An Comhra Donn: A Song History
"An Comhra Donn" is a dance tune, usually classed as a two-part hornpipe in D, although in County Donegal it is considered a German or barndance.[1][2] The Donegal Fiddle Music site goes further and calls the hornpipe label a mistake.[3] The title has no straightforward translation: it is often rendered as "the brown chest" or "brown casket," from An Cófra Donn, while the Donegal Fiddle Music site holds that the proper name is An Comhrá na dTonn, "the conversation of the waves," after the sound of Atlantic surf reportedly heard far inland during storms.[2][3] Sources differ on its link to the Scottish "Caledonian March," whose first strain it resembles: the Donegal site says the Irish tune derives from it, while the Traditional Tune Archive calls the direction of influence undetermined.[2][3]
Winslow Homer, Northeaster, oil on canvas, 1895, reworked by 1901. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). A Maine shore rather than Donegal, shown for the “conversation of the waves” reading of the title.
The Dublin accordionist Sonny Brogan supplied the tune to Breandán Breathnach, who printed it in 1963 in the first volume of Ceol Rince na hÉireann.[2][4] The Chieftains paired it with "Murphy's Hornpipe" on their first album, and Brogan's friend and fellow Ceoltóirí Chualann member, the fiddler John Kelly, also recorded it.[5][2][4] Recordings indexed by irishtune.info run from about 1933 to 2017 and include versions by Kevin Keegan and Sharon Shannon, while Martin Hayes recorded it in 1993 as "The Brown Coffin."[1][2] Malcolm Dalglish and Grey Larsen included it on their 1977 album Banish Misfortune.[2]
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