Research article 7 - The Green Linnet by David Speers
02 Sep 2014
Histories and Mysteries – the secret life of traditional music in the Isle of Man by David Speers
The tunes in the three manuscript music books that are part of the Clague Collection, held in the Manx Museum Archive, form the bulk of the traditional music recorded in the Isle of Man in the 1890’s. They have not been arranged or changed in any way and are the best record of how the music sounded when it was collected.
This is the seventh in a series of articles that sets out to explore some of the links between the traditional music collected in the Isle of Man and that found in Ireland and Britain, to discover some of the hidden histories behind our traditional music, and to show that the Island has produced beautiful music to match any found elsewhere.
Curiosity Born a Native of Mannin (The Green Linnet)
The Manx version of the Green Linnet tune in the manuscript music books (Copyright Manx National Heritage)
We have seen so far in this series that the Manx music collections contain a number of ballad tunes from Ireland and Britain that are interesting in ways other than just the fact that they found their way into the traditional music of the Island. ‘Curiosity born a native of Mannin’ is in the Clague manuscript (shown above) and is a variation of that used for the early 19th century ballad the Green Linnet, known in Ireland and Britain.
Read the full article
hereRecent News
Archive by Year
Newsletter
