Product Description
A hardcover first edition, 1927 , the full title being - "Londubh an Chairn" Being Songs of the Irish Gaels. In Staff and Sol-Fa With English metrical translations. Edited by Maighread Ni Annagáin agus Séamus de Chlanndiolúin.
Published for the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust by the Oxford University Press, Humphrey Milford, 1927
With the errata leaf glued in to the page just before the contents page
Original Hardcover in protective Mylar. Very good condition with only minor signs of wear. With the printed dedication: "To the Memory of The Rev. Richard Henebry, Ph.D., an ardent champion and an able exponent of the Music of the Gael, this book is respectfully and affectionately dedicated".
With 74 Songs and notes to each regarding the origin/history of each song. The Index lists the 75 songs (as Gaeilge and English) and the notations with scores and text are also bilingual !
Includes the following songs ( as examples - see the photo images for the full long list) : Over the Hills and Far Away / The Farewells / The Fair Little Branch / The Old Brick of the Deisi / The Pretty Girls of Loughrea / The Little Bench of Rushes / The Dark Women of the Glen / Beside the Blackwater / For Ireland I'd not tell her name / The Fox's Conversation / The Song of the Black Potatoes / The Connerys / The Munster War Song / The Blackbird and the Thrush / Lament for Owen Roe O'Neill / By the Banks of the Lee, as at eve I wandered / Slievenamon / The Maid of the Branching Tresses / The Jail of Clonmel / The Faithful Brown Dhrimeen / By the Side of Killoran / The Will of Turlough's Pat / The Little Field of Barley / Teig a Dhaw Haov / Erin / The Airy Wee Hill of Kilmurray / Dreaming of Thee / Sean de Hore's Repentance
Note that some of the translations to Gaeilge here are literal transcribings of the English.
Condition - solid in dark blue cloth, titles in gilt to front and spine, the covers are grubby and bumped, the book has obviously been used, and shows the evidence of the same.
This copy is signed ( twice) by Frank Higgins, a noted irish fiddle player. It looks as if a subsequent owner, or wayward child subsequently tore out his name from the blank endpages , this was subsequently repaired with tape (it looks like archival tape, and has been done reasonably well. The corners of three pages ( all the initial blank endpages) were torn, all have been repaired
Also loosely laid in is a blank yellow page ( which looks like an endpage from a smaller book, signed also by Frank O'Higgins ( and address of 102 Haddington Road) another (older - probaly the oldest name) name Michael Corbett, in fine flowing ink, underneath that as gaeilge Padriag S O'Corbard ( presumably a relative of the above name, also with an address 15 Sráid Beag and a word I can't clearly identify Má Nud? ( Mánis? ) - or it may be a single word Sráid Beagmánis ( Little Britain Street in Dublin, possibly, but in a Gaelicised version ? )
Some of these individuals may have been traditional musicians, as presumably the page was kept as a result of their signatures. Or they may just be random individuals.
The back of this page has another ( probably older inscription) To John Glynn Esq, with Dr Joyce's Compts ( compliments)
This type of creamyellow endpage was common in books in the late 19th century up to the Edwardian era.
Also loosely laid in is an (undated) handwritten musical notation for the The Ace and Deuce of Piping, and signed at the bottom to Frank O'Higgins , from (a) Séamus ó Mathúna'' There was a noted Clare musician called Séamus Mac Mathúna , but the name here is different.
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