Peggy Hinsman's Blog

The Wounded Hussar, by Turlough O'Carolan

This is a slow Air written by Turlough O’Carolan.  The link below is an mp3 file of the first half being played on GarageBand… due to only having a small range of keys to play on my computer’s keyboard, I could only play the first half of the tune.  It’s a little rough, not having a standard piano keyboard upon which to play it…

The Wounded Hussar

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Unfortunately, the Garcia triplets are off to college but Tonn Nua now has a new guitar player, Seth Heffron.  Tonn Nua will be playing this Friday at Tsunami Books this Friday, August 28th, from 7 to 9 PM.  Suggested donation is $5.

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When I first heard this tune at a session in Eugene, I loved it and had to learn it.  But before doing so, I did a little digging about its history and found I had an even more important reason for learning it  I grew up in the suburban area of Pittsburgh, PA, (Pleasant Hills) and this jig has a huge link to Pittsburgh (this quote came from www.thesession.org):

“This tune was written by Dave Richardson of ‘The Boys of the Lough’ and recorded and popularized by that group. The tune is dedicated to a long time friend of Cathal McConnell and The Boys of the Lough who owns a Victorian mansion in Pittsburgh where many concerts, parties and sessions have been held featuring traditional music of many styles. The house was dubbed ‘Calliope House’ when it became the home of a non-profit folk arts organization using the same name. This organization continues sponsoring folk music concerts and a folk music school in Pittsburgh under the name ‘Calliope: the Pittsburgh Folk Music Society’ ”

It was originally written in the key of E, but for a lot of instruments, it is easier to play in the key of D.

Calliope House in the Key of D

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How could that be? Well, surprisingly, it does turn out that I have interests in addition to Ireland, believe it or not…

One of my favorite web sites is APOD (Astronomy Picture Of the Day). I put together a two page Comic Life document with some of my favorite APODs. Click one of the pages and you’ll see it full size:

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Waking Ned Devine is a great movie that reflects so many aspects of an older Ireland that I love… humor, simplicity of life, how people in small communities relate to one another, the beauty of the countryside, etc.

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Here is a tune sung by Tonn Nua in Scots Gaelic. The title, Gradh Geal mo Chridhe, means “Dear Love of My Heart.” It also goes by the title of An Erskay Love Lilt.

09-gradh-geal-mo-chridhe.mp3

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Here is a slide show that combines photographs of members of Tonn Nua with Irish art and photographs of Ireland. The tune is called “Eye of the Wind” written by Ansel Dow, the fiddler for Tonn Nua, when he was 11 years old.

tonnnua.mov

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This story is filled with irony… about three deeply religious, charitable and respectful brothers who put their trust in a person to provide tiles for repairing their roof. They wait, and wait and wait for the delivery of the tiles and finally on the deathbed of the last living brother we finally learn which community member took advantage of their trust, faith and loyalty.

This story takes place in a town eleven miles outside of Listowel in 1945. John B. Keane often uses phrases and words that are based in Irish culture that we don’t have in the US. When I see these words and phrases, I dig as deeply as I can on the web to find the meaning of them. Here are some of the phrases and words in this story that caught my attention:

A priest was “reading the Station list” — To learn about what this phrase means, read this article.

Blackthorn — a large shrub or a small tree of the genus Prunus

Sloe — the fruit of a blackthorn and is plum-like. It is used to flavor and color sloe gin.

Whitethorn — is another name for Hawthorn

Haw — the fruit of a hawthorn tree

Wynds of hay — on Wikipedia, the word “wynd” is said to mean “lane” in Scots Gaelic. I am guessing that wynds of hay are rows of hay after the hay has been cut and is drying, or mounds or bundles of hay.

Faith can be found in Irish Stories.

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If you’ve never listened to Clare FM’s Traditional Irish music shows, go to http://www.clarefm.ie/, click on Trad Archive and you can either listen to the past week’s shows by streaming or downloading the MP3 files. I’ve really enjoyed listening to these and recently found a jig medley that I’m going to learn: Behind the Bush in the Garden into Jimmy Ward’s (also called Jim Ward’s or Clare Jig).

Here’s an MP3 file of the medley from Clare FM: behindbushingardenjimmywards.mp3

And here is the sheet music for both of the tunes:

Behind the Bush in the Garden

Jimmy Ward’s

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This is a funny story of how Jim Conlon survives amidst his hypochondriac, exceedingly needy mother, Maggie Conlon, whose manner of operation had already put two husbands in their graves. The only way Jim is able to get some relief from his mother’s excessive complaints and neediness is by creating and telling stories about his “friend” Fred Rimble. The irony is that in order to get one more moment of peace from his mother, Jim has to sacrifice his friend and give up his only solution to peace of mind.

It takes place in 1979-1980 in a town called Dirrenroe. Is this a fictitious town in Ireland? When I googled it, all that came up were two references to this story.

This short story can be found in: The Teapots are Out and Other Eccentric Tales from Ireland and Irish Stories.

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