Shein sheis shuus lum
| TYPE | 3 - Complex Melody |
| TOPIC | Love |
| TUNE STRUCTURE | A8 B8 |
| VERSE STRUCTURE | 1v 8l |
| TIME SIGNATURE |
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| KEY SIGNATURE | ♯♯♯♯ |
| TONAL CENTRE | E |
| INCIPIT | GBGDFFFGEDGG |
| TEXT SOURCE | 'An Irish Song. Sung by Mr Abell at his Consort at Stationers Hall' (London, 1714-15) British Library K.2.g.15.(3.). |
| TUNE SOURCE | as above |
| FIRST LINE | Shein sheis shuus lum |
| NOTATED INCIPIT | |
| The original Gaelic song text is here rendered in an approximated phonetic transliteration. The song-sheet records the performance of this song by John Abell at the Stationers' Hall. The one surviving copy of this song – held in the British Library – is tentatively dated 1714 and is certainly no later than 1716 (the date of the signature inscribed upon it and also the year in which John Abell is last recorded as performing at the Stationers’ Hall). A newspaper advertisement of 1715 suggests that Abell’s performance of the Irish Song was part of ‘A Consort of Musick, in 14 Languages’ held on 30 June 1715, at which Abell sang in ‘Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, English, Scotch, Irish, French, High-Dutch, Low-Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Lingua Franca, and Turkish’ (The Daily Courant 27 June 1715). The same advertisement notes that ‘all the Songs herein mentioned, will be printed in their proper Languages and distributed at the Place of Performance’. This appears to corroborate the theory that ‘Shein sheis shuus lum’ was the Irish song performed by Abell at the Stationers’ Hall on 30 June 1715, just several months before the Earl of Mar would raise the standard of the Jacobite forces in Scotland. In a brief article on the song, published in Céol in 1981, Breandán Breathnach traces the song’s later appearances in print, including a setting by Thomas Moore. First Printings: • 'An Irish Song. Sung by Mr Abell at his Consort at Stationers Hall' [London, 1715]. • A collection of songs in several languages. To be performed at Mr Abell’s consort of music (London: s.n. 1715). No music. A ms note in the National Library of Wales copy reads ‘These books were sold at 6d apiece, by Mr Abell’s agent at his consort of music[k?], performed, 30 June 1715, at Stationers Hall; when … he was to sing all these songs himself’. • The Merry Musician; Or, A Cure for the Spleen: Being a Collection of the Most Diverting Songs and Pleasant Ballads, Set to Musick (London: John Walsh, 1716), I, pp.327-8. • Tune of ‘Sheen sheesh igus souse lum’, in A Collection of the most Celebrated Irish Tunes proper for the Violin, German Flute or Hautboy … (Dublin: John and William Neal, 1724), Tune 25. The song is sometimes erroneously claimed to have been included in an earlier collection: A collction [sic] of songs, in several languages, compos’d by Mr John Abell (London: William Pearson, 1701). Re-issued in a 2nd (corrected) version also in 1701. However, this collection did not include ‘Shein sheis shuus lum’ (a copy in the British Library contains only an inset leaf, undated). | |
Shein sheis shuus lum,Drudenal as fask me,Core la boè funareen,A Homon crin a party:Tamagra sa souga,Ta she loof her layder,Hey Ho, RirkoSerenish on bash me.The following modern Irish translation is taken from Breandán Breathnach, ‘The First Irish Song Published’, Ceol, 5.1 (1981), 2-3 (p.3):Sín síos suas liom,Druid anall is fáisc mé;Cóirigh leaba fúinn araon,a Chumainn, croí na páirte:Tá mo ghrá-sa súgach,Tá sí lúfar láidir;Hey Ho, rirko,Saor anois ón mbás mé.
‘Stretch down along side me’Stretch down along side me,move over and embrace me,make a bed for us both,my darling, my dearest;my love is joyous,she is swift and strong,hey ho, rirko,save me now from death. Translation from Breandán Breathnach, ‘The First Irish Song Published’, Ceol, 5.1 (1981), 2-3 (p.3).