Customer Reviews

Irish Music For Recorder

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This book has about 30 Irish tunes for the recorder, suitable for a first or second year student. The lyrics are included (most have multiple verses) as well as guitar chords. There are also occasional historical notes as well as help with pronunciation for unfamiliar words in the lyrics.

This is a collection of 30 Irish songs arranged for solo C-recorders (i.e. sopranos or tenors). Each is arranged one to a page, and ranges in length from 3 to 8 lines, most being 5 or 6. Almost all the arrangements also include the words to the songs (or some of them) plus guitar chords. 24 of the 30 are traditional. The remainder appear to be early to mid-20th century popular songs.

The first 29 songs are conveniently arranged in alphabetical order, more or less.

There's some good material here, including such well-worn classics as Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air), The Minstrel Boy, Cockles and Mussels, The Spinning Wheel, The Last Rose of Summer, and The Lark in the Clear Air.

My personal favourites in this collection include The Irish Washerwoman, I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen, The Road to Lisdoonvarna, The Garden Where the Praties Grow and The Wild Colonial Boy (with lots of verses).

There's also some good sing-along material here, for those of that era/inclination, although the lyrics aren't printed very large. Some is sentimental to the point of being hokey, however.

The back cover asserts all the songs are "easy to play" and they do seem to be within the reach of diligent advanced beginners. They are challenging enough to give a real sense of accomplishment. I've had the book for 10 years and by no means have mastered all of them. If one adds a little ornamentation here and there they're even more challenging.

The back cover also describes it as an "outstanding collection" and in some important respects (such as beginner-friendliness, organization, its inclusion of lyrics and quality of arrangements) it lives up to that claim. Some might find "Irish Music for Recorder" a little less outstanding as a representative selection of Irish music, however. Although those who think of "Danny Boy" as the alpha and omega of Irish music aren't likely to have a problem with it, there are several beginner-level collections that feature a far better range of Irish traditional music, such as Ossian's Irish Tunebook series, Ellen Cranitch's 30 Irish Tunes for Easy Recorder, and Michael Raven's Popular Tunes for Recorder, not to mention any number of session books or tin whistle collections.

For my money it is hard to classify a collection of Irish Music as "outstanding" that doesn't include a single piece by Turlough O'Carolan and has virtually nothing explanatory about the music. For me, this collection doesn't match the very high standards set by the arranger in his "Early Music for Recorder" collection. It could leave one with the impression that Irish music is far more skewed to the "easy listening" or "golden oldies" end of the spectrum than is in fact the case.

This collection is also fairly redundant with earlier collections of Irish music for recorder. For example, 16 of its 30 songs can also be found in Lavender's Songs and Dances of Ireland. Given the vast array of great Irish songs out there it is unfortunate that there was so much re-inventing of the wheel here.

That being said, I would not recommend it as one's only introduction to Irish music. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a well-organized, well-arranged, very advanced-beginner-friendly collection of some classic, popular Irish tunes, complete with lyrics and guitar chords.

As a bonus, the last song in the collection can also be used to get rid of pesky coyotes, if you happen to be a roadrunner with a high-explosive piano...