Turlough O'Carolan: The Queen's Dream This arrangement is based on the version in "Celtic Music for Mandolin" by Allan Alexander and Jessica Walsh. The book has a variation to the same progression as Carolan's tune. I have used the variation as a second instrumental part (harmony/counter melody) for a trio arrangement of mandolin, waldzither and tenor guitar. The tune (but with a different variation also credited to Jessica Walsh) is online at: http://kazimcapaci.com/pdf/The%20Que...%20C%20maj.pdf Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin 1925 Zimmermann waldzither Ozark tenor guitar Martin
Beautiful, Martin. Loved the illustrations too!
Many thanks, John. I'm on a bit of a Carolan binge this weekend, and this one is obscure and exotic enough to count as a discovery -- I haven't come across it before. For the visual theme, I thought a cross between the Faerie Queene and Sleeping Beauty suits the title and tune well. The Alexander/Welsh book has this at the rather dirgy tempo of 66 bpm -- I'm playing it much faster and I think the tune is better for it. Martin
Nicely done Martin. Who more than I would appreciate an obscure O'Carolan tune? I couldn't pass it up.
I don't find the Queen's Dream in my O'Carolan book. Does it go by another name?
I don't think it is part of "The Complete Works of O'Carolan", but there are other sources for O'Carolan tunes. I got my version from Martin's link and transposed it into a user friendly key. Here's a link to a pdf in Am: https://app.box.com/s/5zo24z36vnwz5s2yxnf6jv6d7pgk88lr
Inspired by your versions guys, here is my solo mandolin take.
Another revamped Carolan tune following my "Dermot O'Dowd" -- this one is "The Queen's Dream". As with my 2015 recording, this arrangement is based on the version in "Celtic Music for Mandolin" by Allan Alexander and Jessica Walsh. The book has a variation to the same progression as Carolan's tune. I have used the variation as a second mandolin part (harmony/counter melody) on the repeat of the tune. Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin (x2) Vintage Viaten tenor guitar https://youtu.be/HtlcyhBXnDs Martin
This is a lovely arrangement and just the right amount of backing, I feel, Martin. All the parts synchronise tightly and the balance is really good and you play the tune really well.
Thanks John -- much appreciated. It's a fund tune to record and the arrangement came together nicely.This one is so obscure, even O'Neill doesn't list it. Apparently Patrick Ball recorded the tune in 1982 as a set with Dermot O'Dowd, the other Carolan tune I recorded yesterday! As both tunes are in the same Allan Alexander book, I presume that was his source. Martin
A very beautiful tune, played with taste skill.
I have been informed via my YouTube video that "The Queens Dream" is not an Carolan composition but is a Welsh tune called Morfa'r Frenhines, which translates into English as The Queen's March. There are sufficient YouTube videos with the correct title to support this. I changed my videos listing to The Queen's Dream/Morfa'r Frenhines but YouTube won't let me upload a corrected video title. The session has different versions of the tune with three parts but the first two parts are very similar to "The Queen's Dream". https://thesession.org/tunes/2910
Regardless of the origin and title, it’s a nice tune, and very nicely played, Martin.
Thanks, Christian, John and particularly David for identifying the tune: I thought it was odd that only Allan Alexander has it as a Carolan tune. I suspect that what happened is that Allan listened to Patrick Ball's 1982 set of "Dermott O'Dowd/The Queen's Dream" and thought the Carolan credit applied to both tunes. Somewhat embarrasingly, I not only know "The Queen's Marsh" as a Welsh tune, I have played it many times. It's in the first (2015) volume of Evelyn's "Big Book" and we have her arrangement in the repertoire folder of our regular Thursday group. I never thought it's the same tune as "The Queen's Dream", but looking at Evelyn's score now I can see that they are related although there are quite a few differences. I may record "The Queen's Marsh" for comparison. Martin
Martin, you have motivated me to get that Allan Alexander book back out! Another great tune, and this new recording is particularly successful.
Thanks, Dennis -- much appreciated! Whatever the accuracy of his attribution, Allan's settings are very nice! Further to my previous post, no time like the present: I have now recorded Evelyn's arrangement of "The Queen's Marsh" (Morfa'r Frenhines), pretty much how we play it with our group (which is why I was able to get a reasonable take down fairly quickly). The tunes are clearly related, but not the same. And yes, it's "marsh", not "march". The Welsh like tunes about swamps -- see also Rhuddlan Marsh. Played as a mandolin quartet (two mandolins, tenor guitar, mandocello). Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin (x2) Suzuki MC-815 mandocello Vintage Viaten tenor guitar https://youtu.be/QfXdVGxLrG0 Martin
Excellent recordings Martin.
