Blarney Babble: A Song History
"Blarney Babble" is one of the tunes in DulciWhistle, a 33-page book of duets for mountain dulcimer and pennywhistle, or tin whistle, by John Keane and Karen Keane, published by Fingers Of Steel.[1] The listing describes every tune in the book as original to the pair, but it does not say which of them wrote this one or give its tuning.[1] The Keanes are Shreveport, Louisiana, music educators and performers who compose for the mountain dulcimer and Native American flute.[2][3] The sources consulted here give no account of the tune's inspiration.[1][2][3]
Firth, Pond & Co., Flageolet in B-flat, wood, ivory, brass, nickel-silver, 1848–65. A flageolet rather than a tin whistle, shown for the book's whistle parts; it has no connection to the tune.
The word blarney, meaning skillful flattery or simply nonsense, comes from the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle near Cork, Ireland, with a first known use in 1780.[4] By legend, anyone who kisses the stone gains a gift for eloquence, though reaching it requires leaning upside down over a precipice.[5]
Sources
- Fingers Of Steel: "John Keane And Karen Keane, DulciWhistle".
- DulcimerDownloads: "John Keane".
- DulcimerDownloads: "Karen Keane".
- Merriam-Webster: "Blarney".
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Blarney Stone".
- Image: Firth, Pond & Co., Flageolet in B-flat, wood, ivory, brass, nickel-silver, 1848–65. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.