Nova Scotia - evergreentrad

22 Aug

The Dublin Dancing Master

In Dublin city once there lived a cratur gay and hearty,
A dancing master he by trade his name was Teddy McCarthy,
He taught the girls and boys to dance and none could do it faster,
He always danced so neat and nice, the Dublin dancing master.

Down the middle, hands across, go a little faster,
In and out and round about, the Dublin dancing master.

Now Teddy taught both reels and jigs and all the other dances,
From highland fling to plain quadrille to please the ladies’ fancies,
Patsy Whelan, Mickey Flynn and a boy called Kit McAstor,
Came to learn a highland fling from the Dublin dancing master

Thus Teddy got the boys and girls proficient in their dances,
Polkas, jigs and schottisches, mazurkas, reels and lancers,
No matter what the dance he taught, none could go it faster,
And none could dance an Irish jig like the Dublin dancing master.

I happened on this song in my monthly search and thought it was the perfect choice as I am thinking this week about the passing of Séamus O’Shea. Séamus was a true modern day Dublin dancing master whose son Cormac carries on the family tradition here in St. Paul. Rest in Peace Séamus.

The Canadian Maritimes are, again, my source for this music hall song that migrated from the vaudeville stage to the voices of singers in their communities. The song was sung at Tony Pastor’s famous New York theater in 1866 by singer William Carleton (not to be confused with the author of the same name). In Eastern Passage, Halifax County, Nova Scotia, it was sung by Ben Henneberry (with fiddle by Ken Faulkner) for Helen Creighton’s recording machine in 1948. You can hear the Henneberry/Faulkner recording at the Nova Scotia Archives site.

The melody above is my transcription of Henneberry’s singing and the text is adapted from Henneberry with additional words from a version printed in Will Carleton’s Dandy Pat Songster (1866).

10 Dec

Come All Ye Old Comrades

Come all ye old comrades, come now let us join,
And lend your sweet voices in chorus with mine,
We’ll drink and be merry, all sorrow refrain,
We may and may never all meet here again.

The time is fast approaching when I must away,
To leave my own country for many a long day,
To leave my old comrades so kind and so dear,
I to the Indies my course I must steer.

Fare thee well, I have a mother by the great powers above,
May she always be honored, respected and loved,
I will always respect her by land or by sea,
I’ll ever remember her kindness to me.

Fare thee well, I have a sweetheart whom I dearly love well,
There are none in this country who can her excel,
She smiles at my folly and she sits on my knee,
There’s few in this wide world as happy as we.

Adieu my old comrades, adieu and farewell,
Whether we’ll ever meet again there is no tongue can tell,
We will trust to his mercy who can sink or can save,
To bring me safe over yon proud stormy wave.

We have another song recorded in the Canadian Maritimes by Helen Creighton this month. Many readers will be familiar with Irish or Scottish versions of “Here’s a Health to the Company” aka “Kind Friends and Companions.” It is a well-loved song to close out a night of singing, complete with sing-along chorus.

The above variant, which has no chorus, comes from the singing of Catherine Marion Scott Gallagher (Mrs. Edward Gallagher in Creighton’s notes) who lived at the Chebucto Head lighthouse south east of Halifax, Nova Scotia and was recorded by Creighton in 1949. You can hear Gallagher sing “Come All Ye Old Comrades” on the Nova Scotia Archives website.

Creighton printed another Nova Scotia variant of the song in the book Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia but, as far as I can tell, the beautiful Gallagher version was not published until the release of this online archive. Gallagher’s phrasing on the recording is really nice and worth a listen for anyone interested in learning this one. The text and melody are also fairly unique from Irish/Scottish versions I am aware of. A great North American version of a favorite song!

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01 Nov

Yon Green Valley

Has yon green valley been close all round,
Left none but small birds their notes to sound,
Changing their notes high from tree to tree,
As the sun arose in yon green valley?

It was on the Bible he made me swear,
Look at those few lines are written there,
No other man I’ll ever take,
And when he’s dead love none for his sake.

For a month or better my love proved kind,
And after that he changed his mind,
Saying, “’Tis my parents I must obey,
So farewell darling, I must away.”

I held him fast, would not let him go,
Saying, “You are mine by rights you know,
Fulfill those vows that you’ve made to me,
As the sun arose in the green valley.”

I will sing one verse of his yellow hair,
His rosy cheeks are uncompared,
His dark blue eyes so enticed me,
As the sun arose o’er the green valley.

I will sing one verse and I’ll sing no more,
Of the false young man I so adored,
I will change my mind like the wavering wind,
I will dote no more upon false mankind.

The Nova Scotia Archives website (archives.novascotia.ca) has made available a wealth of recordings made in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island by collector Helen Creighton from the 1930s through the 1960s. Creighton published transcriptions of many of these songs through several valuable books but audio recordings of the vast majority of this material have been very hard to come by until now. There’s nothing like hearing the actual singers sing!

This song appears on the site as sung by Nova Scotia singer William Gilkie (Yon Green Vallee), New Brunswick singer W. E. Ireland and at least three other singers. Gilkie’s melody is fantastic and it’s easy to see why Creighton chose it for her book Maritime Folk Songs. I made my own transcription (very similar to Creighton’s) above and used some verses from Ireland’s version to flesh out the song (Gilkie only had a couple verses).

I would highly recommend spending some time on the Nova Scotia Archives site! It’s pretty easy to navigate and a treasure trove of material.