Give me a song

So this is a lovely part of the Irish vernacular that I have noticed. And, when I think of it, it is certainly indicative of the aural folk tradition.

While listening back to one of my fiddle lessons today, I noticed that Eileen O Brien kept saying, "Let me give you this one..." when referring to a song that we were about to learn. When the other, more experienced students in the class would play things she would often say, who gave you that or where did you get that. More often people would answer I got it from so and so in such and such a place. It was never where did you learn that it was always who gave it to you or who showed you how to play that. Not only does this harken to the times when the transmission of folk tunes was purely aural, there were no recordings and most people didn’t know how to read music, but it recognizes the fact that the tunes have a million different variations. A certain player in a certain region might play a song in a certain way with a specific embellishment or turn of phrase. I actually already saw this in practice during my limited experience. Eileen taught us a couple of polkas that she referred to as two Begley polkas after Seamus Begley (who played here in a concert on the final Thursday of the sesison). I played them at a session later in the week and the guitar player recognized one of them and said is this such and such a piece? I said no, it is Begley's polka. He kind of laughed and said that Begley was still alive (he’s coming to this program to play next week) and the polka actually had a name. Eileen had gotten the polka from Begley, but just couldn't place the name.