We celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with this song that is almost an Irish anthem.
Danny Boy is an old tune known as ‘Londonderry Air’ in reference to this county in Northern Ireland. The earliest record of the song dates back to 1855, but its origin is uncertain.
Frederic Edward Weatherly adapted lyrics of his own creation to this melody and published it in 1913, becoming a great success:
Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From glen to glen, and down the mountainside. The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling. ‘Tis you, ’tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow, ‘Tis I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow. Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, I love you so.
But if you come and all the flow’rs 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.
And I shall hear, though soft your tread above me, And then my grave will warmer, sweeter be, For you will bend and tell me that you love me, And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.
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Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air), traditional Irish song (version for voices and piano)
Raquel Del Pino Herranz, soprano
Maylin Cruz Fonseca, soprano
Cristina Van Roy Rathe, soprano
Beatriz Oleaga Ballester, mezzo-soprano
Gabriel Alonso Díaz, baritone
Germán Alcántara, baritone
Duncan Gifford, piano
