Wild Mountain Thyme

[michael sam wild]

Here's some fascinating info to use in introducing this great song! If you are prone to long introductions

 

http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/30400

[Bruce McCaskey]

Interesting reading. This was one of the first tunes I learned on concertina and I like it quite a lot. I played it while waiting for a plane out of Shannon Airport in Ireland some years ago and a few people made calls and then held their phones in my direction so the people on the other end could hear. I stopped initially when I noted folks near me making calls, but was immediately encouraged by them to continue so it was clear that the music was the point of the call. The tune always seems to be received well whenever I play it.

[Kautilya]

Interesting reading. This was one of the first tunes I learned on concertina

Be interesting to know which came first, Wild Mountain Time/Will You Go Lassie, Go

or

Ashokan Farewell?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VoNFg5ofyE

 

[cboody]

Wild Mountain Thyme by Years!!

[Anglo-Irishman]

Be interesting to know which came first, Wild Mountain Time/Will You Go Lassie, Go

or

Ashokan Farewell?

 

Ashoken Farewell is a lovely tune, glad you posted it!

 

Bits of it did sound vaguely familiar to me, but I wouldn't have thought of "Wild Mountain Thyme." I seemed to detect echoes of "The Road and the Miles tae Dundee" and "The Rose of Talee."

 

Cheers,

John

[John Wild]

Interesting reading. This was one of the first tunes I learned on concertina

 

the label on the Corries' recording reads: "Traditional, arranged McPeake".

 

Edited to add - The Corries use the name Will ye go lassie go.

Edited September 11, 2012 by John Wild

[Kautilya]

Wild Mountain Thyme by Years!!

So the key theme phrasing in Ashokan Farewell is perhaps derivative (bearing in mind other sources striking folk as being similar)?

[cboody]

Ashokan Farewell was written by Jay Ungar at the end of the Ashokan Fiddle Festival one year. Ken Burns picked it up to use in his Civil War TV series, and it is, I believe, the only piece used in the series that is not from the Civil War Era. As to derivation from other tunes: I don't particularly hear Wild Mountain Thyme in it, but as a friend says, "with 8 scale tones you're going to get some duplication." Jay is very familiar with lots of traditional music. I would expect him to be u sing cliches from what he knows. But I don't think that makes it derivative.

[beckett1971]

Re Wild Mountain Thyme ballad. I first heard it in early 1950's in Belfast as a song from the McPeake family collection. The McPeakes were probably the first Irish Fok Group to get International recognition-years before the Clancy Brothers done 'pop' versions of many of theirs (and others)songs. The song is, I believe, a Scotch Ballad, known there as 'Wild Mountain Thyme'. The McPeakes also referred to it as 'Will Ye Go Lassie Go' & I had an old 78rpm of it. Topic records released it,along with other McPeake songs & ballads, on a CD (TSCD583) a few years ago. The CD picture does not depict the original Trio,as I recall it. I had the pleasure of playing with the McPeake Trio a few times (I played a B/C Irish Accordion then) and attended many of their concerts in St. Mary's Hall in Belfast. There have been several 'incarnations' of the McPeakes: I refer to the original with Francie( "me da"!) as he was called then by his family. They played in international events,mostly in Eastern Europe, as there was little or no interest in them in UK/Ireland at the time. I believe there is still a McPeake group still playing in Northern Ireland, but as I lleft there many years ago,can't confirm that. Hope this helps. Beckett1971