Where did the tune originate?
The tune used for “Danny Boy” is a true folk melody, originally called “Derry Air,” because it was first written down in County Derry, Ireland, in the town of Limavady. Once Ireland became an official part of Britain, the county was renamed “Londonderry,” with the choice of name somewhat determined by one’s political views. But whatever the name of the county, the origin story seems fairly straightforward: Jame Ross, a collector of Irish traditional folk music, heard a harpist (or a fiddler, depending on the version, and usually identified as blind) performing in the street outside her house and rushed out to copy down the tune he was playing. Unfortunately, she neglected to get the performer’s name, but she sent in her notated manuscript, along with a number of others she had collected. to the musicologist George Petrie, whose 1855 book The Ancient Music of Ireland listed the tune as an anonymous air but with a note attributing its collection to Ross. The tune was published as an instrumental piece with no lyrics but quickly became extremely popular with songwriters. The most well-known of these settings is the song “Danny Boy,” written in 1910 by an English lawyer named Frederic Weatherly. The meaning of the lyrics has been consistently misunderstood, however, leading to the next question:
Who Is Dead in “Danny Boy”?
Based on extensive polling (from my husband and brother-in-law), I can say that most people think that Danny is dead. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard or sung this song myself, and that’s what I always vaguely thought. But then the light broke when I was in a rehearsal (perhaps because we were parsing through the phrases carefully) and I realized a startling truth:
Danny ain’t dead.
So who is? It’s the person who is speaking, the one who is addressing Danny. Let’s plod through the words and figure out who that is. The first verse says:
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.
Now, to be fair, if you only looked at this first verse you might be excused for thinking that Danny is deceased. He “must go,” right? And the image of death is implied by the end-of-summer imagery. Let’s keep going, though:
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow
I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny Boy, oh Danny Boy, I love you so.
Hmmm. A blow has been dealt to the idea of Danny’s death. Otherwise, how’s he going to come back? But the time of his return seems to be very uncertain. So now we need to get back to the question of who the speaker is. We don’t know for sure, but there are a couple of options. Our friend Wikipedia says that “Some have interpreted the song to be a message from a parent to a son going off to a war or uprising (as suggested by the reference to ‘pipes calling glen to glen’) or leaving as part of the Irish diaspora.” That makes sense, especially when we look at the next verse:
But if you come, and all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You’ll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an “Ave” there for me.
When I had my great insight about Danny’s non-dead state, I sort of assumed that the speaker in the song was his lover/mistress/girlfriend/fiancé/wife who had been left behind, but then why would she think that she’d probably be dead herself by the time he returned, unless she was consumptive or some such? How long does she expect him to be gone, for Heaven’s sake? It makes much better sense for the speaker to be Danny’s parent, don’t you think?
And I will know, tho’ soft ye tread above me
And then my grave will richer, sweeter be
And you’ll bend down and tell me that you love me
And I will rest in peace until you come to me.
To me the words have a maternal tone; mothers sending their sons off to war or other potentially-deadly ventures are a sadly common theme.
But we’re not finished with the fascinating story behind this song.
What’s the Colorado connection to “Danny Boy”?
Francis Weatherly had put his lyrics to another tune but the song had never gained much popularity. His brother Edward and Irish wife Margaret were living in Ouray, a town in southwest Colorado, trying to make a go of silver mining. The Durango Herald tells us that Francis
lost his son and his father within three months. Out of a deep sense of grief, Fred wrote a poignant poem about love, loss and failed opportunity. He sent the poem to Ed who shared it with his Irish wife. From the oral traditions of her itinerant father, Margaret remembered an ancient Londonderry air or tune – perhaps once played on harps by blind singers. Or she may have heard the tune played by Irish miners in the bars and saloons of Ouray. Margaret sent the notated manuscript of the music to her brother-in-law in England. Thus “Danny Boy,” copy written in 1913, became one of the best-selling and beloved songs of the 20th century, in part because of so many deaths during World War I and World War II. Tenors everywhere learned it. Thus, the song, sung at Irish celebrations and wakes for the dead all over the world, has a Ouray connection. (“A Tragic Tale in Ouray“–follow the link to read the whole convoluted story. Believe me, I could have included a lot more detail!)
So “Danny Boy” has been popular ever since Margaret came up with the idea of marrying her brother-in-law’s poem with the tune she knew. Just to emphasize the Colorado aspect of things, out of all the versions I could have chosen here’s a gorgeous performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at Red Rocks Amphitheater just outside of Denver. I’ve also included a brief video about how the original tune first came to be written down.
Other famous songs have used the same four-note sequence that appears in Derry/Londonderry/Danny, most recently in “You Raise Me Up.” Ultimately a 2018 copyright case was ruled in favor of the “Raise Me” authors and against the writer of the Icelandic song “Into the Light”/”Söknuður.” Watch the two videos below and see what you think. (Note that the background instrumentation for this version of “Söknuður” has been remastered to sound similar to the Josh Groban version.)
I will insert here at the very end the confusing fact that “The 1918 version of the sheet music included alternative lyrics (‘Eily Dear’), with the instructions that ‘when sung by a man, the words in italics should be used; the song then becomes “Eily Dear,” so that “Danny Boy” is only to be sung by a lady.’” (Wikipedia) In spite of this version of the lyrics, it’s not at all clear that the author is the one who made this suggestion. Tenors are quite fond of singing the piece as a solo, but I’ve sure never heard anyone, man or woman, sing the “Eily Dear” version. If we interpret the lyrics as referring to either parent, there’s no need to change the wording of the text.
© Debi Simon
