{"id":530,"date":"2015-10-06T14:06:16","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T13:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/whistling-thief-the\/"},"modified":"2016-01-25T16:03:27","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T16:03:27","slug":"whistling-thief-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/whistling-thief-the\/","title":{"rendered":"Whistling Thief, The"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 id=\"t:seinnteoirin1\">Play recording: Whistling Thief, The<\/h2>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-530-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/whistling-thief-the.mp3?_=1\" \/><source type=\"audio\/ogg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/whistling-thief-the.ogg?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/whistling-thief-the.mp3\">https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/whistling-thief-the.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<div class=\"dmeite\">\n<p><span id=\"neasc-nocht-ceilth\" class=\"nmeite\">view \/ hide recording details [+\/-]<\/span><\/p>\n<ul id=\"clarMeiteashonrai\" class=\"meiteashonrai\">\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Teideal <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Title)<\/span>:<\/span> Whistling Thief, The.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Chatal\u00f3ige Ollscoil Washington <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(University of Washington Catalogue Number)<\/span>:<\/span> 840106.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Chnuasach Bh\u00e9aloideas \u00c9ireann <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(National Folklore of Ireland Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Roud <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Roud Number)<\/span>:<\/span> 2738.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Laws <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Laws Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Child <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Child Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Cnuasach <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Collection)<\/span>:<\/span> Joe Heaney Collection, University of Washington, Seattle.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Teanga na Cro\u00edmh\u00edre <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Core-Item Language)<\/span>:<\/span> English.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Catag\u00f3ir <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Category)<\/span>:<\/span> song.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Ainm an t\u00e9 a thug <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Name of Informant)<\/span>:<\/span> Joe Heaney.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Ainm an t\u00e9 a th\u00f3g <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Name of Collector)<\/span>:<\/span> unavailable.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">D\u00e1ta an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Date)<\/span>:<\/span> 11\/10\/1983.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Su\u00edomh an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Location)<\/span>:<\/span> University of Washington, United States of America.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Oc\u00e1id an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Occasion)<\/span>:<\/span> evening class.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Daoine eile a bh\u00ed i l\u00e1thair <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Others present)<\/span>:<\/span> unavailable.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">St\u00e1das ch\u00f3ipcheart an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording copyright status)<\/span>:<\/span> unavailable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>There&#8217;s a song there<sup class=\"tagairt-n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">1<\/sup>, &#8216;The Whistling Thief,&#8217; and I&#8217;ll tell you&hellip; this often happened to meself, you know&hellip; You have no idea how difficult it was to do your courting at that particular time. You had to think of every trick in the book. No matter what trick you thought of, the old lady inside had all them tricks because they went through the same thing before. Now, it&#8217;s a hard song to sing&hellip; The last part of this is always said. In fact, in the old time, the last two lines of every song was said in words, never sung. Sing with me now on this:<\/p>\n<p>When Pat came over the hill his colleen fair to see<br \/>\nHis whistle, loud and shrill, the signal was to be<br \/>\n&#8216;Oh, Mary dear,&#8217; the mother cried, &#8216;there&#8217;s someone whistling, sure&#8217;<br \/>\n&#8216;Oh, Mother, don&#8217;t you know it&#8217;s the wind whistling through the door.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I lived a long time, Mary, in this wide world, my dear,<br \/>\nBut the wind to whistle like that I never yet did hear.&#8217;<br \/>\n&#8216;But, Mother, don&#8217;t you know the fiddle hangs just behind the chink<br \/>\nAnd the wind upon the strings is playing that tune, I think.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The dog is barking now, Mary, the fiddle can&#8217;t play that tune&#8217;<br \/>\n&#8216;But, Mother, don&#8217;t you know that dogs can see the moon?&#8217;<br \/>\n&#8216;How can it see the moon when he&#8217;s both old and blind?<br \/>\nBlind dogs don&#8217;t see the moon &#8211; nor fiddles play [unintelligible] wind!<\/p>\n<p>And there&#8217;s the pig, uneasy in its mind&#8217;<br \/>\n&#8216;But Mother, sure [you] know that pigs can see the wind&#8217;<br \/>\n&#8216;That may very well [be] in the day, but then I may remark<br \/>\nThat pigs no more than we can see anything in the dark!<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not such a fool as you think &#8211; I know very well it is Pat!<br \/>\nBe off, you whistling fool, and get along home out of that!<br \/>\nAnd you, be off to your bed &#8211; don&#8217;t bother me with your tears,<br \/>\nFor although I&#8217;ve lost my sight, I haven&#8217;t lost my ears!&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Now boys, too near the house, don&#8217;t courting go, do you mind,<br \/>\nUnless you&#8217;re certain sure the old woman is deaf and blind!<br \/>\nThe days when they were young, forget they never can,<br \/>\nThey&#8217;re sure to tell the difference &#8216;twixt a fiddle, a dog and a man!<\/p>\n<div class=\"n\u00f3ta\u00ed-bun-leathanaigh\">\n<h2 id=\"t:notai\">Notes<\/h2>\n<p class=\"n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">1. Joe is referring to the packet of printed song-texts that he was in the habit of providing to students in his larger classes, like this one. On this occasion he himself appears to be reading from the song-sheet.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The Whistling Thief&#8217; was composed by Irish songwriter, painter and novelist Samuel Lover (1797-1868). The song is strongly associated with another Carna singer, Johnny Joe Phaits\u00edn &#8216;ac Dhonncha, who recorded it a number of times.<\/p>\n<p>Here Joe is trying to teach a song that he clearly doesn&#8217;t know very well himself &#8211; an unusual thing for him to do, as he generally only chose songs for his classes that he knew inside out. It&#8217;s an interesting example, however, as it demonstrates how tricky it can be to fit words to an air. The difficulty here is, partly, that the text itself is both somewhat faulty and metrically unpredictable &#8211; sometimes there are seven stressed syllables per line, and sometimes only six &#8211; and the singer needs to accommodate this irregularity without upsetting the rhythm of the air. As Joe himself observes, it&#8217;s not an easy song to sing.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amhrain","category-amhrain-i-mbearla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}