Annotation:Deirdre's Lament for the Sons of Usneach
Tune properties and standard notation
DEIRDRE'S LAMENT FOR THE SONS OF USNEACH. AKA - "Deirdre's Farewell to Scotland." Irish, Scottish; Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part: AABB (O'Farrell). The oldest extent piece of Irish music, given to the Irish collector Edward Bunting by Hempson, at ninety the last of the ancient brass-strung harpers, at the time of the 1792 Belfast Festival. Musically it makes use of parallel thirds and sixths and employs but six notes. The text of the ballad is mediaeval in origin and tells of Deirdre's sorrow at leaving the southwest Scottish locales of Glen Etive and Glen Massan and Glendaruel. Deirdre had been in happy exile with her lover Naisi in those lands, and both were to return to a tragic betrayal and death. The melody was first published in O'Farrell's Pocket Companion, c. 1804-1816, the same tune as that printed in Bunting.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Bunting (Ancient Music of Ireland), 1840. O'Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol III), c. 1808; p. 37 (appears as "Deirdre's Lamentation for the Sons of Usnoth"). Purser (Scotland's Music), 1992; ex. 4, pg. 73. Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 1019.
Recorded sources: RCA 09026-61490-2, The Chieftains - "The Celtic Harp" (1993).