Princess Royal (Carolan) performed by Simon Mayor
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 8 ноя 2024
- 'Princess Royal' is the first single release - now available across all streaming and download platforms - taken from the album 'Carolan' by Simon Mayor (scheduled for release 10th March 2023).
This is Simon's setting for mandolin quartet (two mandolins, mandola and mandocello) of one of the most popular melodies by the Irish composer and harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738). 
Видеоклипы
C’est simplement superbe ! 👍
Merci!
Bought the album.
Wow amazing, such beautiful playing and fantastic harmonies. Thank you so much
Beautiful
Thanks Martin, Enjoying your books!
What a great arrangement this is!
Fabulous!
Not only your wonderful playing, what a fine super skilled video!
This is extraordinary, Simon. I can see why it is not a common tune among regular players, very intricate and your skills make is entirely beautiful.
I look forward to the album!
Hi sir lovely composition and played ❤
Thank you!
this is top class! love it
Speechless.
Fabulous arrangement. One of my favourite tunes, in all of its forms, but this is a cracker.
Superbly played. That's it, my mandolin is going in the bin,
Don't be like that wadefit. Simon is an exceptional player - the rest of us must just do our best.
Absolutely beautiful!
Lovely stuff maestro. Nice mix. Is this also known as "Nelson's Praise?"
Beautiful! And great video.
Looking forward to the album
WOW! Beautiful playing, great arrangement, and very clever video editing!
Thanks Sue!
great!
NEWS: Simon Mayor - Carolan Special Weekend Mandolin Workshop 2024
March 15-17 - SHEFFIELD UK Details: mandolin.co.uk/workshops
A weekend of the music of Turlough O'Carolan arranged for mandolin ensemble plus
tips, tunes and technique.
Frank Kidson music scholar and folk song collector didn't believe O'Carolan wrote the tune. The following is his entry on the subject from Grove's Dictionary of Music:
Arethusa, The (or the Princess Royal)
Irish writers have also stated that the air is by Carolan, and named The Princess Royal, in honour of the daughter of Macdermott Roe, a descendant of one of the Irish kings. Nothing but tradition favours this view, which Bunting, apparently, first puts into print in 1840, except that in O'Farrell's Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, vol. iv. c. 1810, there is a version of the melody named Air by Carolan.
The present writer was the first to point out that the air was commonly known in the early part of the 18th century as a country dance tune named The Princess Royal, the new way, and that about 1730-35, it appeared in several London publications. The Princess Royal, after whom the tune was named, was evidently Anne, daughter of George II, who married the Prince of Orange in 1734. This conclusion is further confirmed by finding in the dance collections, in which the tune occurs, printed about 1730-35, other airs named after the family of George II, as Prince William, and Princess Caroline, the first being the hero of Culloden, the Duke of Cumberland and the other the Princess Elizabeth Caroline, his younger sister. This combination is strong evidence that the title 'The Princess Royal' really applies to a living personality then prominently before the public rather than to an obscure descendant of a long extinct race of kings.
Under the name Princess Royall the new way, the air, agreeing, almost note for note, with the Arethusa version, is found in an edition of Walsh's Compleat Country Dancing Master, c. 1730, with a tune named Princess Caroline, on the preceding leaf (a copy of this book is in possession of the present writer), and under the title New Princess Royal in Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances, vol. i. c. 1730-35 (in the Leeds Public Library). Wright's copy is reprinted from the same plates in a later edition, published by John Johnson. In Wright's dances is the air named Prince William. As The Princess Royal the air also appears in Daniel Wright's Compleat Tutor for Ye Flute, circa 1735 (in possession of the writer). Also, traditional versions of the air have been found used for tunes to Morris dances still retaining the name The Princess Royal.
The subject has been somewhat fully dealt with here for the reason that so many misstatements have been made regarding an English air of great strength and beauty which possesses the best characteristics of our national melody. For some details regarding the air see an article by the present writer, 'New Lights Upon Old Tunes', Musical Times, Oct 1894.
Thanks for this interesting post; I wasn't aware of Kidson's comments. As I made clear in the sleevenotes to the album, there is indeed considerable grey area in the origins of music of this antiquity that was not properly notated and documented contemporaneously. We know Carolan was not averse to borrowing from the tradition or indeed from other composers. Interestingly, apart from the English Morris tune, it also bears strong similarity to Gavotte by Matthew Camidge, who was not born until about 30 years after Carolan's death. Copyrights were perhaps not so jealously guarded in those days! Even J S Bach has come under a similar spotlight with doubt cast over his authorship of the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor for Organ. I have never heard of Princess Royal in a minor key other than with an attribution to Carolan, and Irish scholars I consulted before the recording were confident it was his tune. However, of overriding importance for me was the music itself: a phenomenally strong melody that, whether or not from Carolan's pen, was prominent in his repertoire.
@@SimonMayor-j2i
At the time of Frank Kidson's 1910 Grove's Dictionary of Music piece another name was linked to the tune (from the same piece):
'The song appeared in the opera The Lock and Key, acted 1796, words by Prince Hoare, the music composed and selected by William Shield. It chronicles, in almost accurate detail, an engagement of the English frigate, The Arethusa, with a larger French vessel, La Belle Poule, in the English Channel on June 17, 1778.
The fine air has long been and is yet persistently referred to as the composition of William Shield, who never claimed to do more than add the bass'.
Is the sheet music available for this? It's perfect for a mandolin orchestra
Hi Larry. Yes it is, try here: downloads.acousticsrecords.co.uk/quartets-carolan/