An Chuaichin Mhaiseach: The Bonny Cuckoo. Song with antique Irish harp.
Channel: Simon Chadwick
Date: 17/06/2016

This is the song "The Bonny Cuckoo" from the Edward Bunting Collection. Most people know the version printed in Bunting's 1840 book, on page 96 of the music, but I am singing a slightly different verse from one of his manuscript notebooks (Queen's University Belfast Special Collections MS4/33(5) f9v)

My bonny cuckoo, I tell you true,
That thro' the groves, I'll rove with you.
I'll rove with you, un till the next spring, 
& then my cuckoo will sweetly sing.
Cuckoo, sing girls, let no-one tell,
Untill I settle my seasons well.

Bunting tells us that the words "are a close translation from the original Irish" (1840, intro p.95). I have not been able to find the original Irish lyrics anywhere. In another manuscript (Queen's University Belfast Special Collections MS427 f5v) Bunting notes he got this tune "from O'Neil in 1793" - presumably Arthur O'Neill the harper.

If you think you recognise the melody you might be interested to read more at http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/tunes/cuckoo

I'm playing this tune on the Arnold Dolmetsch clarsach no.10 which was passed to me by Iris Nevins, via Ann Heymann, and which I repaired and restored. I don't know how old this harp is, it may be as old as the 1930s. More info on the harp here: http://www.simonchadwick.net/tag/dolmetsch