Customer Reviews

Danny Boy: The Legend Of The Beloved Irish Ballad

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Beyond question, the melody variously known as "Danny Boy" or "Londonderry Air" is one of the great tunes of all time. Its measured rising and falling cadences would grace the catalog of Franz Schubert or any of the other great classical vocal composers.

Malachy McCourt, brother of novelist Frank McCourt (ANGELA'S ASHES) and a well-known writer and radio-TV luminary in his own right, has produced a curious little book of less than 95 pages about the famous tune and its well-known lyrics. His book is part history, part speculation, part myth and part personal editorial essay. And it is not free from touches of Irish blarney.

McCourt's findings may surprise --- and dismay --- many. The great tune, long since adopted as a kind of unofficial Irish national anthem, may not be of Irish origin. A folklorist named Jane Ross supposedly first noted it down around 1851. She reportedly heard it played by a blind fiddler, Jimmy McCurry, in Limavady, Londonderry --- but there is at least a possibility that the melody may have originated in Scotland. No one knows for sure. At least one respected musical scholar claims that the tune follows no known metric scheme for Irish folk music.

Many different sets of words were attached to the tune after its first publication in 1855 --- but those that have become indissolubly identified with it ("O Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling, from glen to glen and down the mountainside....") were written in 1910 by an English lawyer and song-lyric cobbler named Frederick E. Weatherly, who probably never set foot in Ireland. They were actually intended for a different tune, but when Weatherly's sister-in-law sent him some years later the familiar melody from her home in Australia, he saw that it was a perfect fit for his earlier verses. Thus an "Irish" classic was created from a melody that may be Scottish and words by an Englishman.

McCourt gives us this information straightforwardly enough, but he fleshes them out with a good deal of barely relevant material. It seems strange to arraign a book of 95 pages on charges of padding, but the complaint seems justified. McCourt solicited opinions about the song from Irish celebrities (including brother Frank) and speculates at length on such side issues as who is singing the song and to whom it is addressed (one possibility among several: it is the song of Danny Boy's gay lover!). The author's tone varies between straight historical writing and folksiness, including occasional cutesy use of "tis" and "t'was." McCourt also grinds a personal axe or two. He thinks ill of those Catholic dioceses that have banned the singing of "Danny Boy" at funerals because it is "secular."

There are some fascinating bits of trivia here, however. Victorians hesitated to refer to the song as Londonderry Air because, to their prudish ears, it sounded too much like "London derriere." Irish nationalists never use that title either, because they want no mention of London in the title. Wordsmith Weatherly was once in legal partnership with one of the sons of Charles Dickens. And another of Weatherly's lyrics was the popular "Roses of Picardy," set to music memorably by Haydn Wood. Wood studied under the composer Sir Charles Stanford, who quoted "Londonderry Air" in one of his Irish rhapsodies. Make of that what you will. This is a curious little book, entertaining in its quirky way but almost undone by its relentless folksiness. "Londonderry Air" remains a musical treasure, regardless of its origin.

--- Reviewed by Robert Finn

I'm a sucker for Irish history, lore, you name it. I grabbed this book without a second thought (or glance) and paid the price. It's just not good. The idea is great and it appears that the author was offered a sum of money for a minimum 100 pages about the subject of the origins of Danny Boy. Well, there's no real story behind it so that leaves 99 pages which he fills with name-dropping, Irish history (not bad, but for a different book), and then the capper is a 30 page list of people who have sung the song. On top of all that, there's several annoying typos.

Reread Trinity instead.

I was looking forward to a verbal journey. A talk with musicians and poets, historians and purveyors of folklore. And I got a little of that. Very little.
This is a very short volume, and more than I'd like is made up of excerpts of past books. This should be a little spice for the stew, not a major ingredient.
In the whole, it reads as a dry (and there is the main problem, it is dry) history lesson.
Again it is short. It would have worked as well as a long magazine article.

An excellent book by an excellent writer!McCourt has awaken the intrest in all of us to get to the bottom of what this song is all about.I think he has done it, and each time I hear it ,I will think of this book,and of what the song means to me.
Though there are numerous ideas about what the song means,who was it to and from etc.,he has shown that doesn't really matter.It is a song expressing deep love,and it can mean whatever the listener wants it to mean.I have dozens of versions and although they vary greatly I love them all.I am always happy to hear it by another singer whether a professional or just an ordinary person singing from the heart.
As to whether or not the words were written in Ireland by an Irishman;it doesn't matter in the least,it's a great Irish song.
When you stop and think about it,there's no way it could be anything else but Irish.Johnny Cash wrote "Forty Shades of Green" as he was flying over Ireland,a school teacher living in Ontario wrote "Maggie" to his lover,and if that isn't enough, the song "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" was written in America and had nothing at all to do with taking Kathleen back to Ireland,because she didn't come from there in the first place.
However;all these songs are Irish .What you have to remember is that there over 50 million Irish dispersed all over the world including about 4 million in Ireland.This book would be a great gift for anyone with a song in their heart and a twinkle in their eye for there's sure to be some Irish in their blood.

I found this to be an interesting tome about Danny Boy, and would have given it four stars but for one entry in the book. I generally read history books whether delivered as scholarly text, or a more relaxed tone, I expect the author to stick to the topic at hand. The one line that caused the loss of two stars was the author's seemingly wishing for the death of the President (p. 62) 'George Walker Bush, I hearby sentence you to be hanged by the neck until you are dead.' I really do not care how Malachy McCourt feels about the President, but it really has no place in a history of the song Danny Boy.

Neither scholarly treatise nor lengthy tome, Malachy McCourt's Danny Boy is a short, but sweet, look at a favorite song. He traces, briefly, the history of the tune and the various words that have been sung to it; speculates on who the song's narrator is and what the story refers to; and, has several famous Irish and Irish-American people discuss what the song means to them. This strikes me as a good hostess gift if you're going to a St. Patrick's Day party, or a nice birthday or holiday gift for an Irish-American friend. I wonder why he didn't include a CD with various versions of the song? Maybe for the paperback edition.

The legend of the beloved Irish ballad is revealed in Malachy McCourt's Danny Boy, a seminal title probing its roots and underlying meaning. McCourt extensively traveled throughout Ireland interviewing musicologists, historians, celebrities and Irish icons in the course of his investigation. In Danny Boy, Irish folklore and history spice an exciting contribution to music history and appreciation.

This item (to call it a "book" would be an insult to books) has perhaps three pages of information about the history and substance of "Danny Boy". The remaining 138 pages are irrelevant Hamburger Helper. Save your $18.95 (or even your lower Amazon price) for something worth the money.

The first and only time I had an opportunity to perform "Danny Boy" was in the basement of a Catholic church for a group of seniors who were celebrating St. Patrick's Day and wanted a touch of Irish in the program. At the exact moment I arrived at the line, "And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me," there was a thunderous stampede heard overhead: the school had just released its students for the day.

Which has (or perhaps should have) almost nothing to do with this review, although that hilarious juxtaposition of lyrics and sound kept many eyes from misting up, which they normally would have given the powerful emotions often conjured by a performance of "Danny Boy," something Malachay McCourt, in his lovely little book, mentions repeatedly.

Who wrote the lyrics? Where did the Londonderry Air originate (alright, it came from Londonderry but from whose pen (or possibly, in this case, from whose pipes or whose fiddle)? Who is speaking/singing and what is her/his relationship to Danny?

No spoilers here, and McCourt doesn't necessarily provide a concrete answer to all these questions, but he does lay out enough information, both legendary and factual, to make this a very informative read for lovers of the song. McCourt's writing is sometimes humorous, often beautiful, and always informative as can be seen from a summarizing paragraph towards the book's end:

"While 'Danny Boy' will always be touted as an Irish ballad, it was truly the product of many different worlds meshing together. Let it be the tune of a blind, Irish fiddler drifting across the sea, reaching an English barrister who would finally marry words and melody to create a song capable of describing, at least in part, the contents of the human heart. The song depicts the human condition, about the unknown and the black cloud of finality that accompanies it. The message is available to all those who want to hear it. 'Danny Boy' has a profound effect on people from all corners of the world, a trait it shares with the truest of any work of art."

We don't know why "Danny Boy" touches our hearts -- but it does. I was pleasantly surprised to have a chance to learn something about the lore that came together to help create the feeling whenever I hear this ballad. You may want to consider reading the novel Yours, Aiden (isbn 1403319898)as it too creates a stir within.