Price codeA
ScottishCatalogue no. 1509
An tàillear mhór
The tall tailoress
Music: Sheena Phillips, Words: Trad. Anon
Voicing: SATB
Performance time approx: 0m 50s (sung twice through)
traditional Gaelic words and tune
Price code: A
Complexity:
This piece is part of the set "Mouth music set 2".
The set also includes:
This is a delightful piece of Gaelic puirt-a-beul (‘poorsht-a-beel’) or mouth music – the name for songs written to accompany dancing. The song describes a man’s longing to go off with the dark tailoress. Unfortunately he is already married to Rory MacDuncan’s surly daughter!
Traditionally, puirt-a-beul is sung unaccompanied and in unison but the tunes harmonise very well. Frequently they are sung in sequences of three or four, each song leading without a break into the next. This song works well as the third in the following set of four: Tha mi sgìth; Meal do bhrògan; An tàillear mhór; Gaol mo chridh-sa Màiri Bhàn (all published by Canasg).
An tàillear mhór (The tall tailoress)
Dh'fhalbhainn fhìn leis an tàillear mhór,
Shiubhlainn fhìn leis an tàillear mhór,
Dh'fhalbhainn fhìn leis an tàillear mhór,
Rachainn fhìn a phòsadh na h-òig nighinn duinn.
Nighean Ruar' 'ac Dhonnchaidh bu chùl-chàineach tinn'
'S mór abha chràdh ann an cnàmhan do chinn,
Na faighinn dha'n ùir thu, 's do bhuig orra chinn,
Rachainn fhìn a phòsadh na h-òig nighinn duinn.
traditional Gaelic song
Translation
I would go with the tall tailoress
I would travel with the tall tailoress
I would go with the tall tailoress
I would go off and marry the young brown-haired girl.
Daughter of Duncan's son Roderick, surly and sickly,
There was much pain in the bones of your head.
If I could get you in the grave
I would go off and marry the young brown-haired girl.
Canasg editors