Air Falalalo: A Song History

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Mainly Norfolk lists "Air Falalalo" as one title of the song "Ar Fa La La Lo," and notes that Hugh S. Roberton printed it under that name in his 1950 songbook Songs of the Isles, with the words credited to Roberton and the melody to a traditional Gaelic air in his arrangement.[1] The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library catalogues the book as a Curwen publication from London, its tunes drawn from the islands and Highlands and given English or Anglo-Scottish words by Roberton.[2] Roberton (1874–1952) founded and conducted the Glasgow Orpheus Choir, was knighted in 1931, and was widely admired as an arranger of Scottish folk songs.[3] Sources differ on the song's homeland: the notes to a 1966 Australian recording called it traditional Irish, while the Mainly Norfolk commentary leans toward Scotland because the words mention the Highlands and Lowlands.[1]

Tall wooden harp with a carved head at the top of its neck

Harp, France, wood, 1500s. A French harp rather than a Highland one, shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.

Gordon McIntyre sang it as "Er Fa La La Lo" on A Wench, a Whale and a Pint of Good Ale, a 1966 Score Records LP he made with Martyn Wyndham-Read and Danny Spooner.[4] In 1994 the Philadelphia band Broadside Electric recorded it, under a Gaelic spelling of the title, on their album Amplificata.[1] Steve Eulberg includes a tune titled "Air Falalalo," in an "Elemental" and a reharmonized setting in both DAA and DAD tunings, in Another Jig Will Do: Songs And Tunes Of The Angles And The Celts, a Fingers Of Steel collection for mountain and hammered dulcimer that comes with Eulberg's own recordings; the listing does not give the tune's source.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Air Falalalo"

Sources

  1. Mainly Norfolk: "Ar Fa La La Lo".
  2. Vaughan Williams Memorial Library: "Songs of the Isles: a collection of island and Highland tunes from various sources".
  3. University of Glasgow, Burns Choral: "Hugh Roberton".
  4. Mainly Norfolk: "A Wench, a Whale and a Pint of Good Ale".
  5. Fingers Of Steel: "Steve Eulberg, Another Jig Will Do: Songs And Tunes Of The Angles And The Celts".
  6. Image: Harp, France, wood, 1500s. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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