minstrel: Fw: [Mid] Song lyrics for popular dances

[mn13189 at WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU]

    --------------------"Bring Forrit The Tartan"---------------------

On Thu, 25 Mar 1999, Greg Lindahl wrote:

> > This is especially true in the Celtic countries---where social dancing was
> > popular, but instruments and accomplished musicians to play them were
> > frequently in short supply.  The style that evolved to compensate for this was
> > called "piert-a-beuil", or "mouth music";  also called "diddling" (Scots) or
> > "lilting" (Irish), depending on which country you lived in.   
> 
> Was this done before 1600? I thought that there were paintings of of
> people doing carols all over Europe, but that most of our favorite
> Celtic activities were post-period. I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

NO, there is no *direct* evedence of this practice.  Of course there is
little documentation for most any Gaelic song in Scotland before the
1600s, but I assume they were being sung.  ;-)  The earliest peice of
recorded Gaelic song I know of that has something that can be called
"mouth music" is Griogal Cridhe, 1570.  The chorus is "obhan obhan obhan
iri, obhan iri o, obhan obhan obhan iri, 's mor mo mhulad 's mor"  The
only line there with meaning is the last, which means "great is my
distress."  The rest are nonsence words meant to express only emotion.
Note this was a lullaby and lament, not a dance tune.  

All my other notes on mouth music are at my office right now, but I will
look tomorrow and see if anything interesting is there.  

Aye,
Eogan


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, send email to majordomo at pbm.com containing
the words "unsubscribe minstrel". If you are subscribed to the digest version,
say "unsubscribe minstrel-digest". To contact a human about problems, send
mail to owner-minstrel at pbm.com