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November 2017 November Irish Music & 2017 Dance Association Samhain The mission of the Irish Music and Dance Association is to support and promote Irish music, dance, and other cultural traditions and to insure their continuation. Irish Music and Dance Association Annual Meeting Inside this issue: Sunday, December 3, 2017 3 pm IMDA Honors Will Kenny 4 Dubliner Pub, 2162 University Avenue, St. Paul, MN Agenda includes election of board members and officers. OepnMic Night 4 All are welcome and encouraged to attend. Decade of Dance Award 6 Give to the Max 2017 on November 16 Support the Irish Music and Dance Association with your donation to the IMDA Educational Grant Program through scheduled giving. Available November 1 -15, with daily $500 Golden Tickets awarded each day of schedule giving. This is an incentive to encourage you to give early and often! The Irish Music and Dance Association was able to fund eight stu- dents of the traditional arts of Ireland in 2017, thanks to the generosity of our community. This is the largest cohort of recipients in the history for the program! 2017 IMDA Educational Grant recipients: .Musicians and Singers Aja McCullough Beers and Becky Bollinger .Bagpiper Michael Breidenbach, St. Paul .Dancer and dance teacher Beth Pitchford, St. Paul .Fiddler Caroline Priore, Kenyon .Flautist Ava Sackaroff, St. Paul .Fiddler Mary Vanorny, Farmington .Dancer Annie Wier, Inver Grove Heights Won’t you lend a hand again this year? https://www.givemn.org/organization/Irish-Music-And-Dance-Association TUNE OF THE MONTH Our Tune of the Month editor, Amy Shaw, has been contributing to the IMDA Newsletter for twelve years. That is 144 tunes (!!) and notes about each of them that she has researched for you, the readers. Amy has decided it’s time to move on to new projects and so her final contribution to us will be in the December issue. We appreciate Amy’s commitment to the IMDA’s newsletter readers and thank her for the years of sharing the joy of Irish tunes. IMDA hopes to find a new contributor to the Tune of the Month column, so if you are interested in contributing, or know someone who is, please contact us at [email protected]. Many thanks to Amy and much appreciation for her dedication and enormous contribution!! www.IMDA-MN.org Irish Music & 2 Dance Association The IMDA Board is: President: Julia Rogers Tune of the Month by Amy Shaw Vice President: Jan Casey Inspired by attending last month’s conference of the American Treasurer: Rob Thomas Folklore Society here in Minneapolis, I’m going “back to the archive” for Secretary: Jean Bergstrom this column. Luckily, the library where I work has a subscription to Board Members: John Concannon Smithsonian Global Sound, a streaming music database that contains the Kevin Carroll Kathie Luby entire output of Folkways Records. This month’s tune comes from an LP Amber Ladany titled Irish Music in London Pubs (Folkways FG 3575) which was released Editor: Kathie Luby in 1965. Recorded live at the King’s Arms and the Bedford Arms in Assistant Editor Kevin Carroll IMDA Board Meetings are open to the membership. London, it featured traditional Irish musicians Margaret Barry, Michael The Board meets regularly on the first Tuesday of each month at 6:00 pm at the St. Gorman, Seamus Ennis, Joe Heaney, and others. This recording pre-dates Clair Broiler in St. Paul. Members are encouraged to verify the time and location the well-known Paddy in the Smoke (Topic Records, 1968), which was also shortly before, as meeting times and locations can change. recorded on location in London. Operating the recording equipment (and enjoying “the facilities of the Contact Information place, including drinks”) were Ralph Rinzler and Barry Murphy. I learned E-mail: [email protected] that Ralph Rinzler (1934-1994) was a curator of American art, music, and folk culture at the Smithsonian, and co-founder of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Barry Murphy (1930s-2011) was an amateur musician from Newsletter Submissions London who became Ralph’s assistant. For over a decade, Barry helped We welcome our readers to submit articles of interest, news, and notices of events Ralph collect music from folk musicians (what a folklorist would term to be published in the newsletter. The deadline is the 18th of the preceding month. “fieldwork”). Send to: [email protected] Barry was also the guy who made sure musicians (some of whom were presumably not intrepid travelers) got to the venue for concerts organized by Ralph. Fiddler Michael Gorman (1902-1969) comes to the fore on this track featuring The Bunch of Keys. Originally from Tubbercurry in Co. Sligo, Gorman settled in London during the 1940s. He played in a well-known duo with banjo player and singer Margaret Barry. The two played to large audiences in Albert Hall in London and Carnegie Hall in New York. This three-part reel is also known as Paddy on the Turnpike. And now I have a proposition for any of you who have read this far. After nearly 14 years of writing of this column, I am looking to hand it off to a new columnist! If you’re a “tune hound” and you think you might enjoy sharing tunes through this medium, please let us know. Usual disclaimers: Any transcription errors are my own. The notation here is not meant to be a substitute for listening. It is simply an aid to learning the tune. www.IMDA-MN.org Irish Music & 3 Dance Association Céad Míle Fáilte! ("100,000 Welcomes!") You mór ar bheagán céadta literally refers to "a great have probably encountered this phrase, well, céad breadth on a few hundreds." The point is that the uair, "a hundred times," céad being the word for fabric is rather loosely woven. "hundred" in Irish. You certainly But exactly the same expression have seen this expression at one can be used to refer to "false Irish festival or another. Our pride," an exaggerated instructor Wes recently took a appreciation for oneself that is trip to Norway, where he found perhaps not commensurate with an Irish pub with a sign one's achievements. reading Céad Míle Fáilte over the door. As you might expect, sometimes céad is used to simply indicate "a lot." Tá céad rud le déanamh Or it would be more accurate to say that agam, we could say, "I have many things to do." they attempted to write Céad Míle Fáilte, but fell A slua céadach, which looks kind of like "a short. As always, the accent or "fada" is hundredly crowd," just means a "huge crowd." important. Céad is "one hundred," while cead, without the mark over the e, simply Irish being a language that always finds ways to means "permission." And that version, Cead Mile make things more interesting for learners, there is Failte, was what he found in Norway. We often see another céad that looks the same but behaves this "permission" version without the accent at fairs differently. An chéad iasc would not be "100 fish," and pubs and stores. Unfortunately, it just doesn't but rather "the first fish." And an chéad iasc make any sense if you can read Irish, so be careful eile would be "the next fish." To do something ar an with that fada. gcéad uair is to do it, nor for the hundredth time, but for the first time. Céad, then, is the literal number: céad carr would be "100 cars." (Like most numbers, it is followed by Céadta is the plural, "hundreds," and at this point I a singular, literally "100 car," in Irish, even though have written na céadta alt, "the hundreds of articles," we translate it with a plural in English.) By related to the Irish language. Tá súil agam go léifidh extension, céad can refer to a "hundredweight," as tú mo chéad cholún eile, "I hope that you will read in céad plúir, "a hundred pounds of flour." And it is my next column." also the word for "century," a period of 100 years. I was born in An fichiú céad, "the twentieth century." At Gaeltacht Minnesota, we haven't been studying Irish for céad years, it just seems that way some On the other hand, in certain usages it refers to a nights. But since 1982, we have been gathering "long hundred," actually 120 of something. Some together with family, friends, and other supporters for items tend to be counted in scores, or twenties, such our annual Christmas Dinner. as plants, when we are talking about seedlings to be planted in a garden or on a farm. So céad We'll have complete details on menu, reservations, cabáiste means "120 cabbages," rather than just 100 and other information on our web site of them. Céad éisc, similarly, refers to "120 fish," at www.gaelminn.org later this month. For now, Save although the old Dineen dictionary suggests that in the Date: Monday evening, December 18. We Kerry it could refer to 128 fish! At any rate, we can cherish this celebration of our little Irish-speaking usually distinguish the two "hundreds" by a little community, and we truly appreciate the family and grammar, as they are followed by different forms of friends who support us in our efforts to learn the the noun. Céad éisc is "120 fish" while céad iasc is language, so we are especially pleased when they can "100 fish." join us. Céad is also be used to denote one hundred Go maire tú céad! threads in the warp of a fabric. In this use, leithead "May you live to be a hundred!" www.IMDA-MN.org Irish Music & 4 Dance Association IMDA NOVEMBER HAPPENINGS The IMDA’s next Open Mic Night will be: Tuesday, November 28, 2017 -- 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm Black Dog Café, 308 Prince Street, St.
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