Product Description
Here'a suite about life in the Isle of Man based on Manx folk tunes and religious music. All the harmonies and some decorations are mine. There are 5 movements.
I MAINLY CELEBRATIONS: I found all the melodies in The Mona Melodies, a group of traditional tunes (probably heard in Douglas) collected in 1820. Hunt the Wren is a surprising, lively, traditional event on St Stephen's Day when villagers dance and sing round the town hoping for gifts. This tune is dorian. A Lullaby in aeolian follows, then In Praise of Wine, in ionian, while at the same time fragments of the Lullaby are heard from inside a home. The Wren group return.
II FAITH Religious music I assume could have been heard in Manx churches. Two supposedly Celtic-style antiphon melodies from a 13th-century breviary from Caen (a) The Holy Cross (b) The Saints. I made them into parallel organum with a drone. Between them is an elaborate ancient melody (labelled Martyrs) for Psalm 80 (Lord, come and save us), which I found with Gaelic words. I accompany with 3 more parts. The whole movement is in dorian mode.
III EMOTIONS: Mourning for a Prince is a mixolydian tune also found in The Mona Melodies. I give the tune to the viola. In Praise of Beauty is sung by the cello in C major. This tune is also found in The Mona Melodies, as Brown Oxen (Berry Dowin). William Brown (Illiam Dhoan) (should be Dhone, I believe) is the air used for Love Lost and Found: again from The Mona Melodies. I made it C minor at first (love lost) , then the original version in F major (love found).
IV CAR JUAN NAN (Let's All Dance) is a reel, from which I took a few bars and made it into a round. My source was the book Ed. Colin Jerry Kiaull yn Theay 1: Manx music and songs for folk instruments
V WORK, REST and PLAY. The Spinning Song is major/ionian, the Milking Song is major pentatonic, but my mooing bass part does not respect that: I found those tunes in Kiaull yn Theay. The Harvest Celebration Dance (Yn Mheillea) is from manxmusic.com. The Goodnight Song (Arrane Oie Vie) was traditionally sung after a Christmas Eve event in the church, after more formal proceedings and after the singing of many gloomy vaguely religious songs there and a visit to the pub. Collected from Mr E, Corteen and Mr T. Taggart of Malew: my source: manxmusic.com.
DURATION: 15 minutes.
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