Excerpts from Mighty Muso - Musings behind Violetta's adventures for adult minds and readers.
Of course, there are other deities that share musical gifts. The fairies for instance; otherwise known to the Irish as the; ‘na dooine maithe’ (the good people), ‘na dooine beaga’ (the little people) or ‘budanhnagcnoc’ (people of the hills).
Please don’t ask me how to pronounce any of those words.
I just love Ireland, don’t you? Not that I’ve been there, but I love the idea of going there. Every Irish person I’ve ever met has been lovely, my ancestors were from there and of course, there is Irish music. There is something about it and it has a bit of everything—beautiful slow tunes, fast reels and jigs, heart-rending ballads, and songs to stir crowds with passion for Ireland, laughter or football.
I distinctly remember football. I played in an Irish band a number of years ago, in Sydney’s Rocks and our regular gig was on a Sunday afternoon, although we frequented many other Retired Service Leages’s clubs all over New South Wales. We even went on tour with a bus load of publicans. It was heaps of fun, and at the Mercantile, there was plenty of Guinness, sausages on mashed potato and sunshine. A heady combination; and when you add live music and football; you wind up with a crowd spilling onto the streets.
It’s amazing. When it comes to Ireland, people can appreciate music and football at the same time! Who would’ve thunk?
Anyway, my job was to play the violin. However, our roady—Scottish Jimmy, as opposed to the singer in the band, Irish Jimmy—would set up a microphone for me each week, just in case I felt the desire to sing. Of course, that never happened. I was also reluctant to speak to the crowd of football fans, so I just played the violin. I improvised along with the ballads and songs, and every now and then, I’d play a set of tunes. This was my favourite part. There were usually three, sometimes starting with a slow one, but the last always ended up so fast, I could barely keep up.
That’s the fun bit though, as Michael Flatley—otherwise known as the Lord of the Dance—could tell you. He had quite the twinkling toes if you remember, and toes like his, must have been bewitched by the fairies. Afterall, he was able to go on for hours on end; perhaps even as long as a day?
When it comes to tunes to dance to, there are many inspired by the Fairies. In fact, there is a compilation made in 2012, called: The Otherworld: Music and Songs from Irish Tradition. It took twenty years to create, and the paperback edition is accompanied by two CDs of forty recordings in total. Some date back to 1920, and all the music is linked to the world of the fairies. ‘The Banshee reel,’ for example, is played by Micho Russell, from Doolan in Clare. Micho Russell's Jig / The Banshee A banshee, as you may know, usually wails and shrieks, occasionally with the local cats. They also inhabit hills, wells, mounds and forts—considered by many as sacred sites, all across Ireland.
When it comes to music, jigs and reels were often ‘stolen’ from the fairies. It wasn’t uncommon for a piper to briefly appear amidst the humans, just in order to play a tune. In fact, the fairies were thought to have such powers that even saying their name could be bad luck. They were hard to spot too, as they ‘kept cows; enjoyed whiskey, hurling, Gaelic foot- ball, music, singing and dancing; liked gold, milk and tobacco; and hated iron, fire, salt, urine and Christianity.’
So you see? They could be anyone! It's also quite possible that Niccoló Paganini was visited by not only the devil, but a faerie at some point in his life. At least that's what Violetta and her friends suspect.
The fairies from the ‘otherworld’, were often referred to as ‘Si’ or fallen angels. Men sometimes wore blue trousers and red caps, and women wore green dresses. They occasionally inhabited animal form, especially hares, and were known to pinch milk and butter, small children and beautiful wives.
The ugly ones got left behind.
All kinds of objects belonged to the fairies too. Unusual stones, thimbles, pieces of bone and there were darts that could cause death. When people were described as being ‘away with the fairies’ they actually were. Bad things would happen—crops failed, cattle fell ill and a folk healer would need to be called.
As mentioned previously, iron, salt, urine and prayer were known cures; along with the more extreme solution—fire. During particularly trying times like the potato famine, spirits were so stretched so far, that all kinds of remedies were tried. The story of Bridget Cleary is especially chilling. Her husband, and a few of her brothers—believing her to be a changeling—ended up setting fire to her in order to bring her back.
Sadly, as you might suspect, it didn’t end well.
Moreover, when a person popped up and played unusually well, some considered them to be a changeling. The music they played had never ever been heard before—usually witnessed late at night or in the early hours of the morning—and sometimes an instrument was left behind. It often happened near a fort, or a hill, or in the woods; and there are even reports of a small red-haired man delivering the music. In other words; a leprechaun. The tune might be heard on the wind, or caught by sucking a thumb, and although I struggled to beat my thumb-sucking habit until I was seven, I’m not sure it ever happened to me.
Still, the fiddle itself can be super-natural. The instrument could be imbued with magical powers, helping people learn the music in order to win a competition or become famous. Tunes like the Lark’s March ( Lark's march / Peter Browne, uilleann pipes), or The Wind that Shakes the Barley were especially popular.
Apparently the popular 1990s band the Corrs did a version of the Lark’s March in Forgiven Not Forgotten. As an enormous fan of the Corrs, back in the day, I was amazed to see how beautiful and amazing they still were in 2015, and no doubt today. The Corrs | Forgiven Not Forgotten | Acoustic 2015 Listening to them, I’m instantly taken back to 1999, when I was eighteen and house-sitting my Auntie’s house with one of my best friends. We had a fabulous time, dancing to the Corr’s every evening, eating muffins for dinner and then watching Baz Lurman’s Romeo and Juliet; over and over again.
The sad thing about life is that both of those people are no longer here. They were two of kindest and most wonderful people I’ve ever met, and their lives ended far earlier than they should have.
Playing the fairies' music could also end tragically. It often made people ill. The magical instrument was known to smash upon their death, or they could face eternity playing the fairies music in the fort for changeling children. Therefore, being blessed with music from the fairies, might indeed be a curse—and there is a lot of that going around.
‘Kept cows…’ Dowd, M. (2018). Bewitched by an Elf Dart: Fairy Archaeology, Folk Magic and Traditional Medicine in Ireland. Cambridge Archaeological Journal,28(3), 451-473. doi:10.1017/S0959774318000124
Uí Ógáin, R. (1992). Music Learned from the Fairies. Béaloideas,60/61, 197-214. doi:10.2307/20522407
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