Different key but is this the same tune? https://thesession.org/tunes/2828
I am not sure what you are asking. It looks like it is called by both those names.
Jim
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19th Century Tunes
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1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
A Wren in French is a Troglodyte, which can also be a cave dweller. (Covid?)
Me too, I’ve no idea what it means.
Breton for wren is laouenan (Cornish is the closest I can find linguistically "grwannen")
Eoin
"Forget that anyone is listening to you and always listen to yourself" - Fryderyk Chopin
Oh course there’s Rennes the capital city of ‘Breton’.
And La Reine, the Queen?
Yep, wouldn't be the first croseed-wire in folk tune naming. (& the wren is "the king of the birds, so it has a nice circularity for a mis-hear too)
Eoin
"Forget that anyone is listening to you and always listen to yourself" - Fryderyk Chopin
Maybe they were just talking about the weather in England ?
To explain - I suspect this tune, although obviously popular in UK (as the number of versions on The Session would suggest) is originally a Breton 'An Dro' tune with a French name that's nothing to do with any kind of oiseaux, and I'm looking for the French name. I used to play this back in prehistory under that other name, but can't remember it now
AFAIK the Bretons speak their own language so French would be just as foreign to them as English at least back when this tune was composed.
some discussion on the name here: https://thesession.org/tunes/8289
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
Thanks guys - interesting, The Session has maybe six identifiably different versions of that tune. Hunt The Wren is a Manx version tune this band also plays, which I think is different enough not to be someone's different memory of the same thing. Lots of Breton tunes don't appear to have any names, which is a pity - the big 'Green Book' collection just numbers most of them.
usually an dro tunes do not have names. except for this one, "An Dro Gweharall" written to commemorate a specific historic event (read it on thesession.org). "Wren An Dro" is the version of this tune played for Contra Dances. Also see 2nd tune in Jim Oakden breton tunes list: https://library.larkcamp.org/Breton/LarkBreton2018.pdf
video links to the 3 most popular versions of the tune:
song with words: (Tri Yann, Kerfank 1870)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEunPF0Vqhw
eluveitie "unplugged": (2nd tune with an extra 3rd part)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAgN_as2rGk
contra dance (with mandolin): (2nd and 3rd tune)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW7jumYTPQc
Thanks - the Tri Yann version is the one we used to play, until err, the trumpet bit comes in One of the comments on that YouTube is that Tri Yann interpreted an older Breton song called Gweharall, which has several versions on YouTube, eg:Originally Posted by mandocello8;1864567
song with words: (Tri Yann, Kerfank 1870)
[url
Anyone know whether that song just lifted an existing tune that fits the words, or whether the tune was written with the song? Anyway, it looks like that tune is sometime referred to as 'An Dro Gweharall'. Any better ideas?
The Welsh word for wren is Dryw. the current Cornish word looks like a loan from English. My guess the original Cornish word will have been either similar to the Welsh or Breton.
Probably someone heard some Onion Johnny playing the tune and when hearing this tune was "Dro" thought: oh cool - that means "wren"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Johnny
The Irish for the wren is "an dreoilín" pronounced droh-leen like Jolene.
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