Ailein duinn
Encyclopedia
Ailein duinn is a traditional Scottish
song for solo female voice, a lament that was written in Gàidhlig for Ailean Moireasdan ("Alan Morrison") by his fiancée, Annag Chaimbeul ("Annie Campbell"). In 1788, Ailean, a sailor, set off with his ship to Scalpay
, Harris, where he and Annag would be married. In a tragic twist, the ship sailed into a storm and all on board were lost. Annag was devastated and lost her will to live, dying several months later. Her body was later discovered on the beach, not far from where Ailean's body was found. Before she died, Annag composed this lament for her lost love.
):
, making the acapella version of the original song very accessible to lot of composers, this would be one of the reasons for which there are so many appearances in the media. The following is a list of songs, some of them using the sample of that music library, while others offer their own new interpretation:
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
song for solo female voice, a lament that was written in Gàidhlig for Ailean Moireasdan ("Alan Morrison") by his fiancée, Annag Chaimbeul ("Annie Campbell"). In 1788, Ailean, a sailor, set off with his ship to Scalpay
Scalpay, Outer Hebrides
Scalpay to distinguish it from the other Scalpay) is an island and community in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.-Geography:Scalpay is around 2.5 miles long and rises to a height of 341 ft at Beinn Scorabhaig. Scalpay's nearest neighbour, Harris is just 330 yds away over narrow Caolas...
, Harris, where he and Annag would be married. In a tragic twist, the ship sailed into a storm and all on board were lost. Annag was devastated and lost her will to live, dying several months later. Her body was later discovered on the beach, not far from where Ailean's body was found. Before she died, Annag composed this lament for her lost love.
Lyrics
There are many versions of the lyrics and of the melody; the following version was used in the film Rob Roy (the untranslated words are vocablesNon-lexical vocables in music
Non-lexical vocables, which may be mixed with meaningful text, are a form of nonsense syllable used in a wide variety of music. A common English example would be "la la la".-Traditional music:...
):
- Rob Roy version
- Gura mise tha fo éislean
- Moch sa mhaduinn is mi 'g éirigh
- Sèist:
- Ò hì shiùbhlainn leat
- Hì ri bhò hò ru bhì
- Hì ri bhò hò rinn o ho
- Ailein Duinn, ò hì shiubhlainn leat
- Ma 's e 'n cluasag dhut a' ghaineamh
- Ma 's e leabaidh dhut an fheamainn
- Ma 's e 'n t-iasg do choinnlean geala
- Ma 's e na ròin do luchd-faire
- Dh'òlainn deoch ge b' oil le càch e
- De dh'fhuil do choim 's tu 'n déidh do bhathadh
- English translation
- How sorrowful I am
- Early in the morning rising
- Chorus (after each verse):
- Ò hì, I would go with thee
- Hì ri bhò hò ru bhì
- Hì ri bhò hò rinn o ho
- Brown-haired Alan, ò hì, I would go with thee
- If it is thy pillow the sand
- If it is thy bed the seaweed
- If it is the fish thy candles bright
- If it is the seals thy watchmen
- I would drink, though all would abhor it
- Of thy heart's blood after thy drowning
Popular culture
The song was sampled, somewhere around 2000, as a solo voice, with a very good interpretation, in a music library called "Vocal Planet" by SpectrasonicsSpectrasonics
Spectrasonics is a music software company based in California, United States. Founded in 1994, the company originally produced sample libraries and then became one of the first companies to create software instruments in 2002 Their flagship product is Omnisphere, an extensive software synthesizer...
, making the acapella version of the original song very accessible to lot of composers, this would be one of the reasons for which there are so many appearances in the media. The following is a list of songs, some of them using the sample of that music library, while others offer their own new interpretation:
Film
| Movie | Year | Name | Orchestrator | Vocal singing | Album | Track number | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rob Roy Rob Roy (film) Rob Roy is a 1995 historical drama film directed by Michael Caton-Jones. Liam Neeson stars as Robert Roy MacGregor, an 18th century Scottish historical figure who battles with feudal landowners in the Scottish Highlands. Jessica Lange, John Hurt, Tim Roth, Eric Stoltz, and Jason Flemyng also star... |
1995 | "Ailein Duinn" | Carter Burwell Carter Burwell Carter Benedict Burwell is an American composer of film scores.-Life and career:Burwell was born in New York City, the son of Natalie , a math teacher, and Charles Burwell, who founded Thaibok Fabrics, Ltd... |
Karen Matheson Karen Matheson Karen Matheson OBE is a Scottish folk singer, who frequently sings in Scottish Gaelic. She is lead singer of the group Capercaillie and was a member of Dan Ar Braz's group L'Heritage des Celtes, with whom she often sang lead vocals, either alone or jointly with Elaine Morgan... |
Rob Roy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack From The Film |
7 | 2:35 |
| N/A | N/A | "Ailein Duinn" | David Beard | Spectrasonics sample | N/A | N/A | 3:33 |
Modern music
| Name | Year | Length | Artist | Genre/Style | Spectrasonics sample |
External link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Ailein Duinn" | 1995 | 3:35 | Capercaillie Capercaillie (band) Capercaillie is a Scottish folk band, founded in the 1980s by Donald Shaw and fronted by Karen Matheson. They have seen four of their albums placed in the UK Albums Chart, and continue to perform and record to the present day.-History:... |
World | No | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn" | 1998 | 3:42 | Celtic Spirit | World | No | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn (Theme From Rob Roy)" | 2000 | 4:33 | Méav | World | No | youtube |
| "A Tear in the Open UR/A Tear in the Open UR and A Tear in the Open are two electronic music tracks which appeared on Tiësto's second studio album in 2004, entitled Just Be. Unlike Tiesto's other album from 2004, Parade of the Athletes, Just Be featured only unmixed tracks.... " |
2002 | 9:23 | DJ Tiesto | Trance | Yes | youtube |
| "Ishka" | 2002 | 5:23 | Angel Tears Angel Tears -Background:The duo is Momi Ochion and Seb Taylor . Ochion, whose roots lie in Israeli pop and world fusion music, is the melody man of the duo—the brain behind the compositional aspects of the album and a lot of the studio work... |
Goa Goa Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its... chillout |
Yes | youtube |
| "Cura Me" | 2002 | 8:31 | Signum | Trance | Yes | youtube |
| "Splitting An Atom" | 2003 | 7:22 | Ott | Dub | Yes | youtube |
| "A Tear in the Open (Leama & Moor Leama & Moor Leama & Moor are a DJ and production duo of Andrew Beardmore and Marty Leama hailing from the UK. They have begun their music in 1999 under Leama's solo project with the songs "Requiem For A Dream" and "Melodica" before they officially formed the duo Leama & Moor... remix)" |
2005 | 9:55 | DJ Tiesto | Trance | Yes | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn" | 2005 | 1:39 | Trobar de Morte | Neofolk Neofolk Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial... |
No | youtube |
| "Hall Of Dreams" | 2006 | 5:47 | En Voice | Ambient enigmatic | Yes | youtube |
| "Anna" | 2008 | 6:10 | Spectrum Vision | Psybient Psybient Psybient, also known as ambient psy, psychedelic chillout, psychedelic ambient, ambient goa, ambient psytrance and more commonly within the Goa/psytrance scene as psychill and psydub, is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of psychedelic trance, ambient, world music, new age and even... |
Yes | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn" | 2010 | 4:28 | Wine and Alchemy | World | No | N/A |
| "Avalon" | 2010 | 8:00 | Protoculture Protoculture In physical anthropology, protoculture is the passing of behaviours from one generation to another among non-human primates. These cultures are very rudimentary, and do not exhibit complex cultural technology.... |
Psy | Yes | youtube |
| "World Inside My Heart" | N/A | 5:20 | Deep Spirit of Native Americans | New age, World | Yes | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn (Theme From Rob Roy)" | N/A | 2:36 | Nathalie Kuijpers | Acapella | No | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn" | N/A | N/A | Mac-talla Mac-Talla Mac-Talla was a Scottish Gaelic bi-weekly periodical published by Jonathon MacKinnon out of Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada. It ran 12 volumes between 1892 and 1904. It's first issue was published May 28, 1892 and its final issue was published June 24, 1904... |
World | No | N/A |
| "Ailein Duinn" | 2011 | N/A | Quadriga Consort Quadriga Consort Quadriga Consort aka Quadriga Early Music Band is an early music ensemble from Austria. Founded in 2001 by harpsichordist Nikolaus Newerkla, the ensemble plays rearranged early British and Irish traditional music.... |
Early Music, World | No | N/A |
Video games
| Video Game | Year | Composer | Appearance | Spectrasonics sample |
External link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a real time strategy computer game released by Blizzard Entertainment on July 3, 2002 . It is the second sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, and it is the third game set in the Warcraft Universe... |
2002 | Tracy W. Bush Tracy W. Bush Tracy W. Bush is a video game music composer, sound designer and a foley artist. He is known for composing music for the popular games Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, World of Warcraft, StarCraft , and StarCraft: Brood War , and for sound design on Diablo II and... |
starts when the player loses as a Night Elf | N/A | N/A |
| CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (video game) | 2003 | N/A | very briefly used in one of the songs | N/A | N/A |
| Chaos Legion Chaos Legion is a third-person hack and slash video game developed and published by Capcom. The video game is based on Tow Ubukata's novel of the same name.The story of Chaos Legion is a gothic opera which begins November, 791 A.S. :... |
2003 | Hideyuki Fukasawa Hideyuki Fukasawa is a Japanese composer. He has often worked with Capcom but is also involved in his freelance composing work. He had a minor role in Onimusha 2 as an assistant sound engineer and programmer to Tarō Iwashiro, the acclaimed music composer of that particular game but it was his work on Chaos Legion, a... |
in the cave battle stage | N/A | N/A |
| Rome: Total Realism Rome: Total Realism Rome: Total Realism is a complete modification pack for the computer game Rome: Total War, intended to rectify historical inaccuracies in the original game. The mod has been featured in several major gaming sites and magazines, such as PC Gamer , PC Gamer , and GameSpot... |
2005 | Vlad Kuryluk | Title Credits | yes | youtube |
| Spartan: Total Warrior Spartan: Total Warrior Spartan: Total Warrior is a spin-off action game of the Total War series, developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega. It was released on Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube... |
2005 | Jeff van Dyck Jeff van Dyck Jeff van Dyck is a Canadian video game music composer. Born in 1969 and raised in Vancouver, Canada, van Dyck is the Audio Director of The Creative Assembly's offices in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Australia.... |
after the final mission in Athens, as the heroes mourn the slain Pollux |
N/A | youtube |
| World of Warcraft World of Warcraft World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994... |
2005 | N/A | first cinematic, before the game was released | N/A | N/A |
| Tomb Raider: Legend | 2006 | Troels Folmann Troels Brun Folmann Troels Brun Folmann is a composer specialized in epic orchestral music featured in TV-shows, trailers and video games, such as the Tomb Raider series, and commercial/trailers for films such as Spider-Man 3, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Illusionist, 10.000 BC, America's Got Talent 2009 and over 50... |
Main theme includes the song with an Ave Maria chorus |
yes | youtube |
| Tomb Raider: Legend | 2006 | Troels Folmann Troels Brun Folmann Troels Brun Folmann is a composer specialized in epic orchestral music featured in TV-shows, trailers and video games, such as the Tomb Raider series, and commercial/trailers for films such as Spider-Man 3, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Illusionist, 10.000 BC, America's Got Talent 2009 and over 50... |
in Nepal, original pitched down voice together with a male voice |
yes | youtube |
| Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms is the expansion to the 2006 PC game Medieval II: Total War. The expansion was released on 28 August 2007 in the United States and has four new campaigns, focusing on the discovery of the Americas, 13th century Britain and Ireland, and Crusader campaigns in both the... |
2007 | Jeff van Dyck Jeff van Dyck Jeff van Dyck is a Canadian video game music composer. Born in 1969 and raised in Vancouver, Canada, van Dyck is the Audio Director of The Creative Assembly's offices in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Australia.... |
in its Britannia campaign as part of a composition entitled Dream of Albion |
yes | youtube |