Books

A Song in the Air
Women from Another Planet: Our Lives in the Universe of Autism
Running from the Devil: A Memoir of a Boy Possessed
Babyface: A Story of Heart and Bones
The Glory Walk : A Memoir
A Shining Season: The True Story of John Baker
Don't Sing Any Sad Songs: A Down Syndrome Daughter's Joyful Journey
Angelhead : A Memoir
God Doesn't Make Trash
A Reason to Believe: The Blaise Winter Story
In Dreams I Run
My Name Is Caroline
If You Could Hear What I See: Lessons About Life, Luck and the Choices We Make
Touching the Rock : An Experience of Blindness
Twilight : Losing Sight, Gaining Insight
Body, Remember: A Memoir (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies)
Learning to Walk Again: How Guillain Barre Taught Me to Walk a Different Path
Agents in My Brain: How I Survived Manic Depression
Joni Eareckson Tada: Her Story
Up and Running: The Jami Goldman Story
The Cancer Monologue Project
Love Sick: One Woman's Journey through Sexual Addiction
Sweet Invisible Body: Reflections on a Life With Diabetes
Through the Fire & Through the Water: My Triumph over Cancer
Partial View: An Alzheimer's Journal

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Empty covers
..though soft you tread above me..
Pleasantly Surprised
An entertaining, though relentlessly folksy, book
Save Your Money

Danny Boy: The Beloved Irish Ballad
Malachy McCourt
Manufacturer: Running Press Book Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Singing My Him Song
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Malachy McCourt's History of Ireland
'Tis: A Memoir

ASIN: 0762411244

Book Description

In this delightful volume, Malachy McCourt takes readers on a surprising and emotional journey, centered around one of the most enduring songs in history. Exploring the mysteries of 'Danny Boy,' a song with roots in distant centuries, this tribute features commentary from such luminaries as Seamus Heaney, Liam Neeson, and the author's brother, Frank McCourt.

Customer Reviews:

Empty covers.......2004-02-10

This item (to call it a "book" would be an insult to books) has perhaps three pages of information about the history and substance of "Danny Boy". The remaining 138 pages are irrelevant Hamburger Helper. Save your $18.95 (or even your lower Amazon price) for something worth the money.

..though soft you tread above me.........2003-11-15

An excellent book by an excellent writer!McCourt has awaken the intrest in all of us to get to the bottom of what this song is all about.I think he has done it, and each time I hear it ,I will think of this book,and of what the song means to me.
Though there are numerous ideas about what the song means,who was it to and from etc.,he has shown that doesn't really matter.It is a song expressing deep love,and it can mean whatever the listener wants it to mean.I have dozens of versions and although they vary greatly I love them all.I am always happy to hear it by another singer whether a professional or just an ordinary person singing from the heart.
As to whether or not the words were written in Ireland by an Irishman;it doesn't matter in the least,it's a great Irish song.
When you stop and think about it,there's no way it could be anything else but Irish.Johnny Cash wrote "Forty Shades of Green" as he was flying over Ireland,a school teacher living in Ontario wrote "Maggie" to his lover,and if that isn't enough, the song "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" was written in America and had nothing at all to do with taking Kathleen back to Ireland,because she didn't come from there in the first place.
However;all these songs are Irish .What you have to remember is that there over 50 million Irish dispersed all over the world including about 4 million in Ireland.This book would be a great gift for anyone with a song in their heart and a twinkle in their eye for there's sure to be some Irish in their blood.

Pleasantly Surprised.......2003-07-31

We don't know why "Danny Boy" touches our hearts -- but it does. I was pleasantly surprised to have a chance to learn something about the lore that came together to help create the feeling whenever I hear this ballad. You may want to consider reading the novel Yours, Aiden (isbn 1403319898)as it too creates a stir within.

An entertaining, though relentlessly folksy, book.......2003-02-23

Beyond question, the melody variously known as "Danny Boy" or "Londonderry Air" is one of the great tunes of all time. Its measured rising and falling cadences would grace the catalog of Franz Schubert or any of the other great classical vocal composers.

Malachy McCourt, brother of novelist Frank McCourt (ANGELA'S ASHES) and a well-known writer and radio-TV luminary in his own right, has produced a curious little book of less than 95 pages about the famous tune and its well-known lyrics. His book is part history, part speculation, part myth and part personal editorial essay. And it is not free from touches of Irish blarney.

McCourt's findings may surprise --- and dismay --- many. The great tune, long since adopted as a kind of unofficial Irish national anthem, may not be of Irish origin. A folklorist named Jane Ross supposedly first noted it down around 1851. She reportedly heard it played by a blind fiddler, Jimmy McCurry, in Limavady, Londonderry --- but there is at least a possibility that the melody may have originated in Scotland. No one knows for sure. At least one respected musical scholar claims that the tune follows no known metric scheme for Irish folk music.

Many different sets of words were attached to the tune after its first publication in 1855 --- but those that have become indissolubly identified with it ("O Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling, from glen to glen and down the mountainside....") were written in 1910 by an English lawyer and song-lyric cobbler named Frederick E. Weatherly, who probably never set foot in Ireland. They were actually intended for a different tune, but when Weatherly's sister-in-law sent him some years later the familiar melody from her home in Australia, he saw that it was a perfect fit for his earlier verses. Thus an "Irish" classic was created from a melody that may be Scottish and words by an Englishman.

McCourt gives us this information straightforwardly enough, but he fleshes them out with a good deal of barely relevant material. It seems strange to arraign a book of 95 pages on charges of padding, but the complaint seems justified. McCourt solicited opinions about the song from Irish celebrities (including brother Frank) and speculates at length on such side issues as who is singing the song and to whom it is addressed (one possibility among several: it is the song of Danny Boy's gay lover!). The author's tone varies between straight historical writing and folksiness, including occasional cutesy use of "tis" and "t'was." McCourt also grinds a personal axe or two. He thinks ill of those Catholic dioceses that have banned the singing of "Danny Boy" at funerals because it is "secular."

There are some fascinating bits of trivia here, however. Victorians hesitated to refer to the song as Londonderry Air because, to their prudish ears, it sounded too much like "London derriere." Irish nationalists never use that title either, because they want no mention of London in the title. Wordsmith Weatherly was once in legal partnership with one of the sons of Charles Dickens. And another of Weatherly's lyrics was the popular "Roses of Picardy," set to music memorably by Haydn Wood. Wood studied under the composer Sir Charles Stanford, who quoted "Londonderry Air" in one of his Irish rhapsodies. Make of that what you will. This is a curious little book, entertaining in its quirky way but almost undone by its relentless folksiness. "Londonderry Air" remains a musical treasure, regardless of its origin.

--- Reviewed by Robert Finn

Save Your Money.......2002-07-03

This book was thrown together with little effort. It only has 100+ pages due to the double spacing and large type. Save your money for a better effort.

Music in the Air Somewhere: The Shifting Borders of West Virginia's Fiddle and Song Traditions

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Fresh Look at Old-Time Tunes

Music in the Air Somewhere: The Shifting Borders of West Virginia's Fiddle and Song Traditions
Erynn L. Marshall
Manufacturer: West Virginia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 193320205X
Release Date: 2006-02-15

Product Description

This book with accompanying CD is a study on conventions that many West Virginians hold dear: fiddle music and folk traditions. It is also a look into the broad influences that folk music has on fiddlers compositions and their practices. By exploring the oral histories and music of seven celebrated, life-long West Virginian musicians, Erynn Marshall illuminates the diversity of these music traditions and the culmination of fiddle song genres. Included with this intense survey of Appalachian tradition is a CD of Marshalls field and archival recordings of West Virginia musicians Warren Cronin, Rita Emerson, Lela Gerkins, Leland Hall, Phyllis Marks, Lester and Linda McCumbers, Woody and William Simmons, Melvin Wine, and the Sand Valley Boys.

Customer Reviews:

Fresh Look at Old-Time Tunes.......2006-09-16

Erynn Marshall is a fiddler who researched West Virginia's fiddle traditions for over a decade in writing this book. She provides a good overview of old-time music in the book's opening chapters. The biographical sketches of important fiddlers from the state are particularly interesting. Her inclusion of several fine women fiddlers results in especially important contributions to the historical record, which expands our understanding of the cultural contexts of fiddling. From this strong background, Marshall then opens up new ground within the research on old-time fiddling by focusing on a wide range of genres that comprise the fiddlers' repertoires. She provides special attention to relationships between instrumental tunes and songs with lyrics. These fiddle-songs have often been regarded as peripheral to the core repertories of fiddlers, but Marshall convincingly demonstrates that they actually constitute a genre that is essential to many fiddlers' musicianship. Her analysis of relationships between these fiddle-songs and the solely instrumental musical forms often identified as "fiddle-tunes" provides a good way to understand how musicians learn tunes as they acquire their repertoires. Her study also demonstrates how a knowledge of these fiddle-songs expands our understanding of the social contexts for music making. The accompanying CD also is a fine addition to this volume, and it is particularly useful for gaining a better understanding of the musical transcriptions that form an important part of this well-written and intriguing study of Appalachian folk music.

The Harmonic Orator: The Phrasing and Rhetoric of the Melody in French Baroque Airs (Pendragon Press Musicological Series)

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An invaluable aid to the interpretation of French Baroque Music

The Harmonic Orator: The Phrasing and Rhetoric of the Melody in French Baroque Airs (Pendragon Press Musicological Series)
Patricia M. Ranum
Manufacturer: Pendragon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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An invaluable aid to the interpretation of French Baroque Music.......2007-01-19

This book covers practically all aspects of how melody is structured not only in French Baroque Airs, but also in instrumental music. There are lots of quotations from writers such as Rousseau, Masson, Grimarest to name a few, both in English and the original French. Whether a performer or a musicologist, or just interested in the way music is related to language, this book offers many fascinating insights.

Army Air Force Lyrics: A Collection of Ww II U.S. Army Air Force Marching Songs, Poems, and Parodies to Popular Songs of the Period and the Past

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Army Air Force Lyrics: A Collection of Ww II U.S. Army Air Force Marching Songs, Poems, and Parodies to Popular Songs of the Period and the Past
J. K. Havener
Manufacturer: Aero Pub Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Popular Music of the Olden Time: The Whole of the Airs Harmonized by G. A. Macfarren. Volume 1

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Popular Music of the Olden Time: The Whole of the Airs Harmonized by G. A. Macfarren. Volume 1
William Chappell
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Popular Music of the Olden Time: The Whole of the Airs Harmonized by G. A. Macfarren. Volume 2

ASIN: 1402161077
Release Date: 2002-01-16

Book Description

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1859 edition by Cramer, Beale, & Chappell, London.

Mel Bay Celtic Songs and Slow Airs for the Mountain Dulcimer

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Mel Bay Celtic Songs and Slow Airs for the Mountain Dulcimer
Neal Hellman
Manufacturer: Mel Bay Publications, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

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Mel Bay Fingerpicking Dulcimer

ASIN: 078666892X

Book Description

In folk tradition, stories of love lost, betrayal, jealousy, conflict, emigration, and the supernatural are often immortalized in songs of many traditions, demonstrating that singing has been a universal vehicle for the human condition. The criteria for this wonderful collection of prose and melodies is from Celtic traditions that have been with us for hundreds of years. These compositions have been arranged so that each will work both as an air and as a song. All of the selections in the book appear on the companion CD.

Popular Music of the Olden Time: The Whole of the Airs Harmonized by G. A. Macfarren. Volume 2

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Popular Music of the Olden Time: The Whole of the Airs Harmonized by G. A. Macfarren. Volume 2
William Chappell
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Popular Music of the Olden Time: The Whole of the Airs Harmonized by G. A. Macfarren. Volume 1

ASIN: 1402161069
Release Date: 2002-01-16

Book Description

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Wild Blue Yonder: Songs of the Air Force, the Stag Bar Edition

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Wild Blue Yonder: Songs of the Air Force, the Stag Bar Edition

Manufacturer: Redwood Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0941196496

Songs and Airs from the Great Oratorios for High Voice

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A must for any Handel Soprano / Tenor

Songs and Airs from the Great Oratorios for High Voice
George Frideric Handel
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486419037

Book Description

Excellent compilation of 40 pieces for high voice and piano. Includes Ev'ry valley shall be exalted and I Know that My Redeemer Liveth (Messiah); From mighty Kings (Judas); Farewell, ye limpid springs and floods (Jephtha); O come let us worship (Chandos Anthems); O sleep, why dost thou leave me? (Semele); and many others.

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A must for any Handel Soprano / Tenor.......2007-01-11

Excellent , varied selection! Wonderful! Buy it!

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Best Yet!

A Song in the Air (Shooting Star)
Catherine Ritch Guess
Manufacturer: CRM Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

On his way to Daytona for the first race of the season, NASCAR great Dale Jarrett saves the life of a young homeless boy, Issac, whose mother is killed. A beautiful depiction of the impact of a lowly child on the world.

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Best Yet!.......2004-10-22

Guess gets better and better and this one is tops! This is a powerful story featuring a NASCAR legend whose heart touches the lives of not only little Isaac but others involved in the story. A great story of how a child can teach faith to others even in facing death. This book will make you laugh and cry. It touches a myriad of emotions which make this story seem so real. Hats off to Catherine Ritch Guess for another extraordinary literary work!

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