Danny Boy - Irish Traditional Tune

[honeyion]

@danielson2k9 the song was written to join the catholics and prodistents together, maybe so they could fight harder against england. the songs author and place might have been mistold, or maybe used by the scottish so much people believed it is scottish. even i thought amazing grace was american till i was 16, then i passed through graceland.

[mirgil1964]

The tune is Irish. The words to this version are not traditional. They were written to entice recruits to join the British Army for WW 1. I know a traditional Irish singer who won't sing this, because of it's being a British recruiting song.

[danielson2k9]

danny bhoy is defo NOT an irish song, its 100% scottish.

[Flamorgan]

@danielson2k9 No, the tune is an old Irish tune called Londonderry Air which is what is being played here, Danny boy was a song written by an Englishman called Fred Weatherly in 1910 and was originally called "Eily Dear ", the song title was changed along with a few lyrics later in 1918. The song is neither Scottish or Irish but the tune played here is Irish.

[sweetwaterbranch]

love this song .

[GuitarRockinChick18]

well, you have to think for a moment.... England invaded Scotland and tried to breed out the Scotts, and some Irish and Scottish folks had babies together, so there you go lol. maybe he's part Irish?

[Dannysubliminal]

haha a classic irish song written by an englishman in New york, Music written by a yank. Hilarious! great tune though, Me name is danny.

[GwaiiEagle1]

@Dannysubliminal The tune is old, ancient even. Written by Ol Rory. It is called O'Cahan's Lament.

[Tigermoon1950]

Horrible. 

[nedni]

The song was actully written by an aussi man, not an englash man

[BruceMcF]

@Shropshireladdie Entirely independent of how much the Englishmen made up when he wrote down a song being sung by an Irish musician ... that is, how original the LYRIC was that was originally presented as being a transcription ... the TUNE is quite definitely an Irish air.

There are entirely English lyrics that have been set to the tune, of course ... at least one church hymn that I am aware of.

[Shropshireladdie]

@BruceMcF

Im as biased as hell but the music and lyrics were written by the same man werent they?

[BruceMcF]

@Shropshireladdie The first recorded version of the tune was collected by Jane Ross of Limavady. It was printed in a collection in 1855 by George Petrie, born in Dublin of a Scots family. At least 9 hymns have been set to it, and four pre-WWI popular songs. The Englishman who wrote the Danny Boy lyric did it in 1910, and it was set to the Derry County Air tune in 1913, over half a century after the tune was first collected.

[BruceMcF]

@Shropshireladdie No, of course not. In his own words: "In 1912 a sister-in-law in America sent me "The Londonderry Air". I had never heard the melody or even heard of it. ... By lucky chance it only required a few alterations to make it fit that beautiful melody." Why so biased, is Shropshire that close to Somerset?

[Shropshireladdie]

@BruceMcF

Ive forgotten what i wrote originally so i cant argue but what has somerset got to do with this?

[BruceMcF]

@Shropshireladdie Your stoutly defending the fellow from Somerset who stole this and modified his lyric to try to pass it off as an Irish song.

[Shropshireladdie]

@BruceMcF

Oh right a bloke from somerset tried to make this song irish? unless he was originally from Ireland why would he do that?

[Foolishk1ng]

@BruceMcF bullshit much it was written by and englishman and first sang by an englishwomen and the tune of the song is LONDONderry air which is in the UK so put that in your fenian pipe and smoke it

[VegasGirlForever]

@Foolishk1ng the song was written by an englishman and sung by an english women but irlend has adopted it as there unofficially anthem

[Foolishk1ng]

@VegasGirlForever ahhh thats all right then like we adopted the north as part of the united kingdom. God Save The Queen

[BruceMcF]

@Foolishk1ng Derry is not in Britain, so the likelihood that the itinerant musician in Ireland that composed the tune sometime in the 1700's or 1800's was an Englishman is quite remote. For someone to think that the tune was composed at the same time as the lyrics, when the lyrics were in fact first set to a different tune, reflects a victory of lazy ignorance on a question that can be sorted out in ten or fifteen minutes of googling.

[Foolishk1ng]

@BruceMcF all i read then was Londonderry is in the UK and yes it is an Englishsong

[BruceMcF]

@Foolishk1ng There's no telling what part of Ireland it was originally composed in, and when it was copied down by song collector in Derry in the 1850's, all of Ireland was in the UK. And it might have been the work of another song collector in Australia that the sister of the lyricist came across. Since the lyrics were written in 1910 and first set to the tune in 1913, the whole thing happened before the Irish Republic declared Independence in 1916.

[Shropshireladdie]

Wow, i love it how irish people steal traditional ENGLISH songs and pass them off as there own, happened with greensleeves as well.

[BruceMcF]

@Shropshireladdie one way or another, its certainly not a traditional *ENGLISH* tune. Its an Irish tune that a English lyricist stolxxxx erhm, borrowed to make his lyric famous.

[Shropshireladdie]

@BruceMcF

To make the song famous not his lyrics, write Irish lyrics and then it woud, be Irish, but dont pass off Danny boy as Irish.

[eebruce]

@Shropshireladdie If he didn't want to try to "PASS IT OFF" as an Irish lyric, what was "the pipes" and "kneel, and say an Ave" doing in there? Just like a whinging pom to for your countryman from Somerset to try to make his lyric famous by setting it to an Irish folk tune and passing it off as an Irish lyric, and then when he succeeds to squeal and moan that it's not Irish! Its an English Counterfeit of an Irish Song! Give Englishmen credit for an ability to successfully steal and counterfeit!

[Shropshireladdie]

@eebruce

Why would any Englishman try to make his lyrics Irish?

[sliux109]

whoever played this, should learn to play danny boy because he/she speeds on parts where he/she should slow down and lean on those notes

[BruceMcF]

@sliux109 whoever played this is not a great fan of the weapier renditions of the song.

[TheFirstArkady]

@BruceMcF whoever played this cant play at all

[larajaze]

sounds lovely,

[iSpudnik]

You went wayyy too fast, darling.

[bloodtypebloodtype]

check out the song im singing in my channel

[XxMizuindoxXxOkituxX]

Did you play a clarinet for this? And I think you did really well~ Playing wind instruments is really hard :3

[BruceMcF]

@XxMizuindoxXxOkituxX tenor recorder

[EllenRebecca3]

The guy who wrote this song was English.

[eebruce]

@EllenRebecca3 The guy who wrote this song down was English. The singer singing it at the time was Irish (and possibly unable to write it down - itinerant singers were often illiterate and sometimes blind), and the tune itself is an old Irish air.

There's also an English hymn to the same tune.

[EllenRebecca3]

@eebruce Ok, cool :-) I forget his name, but it's on Wikipedia. Still a great song all the same. It's one of those that will never be forgotten.

[GwaiiEagle1]

The Tune was written as a lament for the decline of the O'Cahan family by Rory O'Cahan.

It's name is O'Cahan's Lament.

[superceultje]

Whuahahah lol

[NOHeHasNot]

oh my. that sucked.

[BruceMcF]

Yes, I have to admit compared to the music you've done, its ... oh, wait, "NOHeHasNot has not uploaded any videos".

Never mind.

[palatena]

ajajajjajaa It was a nice play, for the record ;)

[1987ArabicGirl]

no one forced you 2 watch

out out

[gut197]

HAPPY ST> PATTY"S DAY!!

[renkinjutsuAlchemist]

the dude who wrote this wasnt even irish

[BruceMcF]

Don't confuse the lyric with the tune ... the tune is an Irish air that was written down ... the person who collected the song and printed it is not the composer. As with many folk airs, the original composer is anonymous.

[VegasGirlForever]

@BruceMcF the original composer was Frederic Weatherly, an english lawyer. it was written in 1910 and originally was saposed to be sung with different music but Frederic modified it to fit " londonderry air "

[BruceMcF]

@VegasGirlForever As you say, Frederic Weatherly was not composer of the Derry Air. He's credited as lyricist of the Danny Boy song, but was not as the composer of the tune.

[GwaiiEagle1]

This tune is old. Once they called it Londonderry air, before that when Derry was just Derry, that was it's name.

Old Rory called the tune O'Cahan's Lament.

[1987ArabicGirl]

but its irish ^^

[iSpudnik]

@renkinjutsuAlchemist The tune is Irish. The man who wrote O Danny Boy wrote the lyrics long before the tune was made, and put them together.

[jamspice11]

i never knew this was irish

we sing hymns in church to this tune :S

[H82Sayit]

just cried in my bowl of lucky charms

[wadeandrose2995]

You use your tears in replace of milk? That sucks.

[musica78]

ROFLMF(Irish)AO

[themagicdragon1]

the irish spirt continues

[PortavogieBoy]

great northern irish song

[BruceMcF]

As the fellow from Northern Ireland I knew in Grenada told it, there was a northern Irish boxer from Derry who had Danny Boy played before his fights, as it was the only song sure to avoid fights breaking out in the audience before the fight started in the ring.

Can't remember the name of the boxer, that was twenty years back, now.

[oglekid]

Barry Mc Guiggans father sang it before each of his fights!!!!

[JeremyGWoodsChanteur]

@BruceMcF His name might be Barry McGuigan. I looked it up on Wikipedia.

[BMay8181]

Stop referring to Londonderry Air as 'Derry Air'. You might be a republican and I respect that, but even in Eire, where they call the city Derry it is known as Londonderry Air.

[eebruce]

I really doubt that Americans who are Republicans are any more or less lazy about saying the full names of things than are Americans who are Democrats, so I don't see how you can get whether I am going to vote for McCain or Obama from that.

The only fellow I ever met from Derry called it that. He was teaching in Grenada in the 1980's.

[DanS24106]

Republicans refers to people from the Republic of Ireland vs Northern Ireland which is still part of the UK and is where the city of Londonderry is. Has nothing to do with American political affiliation.

[eebruce]

That's odd ... he being a Republican from Derry and all, but in the Peace Corps under Reagan I was not about to tell him why he should be a Democrat rather than a Republican.

[celtic60168]

Danny Boy where did you go we miss the rebel man we always love you Danny Kenneally

[holl781]

londonderry air is a different song to danny boy londonderry air has it's own seperate lyrics it is actully a hymn (londonderry air)

[BruceMcF]

Derry Air is the tune. Danny Boy are lyrics that have been set to the tune. Danny Boy is certainly not the only lyrics that have every been set to the tune.

[holl781]

the origional words were the words to a hymn called londonderry air and yea the thue's called londonderry air

[BruceMcF]

Except that the tune was originally taken down without words, in the 1800's, and its commonly thought to be a heavily modified version of a tune first taken down, without words, in the 1700's.

Since the most famous hymn lyric for the tune was "I cannot tell", written in 1929, the idea that the tune was written for a hymn and then borrowed does not stand up to close scrutiny.

[holl781]

well i dunno anythin for sure i am no expert on it lol but it's cool to no the origions of a beautiful pice that i grew up with :-)

[BruceMcF]

I just know what I googled and wikipedia'd about it.

The coolest thing is the serendipity of it all ... there is a theory on it, that the Derry Air in the form we know it might have been another tune written down wrong, with the person collecting Irish traditional music getting the time signature wrong.

After all, itinerant Irish musicians ... pipers, fiddlers, penny whistle players ... did not read music. Tunes were passed directly from person to person.

[DanS24106]

Wasnt the Danny Boy lyric actually written by an Englishman?

[eebruce]

Yeah, Frederick Weatherly. Well, the third verse that Sinead sings was written by someone else, but Frederick Weatherly wrote the two verses that we all know from the early 1900's.

The song itself is far, far older than the lyric.

[kingofdumb2012]

the poem was but the song was made out of the poem by an Irishmen GO IRELAND!

[BruceMcF]

Aha, and the one upsmanship continues! Onya, mate.

[wgoco]

holl...really, didn'y know that...thought the air was just the tune.

[Ermengarde11]

Londonderry Air, the other title it's sometimes known by. Lovely by any title. Nice rendition.

[BruceMcF]

Or the Derry Air ... when I was teaching in Grenada, there were some Irish volunteers at some of the Catholic parish secondary schools, including one from Derry.

When I played it in Grenada on the tenor recorder I had there, he called it the Danny Boy March ... but then, I was only 6 years out of Marching Band at the time.

For a version with all three verses, with Sinead O'Conner singing and Davy Spillane on, I believe, penny whistle, search on Sinead and Derry Air.

[kedacomo2000]

My daughter sang this in her choir in the 6th

and she sang it as her graduation solo and her voice was heaven;y and after losing her uncle, this song was even more emotional when she sang it. this osng means alot to my family.

[Ermengarde11]

Sweet sentiments, what a lovely memory to share!

[BruceMcF]

Yes, it is a very pure Air, and listening to it sung well can be like floating on a cloud.

[carlosrulz22]

this is the saddest song ever made ecspecially when johnny cash sings it

[Urmomsaloser]

nice mate

[TheHighlandPiper]

Well played Laddie!

It´s an very nice Tune!

[BruceMcF]

Thanks!

... and now I have a clip of a bagpipe medley downloaded onto my Zire 31 ... I won't say whether I listen to it to go to sleep at night or to wake up on the morrow.

[ARGH0]

good music

[Petz52]

My Grandfather was Irish, and here in Australia he used to sing this to us all the time. Last weekend my Aunt (his daughter) passed away and we had it playing at her Funeral...with Cliff Richard of course.

[Dubman4]

a good song

[scati1971]

In the past some musicians in Ireland were blind, because musicians were so highly prized and paid, it was one way they could earn a living.

[scati1971]

so Cadetqp, its not irish cause an english women copied it down from an traditional irish musician. That about says it all, everybody and the dogs in the streets in Ireland know it a traditional Irish air called the Derry air and the lyrics were added later. god the rest of YOUTUBE do you see what we have to put up with from the English.(a town in northern Ireland right, and i am really the queen of england)

[BruceMcF]

Ah, but cadetgp is being diplomatic in not saying whether the name of the town is Derry or Londonderry.

Good point on the lyrics to the air ... thanks for that. I'll change the title of the slideshow to settle the whole Irish Traditional controversy.

[psycogothchick]

it is to fast for the versions i have heard.

[BruceMcF]

I reckon I am playing it about as slow as I can ... if I could sing, I would sing it about that pace (though of course would sing the even more sentimental second verse).

You would have been convinced it was being played too fast when I first learned it, when teaching in Grenada more than twenty years ago (and on a much better broken in Recorder, which sadly went to rot and insects in Australia).

An Irish volunteer reckoned it was The Danny Boy March. I was heartbroken.

[mushimonkey]

what insturment is this?

[eebruce]

Tenor recorder ... recorded through a pretty shabby mic, so a little noise reduction applied by Audacity.

It properly ought to be a tenor whistle, but I don't have one.

[cadetgp]

true

[cadetgp]

its not actually irish traditionall im from the town in northern ireland where the tune was taken down by an english woman by a blind man playing the tune on a fiddle that was in the mid 19th century

[eebruce]

I'm from America ... we have a much shorter definition of traditional than y'all do in Europe.