The Nursery Rhymes Collections 1-4 contain a total of 277 children's songs. Each double CD album showcases the highest quality children's music ever recorded with a total playing time in excess of 10 hours!
Oh Danny Boy (Audio Sample and Lyrics)
Oh, Danny boy, the pipes,
The pipes are calling
From glen to glen,
And down the mountain side.
The summer's gone,
And all the roses falling,
It's you, it's you
Must go and I must bide.
But ye come back
When summer's in the meadow,
Or when the valley's hushed
And white with snow,
It's I'll be here
in sunshine
Or in shadow,
Oh, Danny boy,
Oh Danny boy, I love you so!
But when ye come,
When all the flow'rs are dying
And I am gone,
As gone I well may be
You'll come and find
The place where I am lying
And kneel and say
a prayer there for me.
And I shall hear,
though soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm
And sweeter be
If you will only tell me
That you love me,
Then I will sleep in peace
Until you come to me.
Words & Music: Traditional
Arrangement: Ian J Watts
Piano Arrangement: Rick Benbow
This song was released on The Nursery Rhyme Collection 2
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Origin and background
The lyrics are sung on the melody of Londonderry Air. The melody - on it's own but especially together with the lyrics - has become kind of an inofficial Irish anthem. Our version was performed by multi-instrumentalist and folk singer Mat Williams and our musical arranger Rick Benbow on piano.
The lyrics to the son "Oh Danny Boy" were written by the English lawyer Frederic Weatherley (1848 - 1929). The lyrics are sung to the tune of Londonderry Air. This melody was very popular among the Irish in the United States of America and along with the lyrics it became an unofficial national anthem of Ireland. The name Londonderry refers to the Northern Ireland county in which it was written. (The map shows Ireland and Londonderry (painted red).
It is not quite clear how the song became the inofficial National Anthem of Ireland but Georgie Petrie, who included "Danny Boy" back in 1855 in his collection "The Ancient Music of Ireland", pointed out the Irish character of the song and the county of Londonderry: "For the following beautiful air I have to express my very grateful acknowledgement to Miss J. Ross, of New Town, Limavady, in the County of Londonderry—a lady who has made a large collection of the popular unpublished melodies of the county, which she has very kindly placed at my disposal, and which has added very considerably to the stock of tunes which I had previously acquired from that still very Irish county. I say still very Irish, for though it has been planted for more than two centuries by English and Scottish settlers, the old Irish race still forms the great majority of its peasant inhabitants; and there are few, if any counties in which, with less foreign admixture, the ancient melodies of the country have been so extensively preserved. The name of the tune unfortunately was not ascertained by Miss Ross, who sent it to me with the simple remark that it was 'very old', in the correctness of which statement I have no hesitation in expressing my perfect concurrence."
(Source: Petrie, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin, 1855), page 57)
Though it is not quite clear it is supposed that the composer of the melody was Denis Hempson, who died in 1807.