VIOLATraditional
"Star of the County Down" for Viola & Harp
Traditional - "Star of the County Down" for Viola & Harp
Viola and Harp
ViewPDF : "Star of the County Down" for Viola & Harp (3 pages - 642.38 Ko)642x
MP3 : "Star of the County Down" for Viola & Harp 99x 733x
MP3
Vidéo :
Composer :
 Traditional
Traditional
Instrumentation :

Viola and Harp

Style :

Celtic

Arranger :
MAGATAGAN, MICHAEL (1960 - )
Publisher :MAGATAGAN, MICHAEL
Copyright :Public Domain
Added by magataganm, 21 Aug 2015

"Star of the County Down" is an old Irish ballad set near Banbridge in County Down, in Northern Ireland. The tune is a pentatonic melody, similar to that of several other works, including the almost identical English tune "Kingsfold", well known from several popular hymns, such as "Led By the Spirit". The folk tune was the basis for Ralph Vaughan Williams' Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus.

The melody was also used in an old Irish folk song called "My Love Nell". The lyrics of "My Love Nell" tell the story of young man who courts a girl but loses her when she emigrates to America. The only real similarity with "Star of the County Down" is that Nell too comes from County Down. This may have inspired McGarvey to place the heroine of his new song in Down as well (McGarvey was from Donegal).

"The Star of the County Down" uses a tight rhyme scheme. Each stanza is a double quatrain, and the first and third lines of each quatrain have an internal rhyme on the second and fourth feet: [aa]b[cc]b. The refrain is a single quatrain with the same rhyming pattern.

The song is sung from the point of view of a young man who chances to meet a charming lady by the name of Rose (or Rosie) McCann, referred to as the "star of the County Down". From a brief encounter the writer's infatuation grows until, by the end of the ballad, he imagines wedding the girl.

Although this piece was originally written for traditional folk instruments, I arranged it for Viola & Celtic or Concert (Pedal) Harp.
Sheet central :The star of the county down (9 sheet music)
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