Arranmore: A Song History

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"Arranmore" appears in Ellen Pratt's Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 4, a book of multi-part dulcimer pieces published by Pratt herself, where it is set for three dulcimers in DGD tuning plus a chord back-up part.[1] The book's listing does not say whether the tune is her own composition or an older melody she arranged, and the sources consulted here do not settle the question.[1][2] Pratt, who has played the dulcimer for more than two decades, has been composing for the instrument since about 2004 and turned to music for dulcimer groups once she became a member of a dulcimer orchestra in northeastern Connecticut.[2] The title names Árainn Mhór, an island in Templecrone parish, County Donegal, whose local English name is Arranmore;[3] it is the largest of Donegal's offshore islands and is reached by a ferry from Burtonport that runs all year.[4]

Watercolor of sailing ships and a steamer in a calm bay, with a line of rowing boats and a flagged pier in the foreground

Robert Charles Dudley, The Cable Fleet Leaving Ireland, July 1858, watercolor over graphite with touches of gouache, 1865–66. Shown for its Irish coast; it is not Arranmore and has no connection to the tune.

Our book that contains the song "Arranmore"

Sources

  1. Ellen Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 4".
  2. DulcimerDownloads: "Ellen Pratt".
  3. Placenames Database of Ireland: "Árainn Mhór/Aran Island".
  4. Discover Ireland: "Árainn Mhór (Arranmore Island)".
  5. Image: Robert Charles Dudley, The Cable Fleet Leaving Ireland, July 1858, watercolor over graphite with touches of gouache, 1865–66. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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