This week's winner is Blind Mary, which I just now realized, already HAS been tune of the week #244, but since that was almost 7 years ago, that's OK! I will link to to the past discussion, here, but, please post your new submissions in this newer discussion! From Traditional Tune Archive: BLIND MARY (Máire Dhall). Irish, Planxty ("very slow" air in 2/4 time, O'Neill: 4/4 time, Joyce & Vallely). D Major (Johnson; Ó Canainn, O'Neill {2 editions}, O'Sullivan, Vallely): F Major (Joyce): G Major (Sing Out). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Ó Canainn, Sing Out): AB (Johnson, Joyce, O'Neill, O'Sullivan, Vallely). The tune is attributed to blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738), although Donal O'Sullivan, in his definitive work on the bard, could find no incontrovertible evidence of its origin. It was copied by Chief Fancis O'Neill from Co. Cork collector William Forde's two-volume Encyclopaedia of Melody (c. 1845), which carried the attribution to O'Carolan. Unfortunately, only the first volume survives (in the O'Neill papers donated to Notre Dame University), and it is presumed that "Blind Mary" is in the second, a copy of which has not been located in Ireland, Britain or the United States. Donal O'Sullivan (1958) does not think the piece characteristic of O'Carolan's melodies, and "But for Forde's high authority we should hardly be justified in including it" in his collected O'Carolan works. If Carolan did compose the tune, it was probably for another blind harper named Máire Dhall (Blind Mary) who lived in his locality, and whom he undoubtedly knew. Máire Dhall was a professional harper (one of the few women recorded as being in the profession) who taught another blind woman, Rose Mooney, who appeared at the Belfast Harp Meeting of 1792, one of the last gatherings of ancient Irish harpers (Sanger & Kinnaird, Tree of Strings, 1992). Harper Charles O'Conor's diary mentions that in October, 1726, his two younger brothers were learning harp from a woman harper named Máire Dhall. The tune appears to have been recently popular with flute players. Here's a link to several settings on the session.org Here are some videos..... starting out with our very own David Hansen!
Here is my attempt at Blind Mary. I used my JK mandolin and Lowden O-32 guitar for this recording, with harmony added on mandolin 2nd and 3rd times round and guitar melody added on 3rd time. Recorded as usual into REAPER in wav format then rendered to mp3 for the video.
Fine rendition there John, and professionally recorded too.
Thanks, Simon. I took a leaf out of your book and played standing up for a change! Must do it again.
I have to admit I don’t really stand up, it just looks like that. I’m actually leaning backwards a fair amount, slightly sitting, takes a lot of weight off but I can still move a bit to get a certain amount of flow and rhythm in body movement. -If it’s good for singers then it’s good for mandolinists. (What is the name of that fallacy?)
Very nice, John! Like many Carolan tunes, Blind Mary is played at a wide range of tempos, and sometimes very slow indeed. When we play it with our group, it's usually rather slower than yours, partly because the harmonies we have are fairly busy. Here is my new recording -- same harmonies by David James as in the version in the old thread, but with a different approach. I'm playing it on mandolin and tenor guitar first, adding two mandolin harmony parts for the repeat. Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin (x3) Vintage Viaten tenor guitar Martin
I am just too slow. I recorded this last night to send to John...all for naught !! Both of you did lovely songs.
Nicely done, John and Martin. Same as my previous version except I changed the key to G and instead of my Sobell mandolin I played a Gibson A2 mandolin, my Sobell octave mandolin, Forster cittern, Wheatstone concertina and a cello.
Thanks Martin, Ginny and David. Two fine offerings (as usual) from M and D, and apologies to Ginny for jumping the gun on this one. I had not realised you were looking at this one as a possible collaboration, Ginny, and I had worked on my version when I saw it coming up on the Official Tune list.
Just post it skimpy Ginny. Truly amazing performances from you gents, Martin and David. David you really need to get hired by a film director, your playing could make a mediocre film great!
Very nice old and new recordings here. I could follow Simon’s imagination: sitting relaxed in the middle of a modern cinema with its sophisticated surround audio system – listening to David’s music. I would close my eyes to the film. Or Ginny makes us some nice visuals.
Brillant versions gents!I'm back from another short trip without almost no internet access. When I read about the tune of the week, I was a little surprised, I had recorded the tune only last year. This one is a bit slower, got to get my fingers back into shape, after 10 days without a mando....
Hi everyone, here's my first effort, replete with a few misses here and there. As I noted when voting for Blind Mary I've decided to use my COVID isolation doing some mandolin-learning and backing off the social platforms. You've all done such a great job, thanks for letting a beginner chime in. Rob
Very nice Christian, I watched it on YouTube first and left comments. Rob, good tune - I saw you wince when you hit the wrong note - I do that too but usually swear at the same time. It might help if you get a strap and lower the position of the mandolin so your forearm and wrist are in line. You have a lovely sound on your mandolin.
Christian, a very fine rendering of the tune. Lovely mix and balance between your instruments. Rob, great to put a face to the name. I am assuming you are the same Rob who has written the guide to mandolin set-ups? So many folk here have used your guidance to get their instruments playing better. Good effort for your first posting, and a great tone from your mando, as Ginny says.
Sounds fine slower, sensitively played Christian. I like the slight variations in rhythm. Good timing and fine tone, Rob. Nice to hear you posting. And funny, I was sure I recognised your name from somewhere. -well done on the manual, it’s a great teaching aid.
Great rendition, Christian. There very fine performances on YouTube which are much slower than yours. Great to have you with us, Rob. I’m looking forward to more recordings by you.
Nice version Christian. I also like the blending of instruments and the relaxed pace. Good work on your version Rob. Except for the occasional dead note , it has a nice sense timing that fit the tune well.
Thanks a lot folks and keep on posting Rob!
Here is my version played on my Martin BK mandolin.
Interesting interpretation, Brian, with your slightly altered timing. It works well. Fine tone too from your mandolin.
Thanks John. I played largely from memory with only an occasional glance at the sheet music, so I accidentally replaced a few eighth notes with quarters. I think this is the first tune that I came across that did not have repeating A and B parts. I created my own and intermingled them as I was playing.
You realise that you have just described the process of how traditional music is passed on, Brian! Before the recording of tunes via written notation, they were passed on aurally and so variations quickly happened as players learned the tunes as they heard them, with some notes altered and that version in turn being taken up and adopted by the next player, etc. Lyrics are the same, before they were written down. We repeat what we think we heard. Similarly with whether A and B parts are repeated, and how often. I do it a lot!
Really nice Brian, clean and great tone. I have to admit that the first four or five tunes I learned were like this, and I thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of it. I had two problems as a result though, which led me to changing my ways and becoming the metronome fundamentalist that I am today! One, the worst was that I couldn't play one single tune without making a mistake, I couldn’t just rattle off some show piece for a friend or someone. Two was that I couldn’t actually play with anyone else because we weren’t playing notes at the same time. So I began to always use tab, stick precisely to the notes, and make no, zero errors while practicing extremely slowly. I switched on my metronome/drum machine. I played REALLY simple and highly rhythmic tunes always putting an accent on the 3 beat of each measure, a bit like rock. My playing became heavy and mechanical and soul less ... good, I needed the practice. I stamped that rhythm onto lots of pretty two or three measure melodic phrases. Slow Airs? Trashed them! And I always used my body parts in the rhythmic mixture, foot tapping, nodding on the third beat etc. I did try one, the Gypsy Princess, and I’m still not ready for a Slow Air, but looking forward to it.
Simon thanks for the compliment. My metronome regimen is somewhat similar to yours, but not identical. I use a metronome on my phone to play each measure very slowly to learn the tune. At first I will work through each measure, and then start stringing measures together. That helps me figure out what the melody is supposed to sound like, The reason I use the phone metronome is because I can switch tempo's quickly. When I have the melody in my head and under my fingers I often switch to my pendulum metronome and practice at speed, I think this is like when you use the drum machine. I also will practice without the device, still trying to figure out the melody. I also have a tendency to try a lot of picking patterns as I am studying how to play in the classical style. This is usually the time I start fooling around with the timing, and start forgetting how the tune is supposed to be played. Outside of the tune, I will make up exercises to practice with the metronome just to develop a sense of timing. TAB is something I have been trying to avoid because I am trying to get better at reading standard notation. There should be a separate thread on all of the varied ways folks use a metronome.
Confession time: Although I'm a huge admirer of O'Carolan's music - my usual line when listening to his compositions is "How could one man have so much melody inside him?" - this particular tune has never been one of my favourites. To my ears, it lacks some of the magic that imbues many other O'Carolan tunes. Nevertheless, your versions are all very enjoyable. Christian's recording, in particular, sounds as if he was born to play this melody.
I do agree with you, Dennis. But all these nice renditions above made me eager to record my own version. I played the melody on mandolin and the harmony on my long scale bouzouki. The secound turn I doubled the melody on concertina and two times bouzouki. I recorded all instuments with Samson C03U USB condenser microphon direkt in Audacity. Pictures are taken on vacation in June/July in Paznauntal within the Austrian alps.
Looks and sounds really good, Frithjof. I liked the harmony part and the concertina, which support the mandolin very well. A good arrangement, in other words! Thank you for this video.
That is forceful and deliberate playing Frithjof. It came through nicely in the recording The photograph of the Alps are great too.
Lovely video and fine playing, Frithjof. Your recording set-up has delivered excellent results too.
Really clear playing Frithjof, I like the layering of the different instruments, well managed, and the stream that suddenly goes quiet reminds me of the woman who either wrote the tune or was the subject of the portrait. Well done.
Two nice versions since I last visited this place. O'Carolan also goes together well with alp flowers.
Many thanks for all the nice comments.
Nice version, Frithjof -- thanks! Regarding whether Blind Mary is a "typical" Carolan tune, or indeed a Carolan tune at all, check the remarks from the Fiddler's Companion in Barbara's opening post to this thread: "The tune is attributed to blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738), although Donal O'Sullivan, in his definitive work on the bard, could find no incontrovertible evidence of its origin. It was copied by Chief Fancis O'Neill from Co. Cork collector William Forde's two-volume Encyclopaedia of Melody (c. 1845), which carried the attribution to O'Carolan. Unfortunately, only the first volume survives (in the O'Neill papers donated to Notre Dame University), and it is presumed that "Blind Mary" is in the second, a copy of which has not been located in Ireland, Britain or the United States. Donal O'Sullivan (1958) does not think the piece characteristic of O'Carolan's melodies, and "But for Forde's high authority we should hardly be justified in including it" in his collected O'Carolan works. If Carolan did compose the tune, it was probably for another blind harper named Máire Dhall (Blind Mary) who lived in his locality, and whom he undoubtedly knew." For what it's worth, I've always liked the tune, but it does need to have some accompaniment beyond the melody line as it's too spare otherwise even for fiddlers adding decorations. On the original harp, they can play arpeggios to accompany the melody, and that works well. Martin
