FaerySongs/Ballads

Subject: FaerySongs/Ballads
From:
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 02:26 AM

Searching for songs related to faery lore, fairy themes in folk tales, fairy songs from around the word. Sources for faery themed songs, lyrics, recordings, recommendations...needed for a theater/music project combining fairy folk tales and music.
Any help, leads, suggestions, CD'S,websites, sources.... would be greatly appreciated!!

Rose

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From: Kaleea
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 02:37 AM

Are you looking only for songs with lyrics, or are tunes ok? Must they be in English? There is a famous Irish song called Si Beag Si Mohr, by Turlough O'Carolan. Little Fairy, Big Fairy. This is a very popular song, recorded by lots of Irish musicians, mostly the tune only. It is about two hills where a couple of famous battles took place. One is about when two rival Fairy groups who battle it out, one group big fairies, & the other one little fairies. I have a recording of Graine Yeats, the Irish Harper, with her singing the song in Gaelic-1st time I'd ever heard it sung. The CD is from a harp festival, but it's packed away right now, so sorry I can't dig it out to get the title. One could probably find the lyrics & a translation on the www. Catters?

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From: GUEST,Tracey Dragonsfriend (no cookie here)
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 04:06 AM

The DT lists a lot of these! Try searching for elf, elves, elfin, elven, fairy, faery, fairies, faeries, fair folk, sidhe, etc...

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From:
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 05:54 PM

Here is one song with a nice little story to go with it. Part of the song, about three verses, is found in the DT.

Buain Na Rainich
Tha Mi Sgith
Buain Na Rainich

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From: michaelr
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 06:38 PM

"Tam Lin", of course, is classic; so is Fairport Convention's recording of it (on "Liege and Lief", Sandy Denny singing).

Then there's "The Host of the Air", W.B. Yeats' poem, recorded by myself on "One Last Cold Kiss".

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From: GUEST,emily rain
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 07:05 PM

w.b. yeats edited a book of folklore called _fairy and folk tales of the irish peasantry_. he wrote a few poems, too... one of which, "stolen child", was set to music by loreena mckennitt on her album _elemental_:

come away oh human child

to the waters and the wild

with a faery hand in hand

for the world's more full of weeping

than you can understand

kaleea, when you get around to unpacking that cd, would you mind making an mp3 for us po' folks who can't buy it? *blink*blink* :)

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 07:28 PM

True Thomas

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From: GUEST,earthling
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 07:41 PM

For your fairy themes in folk tales....here are a few suggestions:

a) Irish Folk and Fairy Tales Omnibus by Michael Scott ( huge and comprehensive.)

b) English Fairy Tales   by Wordsworth Classics ( 40 of the best known.)

c) Mythology of The British Isles by Geoffrey Ashe ( painstakingly researched, retelling tales from the year dot to the 9th century AD and an extensive bibliography.)

d) Edmund Dulac's Fairy Book ( draws upon the folklore of Russia, France, Italy, England, Ireland, Belguim, Serbia and Japan.)

e) Elves, Trolls and Elemental Beings: Icelandic Folklore translated by Alan Boucher.

f) Russian Folktales by W.R.S.Ralston (unsure if still in print?).

Poetry wise, Yeats as mentioned above is rich....The Hosting of The Sidhe springs to mind, as does The Fairies by William Allingham.

Best of luck, sounds a lovely project.

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From: Cattail
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 07:41 PM

Re Emily Rain's post on the "stolen child" this is also on a
Waterboys CD called "Fishermans Blues", it's a beautiful song!

Cheers for now

Cattail !

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 07:43 PM

The English band Crucible have a song called Changeling which, though composed by one of the band members, is very good. Some versions of Banks of Green Willow mention fey folk. There is an implication of other worldliness in the villain in the ballad The Outlandish Knight.

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From: Kaleea
Date: 06 Apr 04 - 11:57 PM

guest, emily--
   I'm not techsmart enough to know how to make an mp3. I once tried to do an mp3 player thing but it wouldn't let me listen to my own cd's without being online. So I deleted the darn thing. I have windows, & the media player therin. I tried to download realplayer a couple days ago, for stuff like that, but it doesn't seem to work. When I attempted to watch the how to use it thing, my windows media popped up, & it doesn't play videos. I think I'm hopeless. If any of you have a 10 yr old you'd like to mail to me for a few days, maybe the kid could show me how to do all that stuff.

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 12:11 AM

There is a great Fairy tune on Andy Irvine's 'Way out Yonder' album called They'll never believe it's true. lots of fairy's in this one, and very well written !

k
Andy Irvine China to Galway

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From: Willa
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 09:55 AM

Fairy Boy is beautiful. Try this thread thread.cfm?threadid=29633#1054997

Subject: RE: FaerySongs/Ballads
From: GUEST,emily rain
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 10:43 PM

kaleea,
i have a program that is absolutely hassle-free; you can make MP3s or WAVs with the click of a button. i'm addicted to it. i've been stealing music left and right. it's freeware (you can download it and use it for free, indefinitely), though i just noticed that the website takes donations through paypal.

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/index.php

i give you this link in the spirit of sharing, and with no desire for personal gain. if, however, you feel compelled to send me an mp3 of si bheag si mhor as sung by graine yeats, i would not say you nay. :):)

since this is of general interest, i'll also put it in its own thread.