All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune?

Subject: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From:
Date: 05 Aug 98 - 08:48 PM

What is this song? onward gaily as we go, head to head and toe to toe....all for lovely Mary....all for Mary's Wedding. Name of tune and available recordings if you know some would be great. Thanks - Cindy

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 05 Aug 98 - 09:08 PM

Try Mairi's Wedding. Names are a snare and a delusion.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From:
Date: 05 Aug 98 - 09:38 PM

And it's Scottish. I think the real name is The Lewis Bridal Song.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Big Mick
Date: 06 Aug 98 - 10:20 AM

Get the Chieftains CD "Van Morrisson and The Chieftains". It has a pretty good version of "Maire's Wedding".

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Aug 98 - 04:18 PM

Click here to see the lyrics as we have them in the database, and to see links to where you can buy recordings. Our MIDI of the tune doesn't seem to work. I tried playing it with two different players, and the players say it's an invalid format.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From:
Date: 06 Aug 98 - 04:37 PM

Clancy Brothers (and Tommy Makem) also do this song.

Bob S.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Aug 98 - 05:10 PM

In my head, I hear a woman's voice singing this song, and it's just wonderful. Trouble is, I can't remember who it was who made the recording I'm thinking of. Maybe Mary or Frances Black.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Aug 98 - 09:41 PM

Jean Redpath....Mary O'Hara

Subject: Lyr Add: LEWIS BRIDAL SONG / MAIRI'S WEDDING
From: Murray on Saltspring
Date: 07 Aug 98 - 12:44 AM

The title is [or should be] "Lewis Bridal Song" (from that island in the Hebrides). The words should be credited to Hugh S. Roberton; the tune itself is traditional. NB!! the words in the database are not correct. Dick, please fix as follows:

LEWIS BRIDAL SONG (MAIRI'S WEDDING)
(Hugh S. Roberton)

chorus
Step we gaily, on we go
Heel for heel and tow for toe,
Arm in arm and row on row,
All for Mairi's wedding.

Over hillways up and down,
Myrtle green and bracken brown,
Past the sheiling, thro' the town,
All for sake o' Mairi.
(chorus)

Red her cheeks as rowans are,
Bright her eye as any star,
Fairest o' them a' by far,
Is our darling Mairi.
(chorus)

Plenty herring, plenty meal,
Plenty peat to fill her creel,
Plenty bonnie bairns as weel;
That's the toast to Mairi.
(chorus)

-- I know folks like the Clancys sing this, but please don't think it's Irish. And *please* do not deny Sir Hugh his credit for this fine standard song.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 07 Aug 98 - 12:47 PM

Corrections noted and accepted. Thanx!

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Dale Rose
Date: 14 Aug 98 - 01:27 AM

While exploring the site of a friend from Cape Breton, George Seto, I came across the Gaelic for the song. It was written for the lady in question, Mary McNiven, in 1935, but hey, go read about it for yourself!

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/6338/mairbhan.html

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: mulligan
Date: 14 Aug 98 - 07:26 PM

It is also a beginner's Bagpipe tune.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From:
Date: 16 Aug 98 - 12:33 PM

Joe it may have been one of the Rankin sisters. The Rankin Family made it a no. 1 hit in Canada afew years ago.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Bob Lusk
Date: 16 Aug 98 - 04:18 PM

A verse I wrote some 20 years back

Now we see the sign of spring
We see the robin on the wing
Let us all join hands and sing
All for Mary's wedding

I wrote it for my friend's Robin and Kathy Mckeenna's wedding and sang it there as "Kathy's Wedding" of course. It was an in joke between Robin and I. "Ah a robin, the first sing of spring". Years later I find others I've never met singing the verse.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From:
Date: 21 Oct 99 - 03:28 PM

Hello Bob,

I was wondering if you might help in finding a copy of "All for Mary's Wedding" I heard it is a nice song for bagpipes which we are having at my wedding any information would be appreciated. Thanks so much, Mary-Alice

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Melbert
Date: 21 Oct 99 - 03:57 PM

It don't matter much what the PROPER name is, I think it's on countless cheap albums under the title Maries Wedding.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 21 Oct 99 - 05:36 PM

:-)

I remember Bill Aitken, one of the members of "Killiecrankie" saying that he hated "Mairi's Wedding". As a youngster in Scotland it's the one song they always had to sing in school when it was time for "folk culture" - "All right now children ... Mairi's Wedding ... one ... two ..."
Furthermore, said Bill, "I'm from Glasgow, and I assure you, in Glasgow ... NOBODY steps GAILY!"

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Melbert
Date: 21 Oct 99 - 06:36 PM

Didn't Billy Connolly have a whole routine about it?

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: poet
Date: 21 Oct 99 - 06:45 PM

Jeremiah think yourself lucky in my schoolday folk music was. "Where the bee sucks there lurk I, In a cowslips bell i lie there i lurk when owls to fly etc etc. I was 29 before I went Near a folk club and found out the truth.

Graham (Guernsey)

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Quirk Malarkey
Date: 21 Oct 99 - 06:51 PM

to inject some sentimentality here : i have loved mairis' wedding always. with my dulcimer i've played it on moonlit nights on the beach in o'ahu hawai'i and had pretty girls cry happy. when the mood is right, so do i.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Lesley N.
Date: 22 Oct 99 - 08:18 AM

Barry Taylor did a midi of Mairi's Wedding. It's on his Scottish page (http://www.contemplator.com/tunebook/scotmidi.htm). (I gave that link rather than right to the lyrics page so you can go to either the midi or the lyrics).

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Barry Finn
Date: 22 Oct 99 - 09:30 PM

Hi Dale, I believe I saw some of what you posted & maybe more??? on either the celtic newsgroup or the Irish Trad. It was not to long ago 2-4 months??
Hi Doodlezak, where on o'ahu, I used to play/sing over in Lahaina but that was over 20 yrs ago. Used to love trying to play on the waterfront next to the Carthaginnian looking out towards Lanai during sunset & singing the Dark Island hoping for a green sunset flash. Barry whsoe getting a little cold here in cold country.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: GUEST,Hook
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 08:36 AM

I don't recall the actor/artist's name but he did a banjo rendition of this tune was in the wake scene in the 1992 movie 'Passed Away' staring Bob Hoskins.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 09:37 AM

From the Glasgow Daily Record, date unknown: (I have a photocopy of the article, but the person who gave it to me didn't date it.)

Exclusive: Step we gaily on we go, this IS Mairi's wedding
Now it's All for Mairi's birthday!
She'll still be singing at 90

by Stephen Houston

Millions of Scots have sung Mairi's Wedding. And now, thanks to the Record, they can meet the bride herself.

For one of our best-loved tunes was written for Mary McNiven.

And the OAP is still stepping gaily, even though she'll be NINETY tomorrow.

Scots schoolkids have been learning the song for generations, and it's a firm favourite all over the world.

At her cottage on Islay yesterday, Mary said: "I can't believe it became so popular. But when it was first played to me I found it very catchy -- and I still do."

The song was originally written Gaelic -- that's why she was "Mairi" instead of "Mary" -- for the Mod of 1935.

Her pal Johnny Bannerman composed it and it was first played to her at the Old Highlanders Institute in Glasgow's Elmbank Street

Medal

"I still have a clear recollection of that day," said Mary. "Johnny just said the song was for me."

It was translated into English a year later, by Sir Hugh Robertson.

Although Mary herself was real, the wedding wasn't. For she didn't get hitched to Skye-born sea captain John Campbell until six years later. John died 17 years ago.

Mum of two, Mary, who won a Mod gold medal for singing in 1934, will enjoy a family birthday party in Glasgow this weekend. And it won't be complete without the famous song.

Her daughter Christine, a teacher from Hyndland, Glasgow, said: "Mum still sometimes sings it in Gaelic and people are always asking her to. I suspect she'll sing it to celebrate her birthday."

(The article is accompanied by a photograph of Mary by William Thornton and a copy of her wedding picture.)

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Watson
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 09:49 AM

The same story comes up a few times if you put Mary McNiven into Google, notably here from one Joe Offer in 1999.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 10:01 AM

Interesting reading that post from Joe Offer -- I was ASPClinns@aol

(FYI, Bat Goddess = Linn Schulz -- that e-mail addy when I worked for the Portsmouth, NH American Speedy Printing is long gone, however).

I posted the transcription of the article to Scots-L and "Craig Cockburn ("coburn"), Dùn Éideann, Alba. (Edinburgh, Scotland)
http://www.scot.demon.co.uk/ mailto:[e-mail]" must have posted it here (or somebody -- Joe? -- picked it up from the discussion at Scots-L that I posted it to at that time).

I'm no longer subscribed to Scots-L but Curmudgeon is.

Linn

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From:
Date: 20 Oct 02 - 06:15 PM

Linn, did you ever find out the date of the article? I had put the article on-line at the bottom of my page for the Gaelic lyrics of this song,

Mairi Bhan

I seem to recall the consensus was Glasgow as city of the paper the article. Nice to meet you. I believe Joe picked it up from that. He has a preference for Black text on white page, which seems excessively bright. I have normally put a black page with white text.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 20 Oct 02 - 09:04 PM

George, yes, it's from the Daily Record, published in Glasgow. I've been looking for it in Glasgow, with no luck so far. But then I only have three weeks a year to do it - give me another couple of years!

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: open mike
Date: 21 Oct 02 - 03:58 AM

o.k. -- but what's a sheiling??

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 21 Oct 02 - 04:32 AM

Hi, "open mike"!-- a sheiling is simply a name given to a country dwelling [usually of the single level thatched type]in the Scottish highlands and Islands. This thread has certainly made ME sit up. I was aware of the fact that the lady for whom this song was written was, till fairly recently at least, still alive and in her nineties. What I didn't know was that she could well be related to me! I am surprised to find her name, Mary McNiven. My maternal Grandfather was a native of Islay, Lachlan McNiven, born at Ardmore , by Port Ellen. He had a sister and niece, both "Mary McNiven". Making me wonder----?!

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: belfast
Date: 21 Oct 02 - 09:04 AM

Im surprised that nobody in the this thread has yet mentioned Kenneth McKellar. I cannot think of this song without hearing his ringing tones. I used to really dislike it but now nostagia casts it in a rosier glow.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From:
Date: 21 Oct 02 - 10:42 AM

While I have the utmost respect for Kenneth McKellar, I'm unable to enjoy his version of this song. It's too much of a ringing sound he gives it.

I feel it should be light and fanciful, which it is most of the times. Sung in 4 part harmony is fine if 3 of the four parts just do the "Humm" version of the song.

The song is best done in a simple form, in my opinion.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Jimmy C
Date: 21 Oct 02 - 03:03 PM

Hi "open mike " and "Boab", I believe a 'sheiling" was indeed a dwelling, but I think it was where the grain was stored before it was malted during the whisky making. Grain was stored about 14" to 18" deep, creating internal heat which led to "Forced Vegation" or germination". To ensure that all the grain was germinated the pile would be turned over from time to time with a wooden spade called a sheil, thus the name sheiling. Of course I could be wrong ?. I never made any whiskey but have enjoyed the finished product on occasion.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 21 Oct 02 - 04:18 PM

The question has, I think, been asked and answered in at least one of the other threads on this song. It is as Boab said, with the rider that such buildings were typically used by shepherds and such while sheep were in the upper pastures during the summer months.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 22 Oct 02 - 03:58 AM

Jimmy C. ---In my home village in Ayrshire, there is a small hill named the "Shillin Hill". The origin of the name lies with the function, carried out over possibly hundreds of years, of threshing corn ["corn" is the name applied to oats in most of Scotland]. The remains of the old mill are still to be seen at the site---and its neglect by local officials gives me cause for some rage, incidentally. "Shellin" or "shillin" was the word describing the winnowing of the chaff from the kernel. Maybe there is a connection there to the "sheiling"?

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Jimmy C
Date: 22 Oct 02 - 10:59 AM

Sounds possible, probably a name for various types of buildings.

It is a catchy tune. An australian children's group " The Wiggles" sing in on one of their videos, my granddaughters love it.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Reiver 2
Date: 08 May 04 - 03:23 PM

A new Irish/Scottish band, called the Knockabouts, has formed in Flagstaff. At a pub performance a couple weeks ago they played Mairi's Wedding as an instrumental number. One of the band members noticed me in the audience singing along as they played. At the break she asked me for the words saying they'd been unable to find them. (!) I was happy to oblige and wrote out the words the Reivers used to sing. They're pretty much as those given by Murray on Saltspring in this thread with one exception. Here in North America a creel is a small wicker basket in which anglers deposit fish that they've caught and we learned the line as "...plenty fish tae fill her creel." I see in the version here and others that I've seen it's sung as "...plenty peat..." instead of fish. The type of creel I've seen on this side of the pond would perhaps hold one turf of peat. Does creel have a different meaning in Scotland? Perhaps a larger and stronger rack for carrying peat? I checked the Scots Glossary here on the Mudcat and found creel to mean basket and also "an osier basket". Osier, according to my dictionary refers to "any of various willows producing long flexible shoots used in wickerwork." So is there a particular kind of wicker basket used in the Western Islands for carrying peat? Many thanks for any help on this.

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Megan L
Date: 08 May 04 - 03:41 PM

In orkney a basket for bringing the peats home was a cassie it was woven straw and was held on the back with a straw srope or (simmond) round the forehead.

the creel was a similar basket for fish.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Jim McLean
Date: 08 May 04 - 03:42 PM

The verse mentions fish then meal then peat. I don't think a repetition of fish would make sense.

Subject: Lyr Add: MAGGIE'S WADDIN' (Jim McLean)
From: Jim McLean
Date: 08 May 04 - 03:47 PM

By the way, I wrote this song when Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong Jones were married.

MAGGIE'S WADDIN'
(Jim McLean)
Sing a song o' tax and woe, empty pooches in a row
Chancellor's collectin' dough a' for Maggie's waddin'
Silk and satin, gold lamé, Tony wears a lum hat tae
Ma suit's in the pawn sae whit'll ah dae at the Royal Waddin'

Maggie flounces doon the aisle, her mither staunds wi' forcit smile
Needs a dose o' castor oil at her dochter's waddin'
Tony's doon on bendit knee, gied up his photographie
Nae mair birdies will he see efter Maggie's waddin'

Foreign guests fae near and far, packed inside Westminster Ha'
Parasites fae France an' a' at the Royal Waddin'
Whaur d'ye think they'll honeymoon? Rome, Paree or on the moon
Wi'oot a doot it's no Dunoon efter sic a waddin'

Noo they're mairried aff they blow tae spend a thoosan' poond or so
That's the way oor money goes for Mrs Jones's waddin'
Back again and help ma bob, Tony hasnae got a job
Wha will buy the christenin' robe - you an' me ah'll bet ye

Royal mince is awfy dear, Tony needs a rise next year
Increase tax on fags an' beer efter Tony's waddin'
Maggie's ta'en up fancy cookin' - Bird's Nest soup fae a Chinese book an'
Suzie Wong won't hae a look in - velly nicey wedding

Sing a song o' tax and woe, empty pooches in a row
Chancellor's collectin' dough a' for Maggie's waddin'


Tune: Lewis Bridal Song

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Reiver 2
Date: 08 May 04 - 04:12 PM

The verse goes "Plenty herring, plenty meal, plenty fish (or peat) tae fill her creel." Since herring are not the only fish in the sea, I don't think the reference to fish in the next line is overly redundant. My question is still, in Scotland is the term creel used to describe a basket used for carrying peat? If so it would have to be a very different kind of basket than creels used by sports fishermen today. Should I advise the Knockabouts to sing it using peat rather than fish? In the U.S. or Canada saying "plenty peat to fill her creel" wouldn't make much sense to listeners... still, if that's the way it's sung on Lewis, that's the way I'd prefer to have it sung.

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Jim McLean
Date: 08 May 04 - 04:20 PM

Reiver 2, have a look at this web page for a description of peat creels.


www.friends-macdougall.co.uk/gallery.htm - 13k

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Jim McLean
Date: 08 May 04 - 04:23 PM

Sorry, Reiver 2, miss out the last part    - 13k

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 08 May 04 - 04:40 PM

What are "rowans"?

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Jim McLean
Date: 08 May 04 - 05:09 PM

Berries from the rowan tree

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 08 May 04 - 05:32 PM

Thanks, Jim. Seems the rowan tree only grows in Europe, esp. Scotland. No wonder Maire had such beautiful cheeks!

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Reiver 2
Date: 08 May 04 - 06:32 PM

Thanks, Jim McLean, that's just what I wanted. Even more, with a picture!! That clinches it for me and I shall change the line henceforth and forthwith to "Plenty herring, plenty meal, plenty peat tae fill her creel." It DOES make more sense as peat would be something a new wife would be particularly in need of.

Yes, the rowans in the song are in reference to the berries of the rowan tree which, unfortunately we don't have in the U.S. and Canada.
Thanks again, Jim!

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 08 May 04 - 06:46 PM

I'm sure that Hugh Roberton, if he were still living, would be thrilled to hear that you've decided that his words don't need much changing after all. They were written exactly as Murray quoted them, and are still in copyright.

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: BK Lick
Date: 08 May 04 - 10:34 PM

Joe Offer, might be you're thinking of Gerry Armstrong on the Simple Gifts album?

-- BK

Subject: RE: All for Mary's Wedding - Irish tune
From: KateG
Date: 09 May 04 - 12:40 AM

Actually, we do have rowan trees in the US and Canada...we just don't call them rowans. The name used over hear is Mountain Ash, and I believe that my Audubon Book of North American Trees there are a couple of varieties in North America, as well as escaped versions of the European Mountain Ash.

For those of you who like Kipling, the Oak, Ash and Thorn in "Puck of Pook's Hill" and "Farewell Rewards and Fairies" refers to Oak, Rowan and Hawthorn, which were all semi-sacred trees in pre-Christian days.