The Coolin, or The Coolun, is an Irish air often
characterised as one of the most beautiful in the
traditional repertoire. In Irish, its name has been
given as An Chúileann or An Chúilfhionn ("the fair
haired girl" or "the fair lady") depending on the text
used. The tune is also known as "The Lady of the
Desert".
The air, and the texts fitted to it, have a long and
very complex history. Its exact provenance is unknown,
but it has been variously asserted by different authors
as dating...(+)
The Coolin, or The Coolun, is an Irish air often
characterised as one of the most beautiful in the
traditional repertoire. In Irish, its name has been
given as An Chúileann or An Chúilfhionn ("the fair
haired girl" or "the fair lady") depending on the text
used. The tune is also known as "The Lady of the
Desert".
The air, and the texts fitted to it, have a long and
very complex history. Its exact provenance is unknown,
but it has been variously asserted by different authors
as dating from the 13th century, from the time of Henry
VIII, or from the 17th century, though the latter is
the most credible. There are at least two main Irish
language texts and a number of later English
translations, or interpretations of both; there are
also English words (such as those by Moore) which are
not a translation of either Irish version.
The air itself is sometimes claimed to have been
composed by Carolan, though John Glen (1900) said that
the "ancient Irish melody" was in fact usually known as
"Molly St George" at the beginning of the 18th century.
The latter-named tune has been often been associated
with the great 17th-century harper Thomas Connellan.
Connellan was also cited alongside Carolan as a
possible composer of The Coolin, but as Glen noted,
many supposed "that the tune is older than either of
them".
The version of The Coolin printed by Edward Bunting in
The Ancient Music of Ireland (1840) was taken from the
playing of Donnchadh Ó Hámsaigh (Dennis Hempson), who
himself claimed to have learned it from the playing of
Cornelius Lyons early in the previous century. Though
Bunting's setting claims to present the tune with
variations, it in fact appears to print only Lyons'
once-fashionable baroque variations while omitting the
main tune. Patrick Weston Joyce, who said that
Bunting's version was "wanting in simplicity", printed
a version of the tune collected from the playing of a
fiddler, Hugh O'Beirne, that he said was very similar
to that he recalled being sung in his youth in 1830s
County Limerick. Other versions appeared in several
late 18th century collections, as well as in the 1795
opera The Wicklow Mountains, written by John O'Keeffe
with music by William Shield.
These suggestions originated with Joseph Cooper Walker,
who said in his Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards
(1786) that the air's title in fact referred to what he
called the "coulins", or long locks of hair, worn by
Irish men and which were prohibited by a statute of
Henry VIII, although he noted that no actual words to
the air on this subject had survived. Despite the lack
of a text, Walker's assertion was repeated by, amongst
others, Renehan and W. H. Grattan Flood: Flood however
proposed (based on a suggestion by Lynch in a letter to
the Dublin Penny Journal) the air must refer to an
earlier statute of the 13th century. The story inspired
a 19th-century patriotic poem called The Coulin
Forbidden, written by W. B. McBurney under the
pseudonym "Carroll Malone".
The distinguished philologist Eugene O'Curry believed
that the air known as The Coolin was first given that
name in the early 18th century by a Fr. Oliver
O'Hanley.
The philologist Eugene O'Curry asserted, however, that
the title "The Coolin" was only applied to the air in
the 18th century after it was used by a priest, Fr.
Oliver O'Hanley, to set a poem he wrote in praise of a
famous beauty of County Limerick. In this case, O'Curry
commented, the word "Coolin" is used in its sense
"fair-haired one", to refer to a girl: he disagrees
with Walker, stating "no such word was ever, or ever
could have been, applied to the glibbs, or long tufts
of back hair, prohibited by old English statute".
The Rev. L. Donnellan, in a survey of the various texts
and tunes of The Coolin, published in the 1912 Journal
of the County Louth Archaeological Society, was equally
dismissive: he states that Walker's "credulous" story
of it referring to an English statute was "fabricated
by his friend [William] Beauford". He also notes that
what he called Walker's "foolish speculation" was
encouraged by his insertion of the phrase "glibbs and
coulins" into the 16th century statute, which he notes
only refers to proscribed "glibbs". Donnellan's
conclusion was that the original composition was a
17th-century one attributed to O Duagain.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coolin).
Although originally written for Traditional Irish
instruments, I created this Interpretation of the Irish
Air "The Coolin" (the fair haired girl) Flute, Oboe &
Celtic or Concert (Pedal) Harp.
PARTITION