don't think that your tune is the same as the one I have called the Water Kelpie. I don't know the notation you used - does and upper case letter mean a higher note, and lower case is a lower note or vice versa, or is it something different altogether? The tune I know is in the key of A minor (no sharps or flats, 3/4 TIME |A A|GAB|CDC|A A|GFE|EFG|A| (all these notes are in the octave going up from middle C, i.e. the third bar is C above middle C, D above that. In fact every note in this part is only one up or one down on the one before it so there are no big jumps from low to high or vice versa.

Sorry if this is confusing.

Helen

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Philippa
Date: 10 Dec 98 - 04:16 AM

the lower case letters were short lead in grace notes. The tune didn't have a big range, just from D above middle C to the B above that, so I didn't have to differentiate between highs and lows

Subject: Tune Add: WATER KELPIE
From: Helen
Date: 10 Dec 98 - 06:16 PM

Hi again,

Thanks Philippa, I'll have another look at it.

I have put the Water Kelpie music into midi format, using Noteworthy, and finally learned how to use Alan's MidiTxt program so here it is.

Helen

MIDI file: waterkel.mid

Timebase: 192

Name: Water Kelpie
Text: By Unregistered User
Copyright: Copyright © 1998 by NoteWorthy ArtWare, Inc.
TimeSig: 3/4 24 8
Start
0000 1 69 110 0336 0 69 000 0048 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 71 110 0160 0 71 000 0032 1 72 110 0160 0 72 000 0032 1 74 110 0160 0 74 000 0032 1 72 110 0160 0 72 000 0032 1 71 110 0160 0 71 000 0032 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 69 110 0336 0 69 000 0048 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 65 110 0160 0 65 000 0032 1 64 110 0160 0 64 000 0032 1 64 110 0160 0 64 000 0032 1 65 110 0160 0 65 000 0032 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 69 110 0528 0 69 000 0048 1 69 110 0336 0 69 000 0048 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 71 110 0160 0 71 000 0032 1 72 110 0160 0 72 000 0032 1 74 110 0160 0 74 000 0032 1 72 110 0160 0 72 000 0032 1 71 110 0160 0 71 000 0032 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 69 110 0336 0 69 000 0048 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 65 110 0160 0 65 000 0032 1 64 110 0160 0 64 000 0032 1 64 110 0160 0 64 000 0032 1 65 110 0160 0 65 000 0032 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 69 110 0528 0 69 000 0048 1 72 110 0256 0 72 000 0032 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 76 110 0160 0 76 000 0032 1 72 110 0256 0 72 000 0032 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 76 110 0160 0 76 000 0032 1 72 110 0256 0 72 000 0032 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 76 110 0160 0 76 000 0032 1 76 110 0160 0 76 000 0032 1 74 110 0160 0 74 000 0032 1 72 110 0160 0 72 000 0032 1 71 110 0256 0 71 000 0032 1 72 110 0094 0 72 000 0002 1 74 110 0160 0 74 000 0032 1 71 110 0256 0 71 000 0032 1 72 110 0094 0 72 000 0002 1 74 110 0160 0 74 000 0032 1 72 110 0160 0 72 000 0032 1 71 110 0160 0 71 000 0032 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 76 110 0336 0 76 000 0048 1 74 110 0160 0 74 000 0032 1 72 110 0256 0 72 000 0032 1 71 110 0094 0 71 000 0002 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 65 110 0160 0 65 000 0032 1 64 110 0160 0 64 000 0032 1 72 110 0256 0 72 000 0032 1 71 110 0094 0 71 000 0002 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 65 110 0160 0 65 000 0032 1 64 110 0160 0 64 000 0032 1 72 110 0256 0 72 000 0032 1 71 110 0094 0 71 000 0002 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 65 110 0160 0 65 000 0032 1 64 110 0160 0 64 000 0032 1 64 110 0160 0 64 000 0032 1 65 110 0160 0 65 000 0032 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 69 110 0528 0 69 000
End

This program is worth the effort of learning it.

To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here

ABC format:

X:1
T:Water Kelpie
M:3/4
Q:1/4=120
K:C
A4A2|G2A2B2|c2d2c2|B2A2G2|A4A2|G2F2E2|E2F2G2|
A6|A4A2|G2A2B2|c2d2c2|B2A2G2|A4A2|G2F2E2|
E2F2G2|A6|c3de2|c3de2|c3de2|e2d2c2|B3cd2|
B3cd2|c2B2A2|e4d2|c3BA2|G2F2E2|c3BA2|G2F2E2|
c3BA2|G2F2E2|E2F2G2|A11/2||

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 10 Dec 98 - 06:20 PM

Sorry, forgot to name the source of the Water Kelpie tune: Sylvia Wooods, Music Theory & Arranging Techniques for Folk Harps, 1987. The note for the tune just says that it is from the Isle of Man. She calls it The Water Kilpie, but I suspect it is likely to be Kelpie, but that might be my Oz bias coming out: a Kelpie is the wonderful working dog we have here, one of the mainstays of the farming industry.

Helen

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Philippa
Date: 11 Dec 98 - 04:10 AM

hmm, I'm going to have to get around to the midi.
I typed out the following before I saw your message, Helen,so I'll paste it in anyway:
The Water-Kelpie's Lullaby (Marjory Kennedy- Fraser, 1909 - based on Gaelic words and tune from the Gesto collection)

A Mhór a ghaoil! A Mhór, a shògh
Till gud' mhacan is gheabh [gheibh] thu 'm bradan breac o'n loch.
A hó hì, A hó hì, A hó hóan
A hó hó-an, A hó hì A hó hì

Avore [o Mór], my love, Avore [o Mór], my joy!
To thy babe come and troutlings you'll get out the loch,
A hó hì, A hó hì, A hó hóan
A hó hó-an, A hó hì A hó hì

3/4 time, b flat I use D1 for the higher D note, ~ to indicate same note held into next measure, - to indicate a space (other than than, I can't indicae tempo, but you should be able to tell whether or not the tune is familiar)
--F/CCC/~F/CCC/~/FD1CAF/GGGGGG/G-/FAG/FAG/FCCA/ACCF/FD1CAG/GAG/~ - NEXT VERSE..,
If this tune fits I can type the rest of the verses out for you.

A Mhór, a Mhór
another version School of Scottish Studies SA 1956/164 recorded from William Matheson by James Ross (This song might be on a commercially available School of Scottish Studies recording of William Matheson. I got it from an issue of the School's magazine 'Tocher' but |I neglected to copy down the no. of the issue. School of Scottish Studies website no. is given early on in this thread)

1)A Mhór, a Mhór, A Mhór, a Mhór,
Till ri do mhacan, Till ri do mhacan
's gheibh thu bacan bhreac a-nochd bhuam.

2)Tha'n oidhche fuar
aig Beinn Thorcain
Gun teine gun tuar
Ach na flodain
Air taobh cnocain, 's e dol as oirnn

(repeat a Mhór...a-nochd bhuam)

1) F~.3/4 bB/BAB-B/BAB/EFGAD/EDGAD/GFAFGB/AG-/
2) B/BABD1/BAB/7/8: EGAD-DGDD/3/4: AEGAD/GFAFGB/AG-//

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 21-Feb-02.

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Philippa
Date: 11 Dec 98 - 04:15 AM

Regarding an Mhaighdean Mhara, I think the best interpretation is that all the lines belong to the sea(l)-maiden. the trickery would have been when the human lover originally captured her by hiding away her fur coat as she was bathing. there are stories, sometimes told along with a song,in both Scotland of Ireland, of how the maighdean mhara, despite having human children longs for the sea and searches for the hidden coat so that she can return to her homeland.

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 11 Dec 98 - 08:07 PM

Sorry to enter the thread so late. I have been hovering on it for a while because a fine Manx harper, Charles Guard, called a track on his album (originally on the Irish Claddagh label, now available on CD through Green Linnet) 'The Song of the Water Kelpie'.

Although I played on that particular track, I have to say that I disagree with Charles's naming of it.

On the west coast of Mann is a village called Dalby - pronounced either Delby or Dawby. There is a story of a figure arriving through the mist off the coast. He sang a song as he appeared, but no-one could understand the lyrics, if there were any, but the tune became known as the Arrane Ghelby, The Song of Dalby. Charles Guard seems to have taken this as Arrane Kelpie, or some such.

The figure who sang this song was either someone in a boat, or, in line with other mythological traditions, someone who was, in fact, as one or part of the boat. People were said to have tried to row out and hear the lyrics, but the tune was all they got.

There are 20th century words in Manx Gaelic added to this beautiful tune. There are schools of thought which link this tune with very old Scandinavian traditions on the one hand, and Goedelic traditions on the other.

As Sylvia Wood has suggested a Manx provenance, I thought it as well to throw in my two-pennyworth, having not come in earlier as I thought it was related to a different tradition - as I'm sure the Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge probably actually does.

Bobby Bob

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 12 Dec 98 - 06:30 PM

Hi Bobby Bob,

Thanks for your information. It makes sense of the fact that I couldn't find the Water Kelpie tune, lyrics or any information anywhere. Your explanation of Charles Guard's interpretation of the tune name makes sense, too, given the similarity in pronunciation of Ghelby & Kelpie.

By the way, what instrument did you play on the album?

Regards from Australia, Helen

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 12 Dec 98 - 06:35 PM

Hi again, Sorry about the double posting - the gremlins are inside my computer chewing on the wires again.

I just found an abc file of Arrane Ghelby. It's definitely the same tune.

Hooray! 9 months of a Mudcat request and 11 years since I bought the Sylvia Woods book and I finally know the answer. Thanks everyone, and especially Phillipa and Bobby Bob for finally solving the mystery.

Happy Christmas, Helen

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 12 Dec 98 - 08:11 PM

I played a tin whistle on Charles Guard's album. It's not that I'm cheap, but . . .

Bobby Bob

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 13 Dec 98 - 08:01 PM

Bobby Bob,

As the saying goes: It's not what you've got, but what you do with it which matters.

Helen

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 15 Dec 98 - 06:51 PM

A wonderful version of said lyric by Roy Bailey.

Apropos of nothing but how wonderful said lyric as rendered by Roy Bailey is.

Bobby Bob

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 16 Dec 98 - 03:31 PM

Philippa, you could very easily learn abc notation here. Then you could write ascii tunes that wouldn't be much different from the ones you wrote above, but that many people could understand or play without needing any explanation from you.

Subject: RE: REQ Water Kelpie/Oran Tlaidh an Eich-Uisge
From: Helen
Date: 10 Feb 00 - 06:31 PM

refresh