Tune Req: The Lake Isle of Innisfree (W. B. Yeats)

Subject: Tune Req: Old Melody Yeats 'Lake Isle of Innisfree
From:
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 05:22 PM

My mother (who recently died at age 95) sang Yeats' poem "Lake Isle of Innisfree" to a melody she may have learned either around 1925, or possibly earlier from her own mother. I have searched and uncovered only some melodies for Lake Isle of Innisfree that are much more recent. The one I am seeking went something like this:

I [C] will [C] a- [D] rise [E] and [D] go [C] now [E],
and [D] go [C] to [A] In- [A] -nis- [E] -free [D]

[...I am entering this without the benefit of knowing how notation like this is customarily done while typing, and also without being sure the intervals I am trying to represent are exactly correct. (I am trying to hum and type.) I think the end of the second line is about an octave below the start of the first line.]

I am interested in knowing if anyone else has ever heard "Lake Isle of Innisfree" set to a melody something like this, and if so, where it was learned and when. My mother and grandmother, while not Irish, were great admirers of the Irish tenors who were popular in the 1920s and it might have been recorded around then and learned from a record.

Thanks! from Gail

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Old Melody Yeats 'Lake Isle of Innisfree
From: Willa
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 05:57 PM

I have sung this and am annoyed to find that I've got the words but not the tune. It's a while since i sang it and to the best of my recollection the tune is

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Old Melody Yeats 'Lake Isle of Innisfree
From: Willa
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 06:07 PM

Sorry about the interuption!

D D/ D/ E F |E C2 C| B, B, C D |C3 C/ C/|D2 E F | E C2 C| B, B, C D| C3 A|A F G A | G E2 E | F F/ F/ G F |E3 A, |D/D/D3| D E/F/G C|D4

(Notes shown ar from middle C to A above. A, and B, imply notes below middle C Numbers refer to note lengths and B for example is a half note)
This is a rough and ready version; someone will probably post a better version. Hope it helps!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Old Melody Yeats 'Lake Isle of Innisfree
From: Willa
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 06:09 PM

I've just remembered that the B should be B flat (below middle C)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Old Melody Yeats 'Lake Isle of Innisfree
From: Peace
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 11:51 PM

Refresh

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Old Melody Yeats 'Lake Isle of Innisfree
From: GUEST,Gail
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 12:44 AM

I should have put this originally under the subject Origins, rather than Tune Req, I guess.

I shall try to be even more specific. What I am asking about is a tune (an OLD tune dating to at least 1925, not one of many newer settings) to the William Butler Yeats poem "Lake Isle of Innisfree." (This is what Willa so kindly and correctly responded to.) This is not a similarly named song "Isle of Innisfree" that keeps popping up in all my searches; this song is unrelated. (I had previously read the entire thread in this forum concerning Isle of Innisfree, which took over an hour, and yielded no information on my specific quest.)

The well-known and frequently published Yeats poem is in three stanzas, beginning,

"I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree
and a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made..."

I was hoping for information on not only the melody but the origin of this specific tune as applied to this poem. Where might someone have heard and learned this tune in the early part of the 20th century? Was the melody used for something else prior to its being used for the Yeats poem?

Thank you, Gail

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Old Melody Yeats 'Lake Isle of Innisfree
From: Peace
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 02:02 AM

http://www.mudcat.org/midi/midifiles/innisfre.mid

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Old Melody Yeats 'Lake Isle of Innisfree
From: Peace
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 02:06 AM

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:Nv3prdGu9oQJ:www.musicoutfitter.com/store/item/727044711623/deepwithinafaerieforest.html+Isle

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Old Melody Yeats 'Lake Isle of Innisfree
From: GCOTTON
Date: 16 Apr 05 - 12:55 AM

Thanks, Brucie. I had found that clip before, and while it is very nice it is a different melody (for the same poem) that apparently dates to the 1990's. The one I am seeking information about is about 70 years older. Thanks again.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Old Melody Yeats 'Lake Isle of Innisfree
From: GCOTTON
Date: 17 Apr 05 - 01:16 AM

.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Old Melody Yeats 'Lake Isle of Innisfree
From: GCOTTON
Date: 22 Apr 05 - 07:32 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Old Melody Yeats 'Lake Isle of Innisfree
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Nov 11 - 12:24 AM

WorldCat.org shows that lots of people have set Yeats' poem to music:

Evelyn A. Sharp, 19--?
Oswald Forrest, 1903
Graham Peel, 1910
Liza Lehmann, 1911
John Palmer, 1915
Angus Morrison, 1917
Sheena Tennant, 1917
Robert Ralph, 1920
Arthur Foote, 1921
George Whitaker, 1922
Gladys Yang, 1923
Elizabeth Poston, 1926
Robin Orr, 1927
Granville Bantock, 1928
Muriel Herbert, 1928
F. A. Halliday, 1943?
Henry George Ley, 1950
Mary Howe, 1959
John W. Downey, 1963
Rudolph T. Werther, 1966
Susan Elizabeth Owens, 1981
Richard Faith, 1995-2001
Linda Phillips, 1999
Elsie & Amy Stephen, 2001
Eleanor Daley, 2002
Ben Moore, 2006

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Lake Isle of Innisfree (W. B. Yeats)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Nov 11 - 01:14 AM

The "classical" section of Allmusic.com lists the following recordings of Yeats' LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE. Warning: these recordings are likely to sound more "arty" than "folky."

Composer – Singer, "Album Title" (Date of Album)
Granville Bantock – Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, "A Pageant of Human Life: The Choral Music of Granville Bantock" (2008)
Eleanor Daley – Elekra Women's Choir, "Elektra's Garden" (2009)
Brian Blyth Daubney – William Berger, "October Roses: Songs by Brian Blyth Daubney"
John Downey – Daniel Nelson, "John Downey Plays John Downey" (1999)
Mary Howe – Sandra McClain, "Love's Seasons"
Brian Knowles – John Christos, "Poetry Serenade" (2008)
Philip Martin – Penelope Price Jones, "Philip Martin Songs" (1994)
Alec Wilder – Valerie Errante, "Songs of Alec Wilder" (2000)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Lake Isle of Innisfree (W. B. Yeats)
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Oct 12 - 04:02 PM

Encore performance of the title song from our show, "In the Deep Heart's Core: A Mystic Cabaret," at the Bailiwick Theater in Chicago, 1995. Yes, that's Andrew Bird on fiddle--then a college student...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rMMI160pYo