Music
Music
Gaelic songs sung by a Hebridean Scot of Quebec
Gaelic songs sung by a Hebridean Scot of Quebec
These are Hebridean Folk songs sung in Gaelic and English by Alexander Dell MacDonald (1895-1971), of Canterbury, Quebec.
Alec was born in Dell, Quebec in a Gaelic-speaking family, son of Murdo J. MacDonald and Catherine Matheson, and was involved all his life in the traditions and culture of the Hebridean community there. Late in life he made a few private recordings on vinyl disks for his family from which I (Peter MacDonald, a great nephew) digitzed the following brief samples:
Isle of the Heather =Eilean an Fraoich (sung in English by Alec Dell)
Chorus only, no verses (25 sec., 100K, file: isle_of_the_heather_chorus.mp3)
All verses (2-3 minutes, 963K, file: isle_of_the_heather.mp3)
Chorus Lyrics:
"I wish I was now in the Isle of the Sea,
The Isle of the Heather, and happy I'd be,
With deer in its mountains and fish in its rills,
Revere ...[unclear]... that have cover hills."
The words Alec Dell sings here vary from those in the poem by Murdo MacLeod originally set to this tune.
MacLeod, M. (1962). Bardachd Mhurchaidh, A' Cheisdeir Laoidhean Agus Orain: Songs and Hymns by Murdo MacLeod the Lewis Bard, Darien Press, Edinburgh. (born in Harris in 1913).
The Tragedy of A. D. Morrison (sung in English by Alec Dell)
Chorus only, no verses (29 sec., 102K, file: morrison_verse_1.mp3)
All verses (2 min., 12 sec., 529K, file: morrison.mp3)
Leaving Lewis (sung in Gaelic by Alec Dell)
Chorus only, no verses ( 25 sec., 101K, file: leaving_lewis_verse_1.mp3)
All verses ( 3 min., 50 sec., 936K, file: leaving_lewis.mp3)
Ho ro mo nighean donn bhoidheach (sung in Gaelic by Alec Dell) (Ho ro my nut brown maiden)
A love song to a highland maiden in which her lover vows to return and reclaim her to share his life of exile in the lowlands of Scotland.
Chorus only, no verses (21 sec., 86K, file: rankin_verse_1.mp3)
All verses ( 2 min., 20 sec., 550K, file: rankin.mp3)
Unidentified Traditional Song #2 (sung in Gaelic by Alec Dell)
Chorus only, no verses (22 sec., 90K file: traditional_1_verse_1.mp3)
All verses (2 min., 33 sec., 610K, file: traditional_1.mp3)
Maraiche nan Tonn or sometimes just known as Hillean na Hillean I (identified for me by Fiona Mackenzie) (sung in Gaelic by Alec Dell)
Chorus only, no verses (17 sec., 67K, file: traditional_2_verse_1.mp3)
All verses (3 min., 18 sec., 775K, file: traditional_2.mp3)