New Album of Songs from Séamus Ennis Collection

New Album of Songs from Séamus Ennis Collection

Among the few first releases from cottage record label, Raelach Records, run by Jack Talty, is Saileog Ní Cheannabháin’s I bhfíor-dheiriú oidhche. The album consists of twelve songs that Séamus Ennis collected in Iorras Aithneach, Conamara.

Among the few first releases from cottage record label, Raelach Records, run by Jack Talty, is Saileog Ní Cheannabháin’s I bhfíor-dheiriú oidhche. The album consists of twelve songs that Séamus Ennis collected in Iorras Aithneach, Conamara, between the years 1942 – 1945, part of a collection which is now housed in Ionad Uí Dhuilearga, University College Dublin.

The songs are as follows:

1: Sadhbh Thomáis
2: Maitias Shadhbh Fhilipe
3: Doirí Bhriain
4: An Bhaisteach Anuas
5: Nóra Ní Chonchúir Bháin
6: Seachrán Sí
7: Fáinnín Bán an Lae
8: Amhrán Shéamuis
9: Shíl mise aréir
10: Sadhbh Ní Bhruinnghiolla
11: Thart síos go deo má théann tú
12: Racha do Dheaide go Sydeney / Goideadh do Ghé

While Ní Cheannabháin is not from Iorras Aithneach, her father, sean nós singer Peadar Ó Ceannabháin (who released the solo record Mo Chuid den tSaol in 1997) is, and as Ní Cheannabháin explains ‘we always spent holidays with relatives in Aill na Brún in the Iorras Aithneach region’.
 
‘A couple of years ago, my father was researching material that Séamus Ennis had collected in Conamara in the 1940s, and I had the chance to look at some of this material myself. There was a huge store of songs, stories, and other folkloric material. We were mostly looking at the songs, and we realised that most of them were not to be heard in the repertoire of sean-nós singers anymore. There were a lot of songs we had never come across before at all, and ones we had heard or heard of but often with differences – a different tune or different words or both. It is really an amazing collection.’

‘After I finished college in 2010 my parents suggested I learn some of these songs and put them on a CD. I applied for the DEIS funding scheme from the Arts Council, and it was granted to me in June of that year. So I then began to look again at songs from the original manuscripts in the Folklore Department in UCD.’

‘I found it very hard to narrow down the list of songs for the CD. At first I was going to do a CD of songs from Conamara, but then decided on just those from Iorras Aithneach. I am very familiar with Iorras Aithneach and its singers, and I had heard of some of the singers whom Ennis collected from before. Although I have been reading music from a young age, I normally learn songs by ear. But there were archive recordings for only two of the songs I had chosen for the CD, so I was mostly relying completely on Ennis’s written words and music. Even though for the music he usually just wrote one verse of each song as it was sung, he did so in great detail – including pauses and ornamentation and so on, and that was enough for me to work with.’

The album was recorded, mixed and mastered by Talty. It was recorded in two houses in Clare: ‘I didn’t feel comfortable recording in a studio, and wanted the CD to have a natural sound,’ explains Ní Cheannabháin.

Also on the new label are Talty’s duo album with Cormac Begley, Na Fir Bolg, and a recording of tunes, songs and interviews with the late J.P. Downes of Quilty.

raelachrecords.com

Published on 15 March 2012

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