Baurtregaum: A Song History

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"Baurtregaum" is one of the pieces in Ellen Pratt's Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 5, a book published by Ellen Pratt, where it is set for three dulcimers in DGD tuning with a chord back-up part; the book's contents page lists it in 6/8 time.[1] Pratt's website describes the volume as holding both original and traditional arrangements, but neither that page nor the DulcimerDownloads listing names a composer for this piece, so the sources consulted here do not settle whether it is her own tune.[1][2] Her DulcimerDownloads biography dates her first dulcimer compositions to around 2004 and says her ensemble writing followed her joining a dulcimer orchestra in northeastern Connecticut.[3]

Pale watercolor sketch of a large rocky mountain above a stretch of water

Alexander H. Wyant, Mountain Landscape, watercolor on brown paper. Shown for its mountain; it does not depict Baurtregaum.

Baurtregaum is also the name of a mountain, which Ireland's National Parks and Wildlife Service identifies as the highest peak of the Slieve Mish Mountains, the range running along the eastern half of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry.[4] The Placenames Database of Ireland lists the Irish form Barr Trí gCom for it, marked there as a non-validated name, and glosses the elements barr as top and com as a hollow or coomb.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Baurtregaum"

Sources

  1. Ellen Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 5".
  2. Ellen S. Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements for Mountain Dulcimer Volume 5".
  3. DulcimerDownloads: "Ellen Pratt".
  4. National Parks and Wildlife Service: "Site Synopsis: Slieve Mish Mountains SAC (002185)".
  5. Placenames Database of Ireland: "Barr Trí gCom / Baurtregaum Mountain".
  6. Image: Alexander H. Wyant, Mountain Landscape, watercolor on brown paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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