Ah, the days of the Kerry Dancin’,……
This little gem of a Youtube.com clip gives a glimpse of so many worlds still lingering close but passing even as I write. The world my Grandmama knew, and my dear Momma knew.
A place in man and woman’s history where everyone was “hail- fellow- well- met”; family was not a bad sit-com with caricatures, it was a living, breathing family with all it’s problems and follies and glories and blessings.
Sticking together with a real trust in themselves and decency, a sure belief in God and the basic good in us all.
Before I parrot too much of Spencer Tracy in so many of his great films, or look like I am auditioning for a John Ford film, enjoy this as if standing outside a window and wiping off the frost to catch a look inside.
Lotte Lehmann bathes us in her glorious voice and the richness of her talent as an actress as well, with the ever dapper and amazing Danny Thomas, the dashing Robert Preston and I think that handsome policeman is George Murphy before he became Senator or Govenor. So many wonderful, beautiful people. I hasten to say, although most people would not agree, in today’s world of looks over everything, Lotte was the most beautiful woman in the room for me!!! What a soul and stimme.
Catch too a style of singing that is so rich and emotional and profound. And yes, sentimental and proud of it. It is a world I wish I would have been fortunate to live in and feel I did.
One of the songs Madame Lehmann sings is a song my Mother taught me, the Irish song by J. L. Molloy (1875) “Kerry Dancing”, that she also sang for me. I can almost ache to hear her great voice and expression once more. Mom sure knew how to bring a song to life and make it “stick” in your heart and memory.
Words that two years hence from her passing mean so very much more now to me than I ever would have thought they might when I first heard it literally at Mother’s knee.:
“Oh, the days of the Kerry dancing
Oh, the ring of the piper’s tune!
Oh, for one of those hours of gladness
Gone, alas, like our youth, too soon!
When the boys began to gather
In the glen of a summer’s night
And the Kerry piper’s tuning
Made us long with wild delight!
Oh, to think of it
Oh, to dream of it
Fills my heart with tears!Time goes on, and the happy years are dead
And one by one the merry hearts are fled
Silent now is the wild and lonely glen
Where the bright glad laugh will echo ne’er again
Only dreaming of days gone by in my heart I hear.
Loving voices of old companions
Stealing out of the past once more
And the sound of the dear old music
Soft and sweet as in days of yore.When the boys began to gather
In the glen of a summer’s night
And the Kerry piper’s tuning
Made us long with wild delight!
Oh, to think of it
Oh, to dream of it
Fills my heart with tears!Oh, the days of the Kerry dancing
Oh, the ring of the piper’s tune
Oh, for one of those hours of gladness
Gone, alas, like our youth, too soon!
I’ll go have a grand cry, off with you now, enjoy this beautiful little slice of heaven.
