The quaver five reminds us to be4/4/2023 ![]() ![]() We were looking through some LP?s last night (back to vinyl yet!) and found a Mercury Wing Classical Favorites stereo LP SRW18060, COUNTRY GARDENS and other favorites by Percy Grainger Eastman-Rochester Pops, Frederick Fennell, conducting. ![]() Just another note about Danny Boy, that I grew up in Australia believing to be the Air from County Derry. My mother also sends the following information, referring to an arrangement of the tune by the Australian composer Percy Grainger: (This would, I suppose, support Winston Churchill?s theory that Australia was inhabited by "convicts and Irishmen".) My parents tell me that in their youth in Australia, it was usually called the Air from County Derry. If you were a proper Victorian, there?s no way you were going to call it the Londonderry Air, much less the Derry Air, because of the improper sentiments that these titles might suggest. We have an air, collected in county Derry/Londonderry, and it doesn?t have a title. You can find plenty of discussion about the political side of the question elsewhere, but here let?s look at the musical side. Or you might just be someone who thinks it?s confusing for kings to be going around changing the names of places all the time for no good reason. If you think it was a bad idea, you call both "Derry", and you are probably a supporter of the Irish Nationalist cause. If you do, you are probably a supporter of the Unionist movement that seeks to keep Ulster a part of the United Kingdom. The linguistic outcome of all this today is that, if you think that King James?s deal with the City of London was a good idea, you call both the city and county "Londonderry". (For further information, check out the Northern Ireland Tourist Board?s History of Derry.) In celebration of this historic agreement, the name of Derry was officially changed to Londonderry. I guess the deal could be summed up by saying that if the City of London could figure out a way to chase all the inhabitants out of Derry, they would be allowed to keep the loot, minus a percentage for the King of course. In 1608, King James I gave the city of Derry to the City of London corporation. In the case of Ireland, some of these schemes of the "Brish gummit" (as it is termed nowadays in Ulster) are still producing unfortunate long-term consequences. The monarchs of England, almost all of whom were notorious cheapskates, were continually looking about for ingenious ways to conquer places without actually having to put up the money themselves, or run the risk of unpopularity if they lost. Moving quickly along in history, about a millenium later the government of England was having a difficult time colonizing Ireland because of the fierce and warlike clans living there, especially in the north of the country, Ulster. ![]() It thought to derive from an Irish root meaning "oak tree". The name of the city was actually "Doire", corrupted to "Derry" by people who can?t pronounce Irish. There is an excellent museum in the city, which is worth a visit if you want to find out more. Colmcille, although archaeological evidence shows that people were living there thousands of years earlier. Supposedly the city of Derry was founded by St. Why the name Londonderry Air? Londonderry and Derry refer to the same place, a city in the north of Ireland, and also to the surrounding county. ![]() In spite of this, it is unclear whether this was Weatherly?s intent. The 1918 version of the sheet music included alternative lyrics ("Eily Dear"), with the instructions that "when sung by a man, the words in italic should be used the song then becomes "Eily Dear", so that "Danny Boy" is only to be sung by a lady". Some listeners have interpreted the song to be a message from a parent to a son going off to war or leaving as part of the Irish diaspora. There are various theories as to the true meaning of "Danny Boy". On November 25, 2014, the Vancouver Canucks used the song in honor of the recently deceased Pat Quinn, who played and worked in many executive capacities for the team. "Danny Boy" was used to represent Northern Ireland at the start of the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, sung by a choir of children on the Giant?s Causeway. Londonderry Air arranged for String Orchestra.Ī big band version of the song is used as the theme for The Danny Thomas Show (a.k.a. ![]()
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