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Maol Donn

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1970.309

Original Tape ID

SA1970.309

Summary

A song connected with the pibroch 'Maol Donn' [MacCrimmon's Sweetheart]. A widow is unsuccessful in finding her favourite cow which has fallen into a moorland swamp.

The contributor tells that she learnt the song from her mother, but she doesn't know where her mother learnt it. She was always told that many of the old pibroch tunes were initially composed in song.

Language

Gaelic

Collection

SoSS

Transcription

Peter Cooke (PC): Now, you're going to say a little bit about this?

Ceit Dhòmhnallach (CD): Cha chuala mise ach aon cheathramh a chùm mi cuimhn' air, agus tha mi a' smaointinn gur ann... seo mar a chuala mise e co-dhiù:


Cha bu shealbhach dhomh d' fhaotainn
'S e mo ghaol am Maol Donn.
Cha bu shealbhach dhomh d' fhaotainn
'S e mo ghaol am Maol Donn.
Cha bu shealbhach dhomh d' fhaotainn
'S e mo ghaol am Maol Donn.
Gad iarraidh 's gad fhaotainn,
'S gad shlaodadh à toll.

Cha bu shealbhach dhomh d' fhaotainn
'S e mo ghaol am Maol Donn.
Gad iarraidh 's gad fhaotainn,
'S gad shlaodadh à poll.


CD: Chan eil ann ach car dhen aon rud. Sin na chuala mise.

PC: Where did you get that? Where did you learn it?

CD: I heard my mother sing it.

PC: Your mother sing it? And where would she have got it from?

CD: Oh, I don't know. Maybe from her own mother or from somebody that could play the pipes. They used to...

PC: Yes. Did they have words for most of these pipe tunes?

CD: Well, for the pibroch, they did have. It was composed, I was told, first of all, in song, or most of them in song anyway, at the early stages.

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good