Pádraigín ní Uallacháin – “Suantraí Sí” (Fairy Lullaby).

For today, I thought I’d like to share with you all this simple, lovely Irish lullaby, sung by Padraigín ní Uallacháin. If any of you reading this post were round here last year in February, you might recall how back then I was gushing about another Irish singer with the same last name – the Eithne ní Uallacháin – and her most amazing, posthumously released album Bilingua, and how I was having a minor faza on her. I still listen to Eithne very often. Well, if you’re Irish or very actively into Irish folk music, this will likely be no surprise for you, but for everyone else – Padraigín and Eithne ní Uallacháin are sisters. – They also have a brother – Ruairí Ó hUallacháin, who happens to be the author of this lullaby. 

 

As you guys know, I don’t speak Irish yet, but I was able to find a translation here. 

 

Fairy lullaby, my little child
Swing slowly in the cradle
Lu la lee, my little child
Close your eyes, little infant

Lulla lulla lullaby
Lulla lulla lullaby
Lulla lulla lullaby
Fairy lullaby, my little child
My darling, my love

Lie quietly, lie calmly
Sleep well, little fair one
Stay asleep forever, my love
’Til you wake in the morning

Song of the day (8th May) – “Christy-Lyn – “Gillian’s Waltz”.

For yesterday’s overdue song, I picked this very happy-sounding waltz played by Christy-Lyn. She is a harpist and harp teacher from South Africa, She is also the founder of the online learning platform and YouTube channel called Learning the Harp. I’d previously shared her version of the nightingale by Deborah Henson Conant. This tune was written by Scottish fiddler Gordon Gunn. 

 

JenliSisters – “Celtic Ballad”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

Another female folk duo I discovered very recently. JenliSisters are Mathilde and Heloise de Jenlis. I don’t know very much about them yet, but as far as I know they are originally from France and it looks like they’re either based in Belgium or Ireland, or used to live in one country but moved to the other. Mathilde plays the violin and Heloise plays the harp. I think it’s a beautiful piece. 

 

Triona Marshall – “The Marquis of Huntley’s Old Snuff Mill”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

For today I chose a traditional tune, originally coming from Scotland. Triona Marshall who plays it is an Irish harpist hailing from Port Laoise. Aside from being a solo harpist, she has also performed with The Chieftains. 

 

Casi & the Blind Harpist – “Another Lover”.

Hi people! 🙂 

 

Yesterday I promised to feature another song by Casi & The Blind Harpist today, and here it is. Such a beautiful song, very interesting musically and mature lyrically! 

 

Casi & The Blind Harpist – “One Evening In April”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

Although I’d already featured two (or four, as they are in both a Welsh and an English version) songs by Casi in the past years – Dyffryn/Rooted and Nefolion, I would really like to share something else by her now. And while, strictly speaking, over here it’s still more like an afternoon in April, I think this beautiful, cinematic-sounding song feels very appropriate all round. It comes from her EP Sunflower Seeds. For those unfamiliar with Casi and her work, she is a singer, songwriter and poet hailing from the Bangor area in North Wales, in the Eryri/Snowdonia mountains. I absolutely love her music and find it appealing on so many different levels but also just plain fascinating, it really resonates with me in an oddly powerful way. It’s so intense, dark, and “hiraethful”. 

 

I can already say that tomorrow I’m going to share one more song by her. 🙂 

 

Llio Rhydderch, Tomos Williams & Mark O’Connor – “Seren Syw” (Beautiful Star).

Hi hi people! 🙂 

 

Today’s song is a very interesting arrangement of an old, Welsh love song, for the triple harp, trumpet and drums, coming from Llio Rhydderch’s album Carn Ingli. Definitely not the first time I’m sharing something from it. This tune has been performed by so many different artists in so many different styles that I’m quite surprised that I still haven’t shared any version of it before, or maybe I just don’t recall it. It is more widely known as Cariad Cyntaf (First Love) and the words to it are from the perspective of a young man who is in love, which presumably is unrequited or somehow otherwise complicated. 

 

Clannad – “Crann Úll” (Apple Tree).

And for today I chose a traditional Irish-language tune sung by Clannad. They first released it on their 1980 album which is also called Crann Úll. It’s a work song collected by Irish musician Seamus Clandillon, who overheard it in the 1920s. 

 

Norland Wind – “Storm in a Teacup”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

Let’s listen to this lively piece by Norland Wind today. I introduced Norland Wind on here last year, which was also when I myself became acquainted with this interesting collective, but for those who don’t know them, it’s a project initiated by German harpist Thomas Loefke, a group of musicians from all over northwestern Europe who play Celtic music with a strong Nordic influence. Storm in a Teacup is the title track of an album they released in 2013, and was composed by Danish composer Henning Flintholm. Aside from aforementioned Thomas Loefke, other people we can hear in this piece are Norwegian guitarist Kerstin Blodig (who’s also into Scandinavian languages), Scottish multi-instrumentalist Ian Melrose (who used to be a guitarist in Clannad, among other things) and English/Scottish multi-instrumentalist Hal Parfitt-Murray (who also has a connection to Denmark). 

 

Loreena McKennitt – “Cymbeline”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

My today’s song of the day choice is Shakespearean, as you can gather from the title. It is William Shakespeare’s poem that appears in his play Cymbeline, sung by Cymbeline’s sons – Guiderius and Arviragus – and concerning death. Loreena McKennitt set it to music. It appears on Loreena’s album The Visit. She was exposed to a lot of Shakespeare’s works while working at the Stratford Shakespearean Theatre for a couple of years in the ‘80s, and she was looking for some work of Shakespeare’s that would have a Celtic connection to it. That is how she came across this poem. 

 

Susan Scott – “O’Carolan’s Draft / Planxty Mrs. Judge”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

For today I picked a set of two pieces, composed by the famous blind Irish harper Turlough O’Carolan, and played by American harpist Susan Scott. I shared one other piece two years ago on here played by Susan Scott – Debussy’s Clair de Lune. The first of the two tunes in this set is better known as O’Carolan’s Draught, and as such I shared it played by another American harpist – Margie Butler. – The second tune, as its name says, is dedicated to one Mrs Judge, who might have been one of O’Carolan’s patrons, but sadly I don’t know anything about her, but the tune is lovely in my opinion and I’d never heard it before coming across Susan Scott’s rendition. 

 

Llio Rhydderch – “Blodau’r Grug – Flowers of the Heather”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

Today’s piece comes from Llio Rhydderch’s album Melangell. It is a traditional Welsh air. 

 

Rachel newton – “For Love”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

For today I picked a song from Rachel Newton’s album West. Rachel Newton’s music has been featured quite a lot on my blog already, but for those of you who are unfamiliar with her, she is a Scottish folk singer and harpist, who performs both traditional Scottish songs and her original material, and aside from her solo career she is also part of various other projects and plays with many British folk artists. This is a traditional Scottish love song. 

 

Aryeh Frankfurter – “Captain O’Kane”.

Hi people! 🙂 

 

For today I chose a harp tune played by Aryeh Frankfurter. I really like his arrangement of it, although it’s generally a very nice piece. Most likely, it was composed by Turlough O’Carolan – a blind Irish harper, a lot of whose other compositions, played by many different artists, I’ve already shared on here before. – 

 

Clannad – “Skellig”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

For today I chose this really powerful-sounding song by Clannad, inspired by the two rocky Skellig islands in county Kerry, which were a popular pilgrimage destination, specifically the larger one called Skellig Michael, where an early Christian monastery was founded that is now a Unesco heritage site. This island was also a refuge for Irish Catholic during the time of penal laws in Ireland. 

 

Gwilym Bowen Rhys – “Cartref” (Home).

Hey people! 🙂 

 

Today I want to share with you an old Welsh song that I really love. It is basically all about how there’s no place like home, and I wholeheartedly agree with it, even though my perspective is probably different than that of the lyrical subject of this song since he sounds like someone very well-travelled who enjoys being able to come home at the end of his journey, whereas I am, as most of you will know, a semi-hermit who rarely even feels the need to go far from home, so I think both these things might feel a bit different. . It was written by a popular Welsh 19th century poet called Richard Davies, or Mynyddog. I really wanted to translate this song for you guys, since I do understand a lot of it, and I actually did, but in the end decided it was not particularly good and may have had a lot of errors. But then I don’t think it’s the kind of song where you absolutely need to understand all of the words to actually get the message and the feel of the song, or all the more to enjoy it, as I think it’s message is very clear and universal. It’s from the perspective of someone who has travelled the world, been to many countries, but still, he thinks that no place is quite as cosy, comfortable, warm and pleasant as home, where you can find shelter from the winds and the storms and be welcomed and surrounded by family and loved ones, as well as comfortingly familiar furniture. 

 

What makes me even more fond of this song is that the first time I heard it it was by Gwilym Bowen Rhys (one of my faza peeps), and while I’ve heard several more versions since then, I thought I’d like to share with you this first one I heard. Gwilym performed it in the British Embassy in Paris in 2018, as part of the launch of the L’Orient Interceltic Festival that takes place each summer in Brittany and brings together all the Celtic nations with their languages and cultures. 

 

Georgia Ruth – “Dovecote”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

I feel like I haven’t shared anything by Georgia Ruth in a long time so I’d like to do that today. This really beautiful and atmospheric song comes from this Welsh folk singer, songwriter and harpist’s album Week of Pines. 

 

Llio Rhydderch – “Dafydd y Garreg Wen – Dafydd of The White Rock”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

For today I chose another piece by Welsh triple harp player Llio Rhydderch. It is a traditional piece composed by David Owen, a Welsh harpist who lived in the 18th century on a farm called y Garreg Wen (The White Rock). The tradition claims that he composed this air on his deathbed. There are also words that were set to it many years later that talk about him playing the harp before death and parting with his family. I think the tune already sounds very characteristic and striking on its own in my opinion, but Llio Rhydderch, as is always the case with her arrangements, makes it sound even more beautiful. 

 

Cynthia A. Boener – “Southwind”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

For today I chose a lovely traditional Irish tune, played by a harpist from Indiana. Cynthia A. Boener sounds like a very versatile person with lots of different interests, as besides playing the harp, she can also play the piano and organ and plays the latter during church services. It sounds like she must be Catholic, because her website says that she is an oblate of St. Meinrad Monastery, which, being Catholic myself, of course I think is really cool! Aside from being a musician, she is also a pharmacist, and has worked in a few other fields over the years. As for Southwind, as I said it is an Irish air, going back to the 18th century and collected by Edward Bunting from a harper in County Clare. I read that there is an interesting legend which tells how Clare musicians learned this tune. It involves a ghost ship which brought back home the souls of Irish expatriates. The ship was driven up the west coast of Clare by a southern wind, and musicians who witnessed this event could hear the ghosts of those people singing this tune. While I’m sharing an instrumental version, there are words that have been written to this tune by one Freckled Donal MacNamara, and these in turn are connected to County Mayo – MacNamara’s homeland which he was homesick for. – It is a conversation between the poet and the south wind about his longing. I only discovered Cynthia’s music quite recently, and her arrangement of this tune is also the first one I’ve ever heard. 

 

Sharron Kraus – “Blodeuwedd”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

Yesterday I shared a piece inspired by Celtic mythology and today I’d like to continue with the theme, though unlike Angus, the protagonist of today’s song comes from Welsh mythology. This song comes from an album that came out over eight years ago, but is relatively new to me, as is Sharron Kraus’ music in general. She is a folk singer and songwriter from Oxford, and the album in question is called Friends and Enemies; Lovers and Strangers. It is inspired by the Mabinogion – a medieval collection of Welsh folk tales. – This particular song is very interesting, because it tells the story of Blodeuwedd – a woman made of flowers who is a central figure in the fourth and last branch of the Mabinogi – and the lyrics are written from her perspective, in the first person. Blodeuwedd was created by two magicians – Gwydion and Math. – Gwydion was the uncle (or possibly even the father) of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, who was cursed by his mother so that he could not marry a human woman. So Gwydion, wanting to help him, made Blodeuwedd to be his wife. However, later, when Lleu was away, Blodeuwedd had an affair with another man, and the two of them conspired to murder her husband. Which wasn’t easy at all because there were ridiculously specific circumstances in which Lleu could be killed, and any other way wouldn’t work. But even though Lleu revealed to Blodeuwedd the circumstances in which he could be killed, it still backfired in the end, and eventually Gwydion punished Blodeuwedd by changing her into an owl – a creature hated by all other birds. – What I think is also worth mentioning is that, among other instruments, we can hear the harp throughout this album, and it is played by Harriet Earis – English harpist based in Wales whose name has already appeared many times before on my blog, in connection to her experimental, jazzy-folky project called Harriet Earis Trio.