1. O mama bakudala (South Africa) trad.

Xhosa song
O mama bakudala babe thandaza x 2
Babe thandaza, babe thandaza x 2

Sung by women at the beginning of gatherings or celebrations as an invocation to the spirits of the matriarchal
ancestors. (trans: Our mothers and grandmothers used to pray) I heard this song on an album by a fabulous American
female ensemble, Libana. It’s so life-affirming and full of energy.

2. Mingulay Boat Song (Scotland) trad. Scottish

Chorus:
Heel ya ho, boys, let her go, boys
Heave her head round to the weather
Heel ya ho, boys, let her g-o, boys
Sailing homeward to Mingulay

What care we though white the spray is

What care we for the wind and weather
Heel ya ho, boys, let her go, boys
Sailing homeward to Mingulay

Wives are waiting by the pier head

Looking seaward fro-m the heather
Heave her round boys and we'll anchor
Ere the sun sets on Mingulay

This popular sea-song has been recorded by almost everybody and is a favourite of choirs. We liked the sound of the
banjo coming in and having the djembe beat – really makes you feel the roll of the waves!

3. Fraoch a Ronaigh (Scotland) trad. Hebridean song

Fraoch a Rònaigh, muran a Bhàlaigh x 2
Crois iar nan cliar, crois iar Sholais x 3
Beinn Dubh Sholais, Aird a' Bhorrain

'S fhada bhuam Grìminis, Lìrinis, Càrinis x4

Translation:
Heather from Rona, sea-bent from Vallay
Western cross of the clergy, western cross of Sollas
Black Mountain of Sollas, Height of Morran
Far from me are Griminish, Lirinish, Cairnish

I heard the wonderful Scottish singer Julie Fowlis singing this song on the telly ( BBC Alba) one night and was
mesmerised. I had a go at arranging it in simple 3-part harmony for a smaller group of female voices in the choir. The
song describes several points on the island of North Uist, which could be used as landmarks by sailors passing along the
west coast.
4. Inis Oirr - instrumental (Ireland) music - Tommy Walsh
This beautiful air is a favourite among traditional musicians across Ireland and beyond. We enjoyed arranging it for
concertina, mandola, mandolin, fiddle and whistles.

5. Plovi Barko (Croatia) trad. folk song

Plovi barko dubokoje more x2
Refrain: Anko, ancice Dusho isrce more

Plovi barka i u barci Anka x2

Tvoye oko k’o more duboko x2

Translation:Sail oh boat the sea is deep,/Anka, my heart and soul/In the boat is Anka!/Your eyes are as deep as the sea

In May 2011 I was travelling down through France with my friend Carol on our way to join my husband and son at the
end of their Camino de Santiago walk and we were stopping over in St Jean Pied de Port in the Pyrenees. I found myself
singing this song with a young Croatian guy who was just starting off on the Camino as we were all drifting back to our
hotels and hostels that night – music really does connect people. Thanks to Kate Fletcher for teaching us this beautiful
song!

6. Po Kare Kare Ana (New Zealand) Maori song credited to Paraire Henare Tomoana
Po Kare Kare ana
Nga wai o Rotorua
Whiti atu koe hine
marino ana e

E Hine E, Hoki Mai ra

Ka Mate A-U-I, Te-a-Ro-Ha E!

Oh hurry hurry home love

Hurry back to Rotorua
To the mountains and this valley
Oh hurry home to me.

I know, I know, you had to go

Please hurry back home love
I miss you so.

In my mind I hear you singing

And the echoes fill the valley
Cross the lake of troubled waters
To the mountains and the sky.
I know, I know you had to go
Please hurry back home love
I miss you so.

Po Kare Kare ana

Nga wai o Rotorua
Whiti atu koe hine
marino ana e
E Hine E, Hoki Mai ra
Ka Mate A-U-I, Te-a-Ro-Ha E!

This Maori love song came out of the north of Auckland, New Zealand, at the start of World War 1. I have always loved
this song and it has become a favourite of the Voices.

7. Go lassie, go (Scotland/Ireland) – a variant by Francis McPeake, Belfast, of a traditional song The Braes of
Balquhidder by Robert Tannahill

Oh the summer time is coming

And the trees are sweetly blooming

And the wild mountain thyme

Grows around the purple heather
 Chorus:
Will ye go lassie, go
And we’ll all go together
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the purple heather
Will ye go lassie, go

I will build my love a bower

Near yon pure crystal fountain
And on it I will pile
All the flowers of the mountain

If my true love s/he won’t go

I will surely find another
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the purple heather

This song with its great all-join-in chorus is a favourite of folk singers the world over and in Ireland it has come to us
through the McPeake family of Belfast, a folk dynasty. In keeping with the Scottish/Irish mix we have both the uilleann
and Scottish lowland pipes on this track.

8. L’hiver en France (Winter in France) instrumental (France): Blanche comme la neige/The Pernod Waltz
trad./Johnny Cunningham & Micheal O’ Domhaill

Although separated in time and place I thought these 2 lovely tunes worked well together. The first tune ‘Blanche
comme la neige’ (‘White like the snow’) is a traditional French song I first heard performed by the wonderful McGarrigle
Sisters on a CD called ‘Cool Christmas’. The second tune I got from the Sharon Shannon CD ‘Diamond Mountain
Sessions’.

9. Ma Normandie (France) words & music - Frédéric Bérat

Quand tout renaît à l'espérance,
Et que l'hiver fuit loin de nous,
Sous le beau ciel de notre France,
Quand le soleil revient plus doux,
Quand la nature est reverdie,
Quand l'hirondelle est de retour,
J'aime à revoir ma Normandie !
C'est le pays qui m'a donné le jour.

J'ai vu les champs de l'Helvétie,

Et ses chalets et ses glaciers ;
J'ai vu le ciel de l'Italie,
Et Venise et ses gondoliers.
En saluant chaque patrie,
Je me disais : aucun séjour
N'est plus beau que ma Normandie !
C'est le pays qui m'a donné le jour.

Il est un âge dans la vie,

Où chaque rêve doit finir,
Un âge où l'âme recueillie
A besoin de se souvenir.
Lorsque ma muse refroidie
Aura fini ses chants d'amour,
J'irai revoir ma Normandie !
C'est le pays qui m'a donné le jour.

This song takes me back to my primary school days in the 60’s when we learned it from the marvellous weekly BBC
radio programme for schools ‘Singing together’. I held the tune in my head for over 40 years before I finally tracked it
down on the web! The songwriter mentions different places he has visited none of which can compare with Normandy
where he was born.
10. Wayfarin’ Stranger (USA) trad. spiritual
I am a poor wayfarin’ stranger
Travelling through this world alone
There is no sickness, toil or danger
In that fair land to which I go

I'm going home to see my mother

I'm going home no more to roam
I am just going over Jordan
I am just going over home

I know dark clouds will hover on me,

I know my pathway is rough and steep
Beauteous fields lie right before me
Where weary eyes no more will weep

I'm going home to see my father

I'm going home no more to roam
I am just going over Jordan
I am just going over home

I'll soon be free from every trial

This form will rest beneath the sun
I'll drop the cross of self-denial
Come back home with God

I'm going home to see my saviour

I'm going home no more to roam
I am just going over Jordan
I am just going over home

This wonderful old American spiritual is simple, soulful and a joy to sing. The fiddle weaving around the melody is
lovely.

11. Bronagh’s Bell (Ireland) words & music - Laura Plummer

Down in Rostrevor town
at the foot of the mountain-o
Shipwrecked sailors heard a bell
It was the bell of Bronagh-O

Ring the bell, ring the bell,

ring the bell for Bronagh-O
Ring the bell through the seven hills
The hills of Kilbroney-O

Ring, ring the bell x 2

I wrote this simple round for the Amnesty BIGsing at the 2011 Fiddlers’ Green Festival in Rostrevor, Co Down. St.
Bronagh set up a religious settlement in the 6th century near Rostrevor where the ruins of an ancient church called after
her are in the old graveyard of Kilbroney. Kilbroney is an anglicization of ‘Cill Bronaigh’ or ‘Bronagh's Church’. The story
goes that on stormy nights, when local seafarers might be at risk on Carlingford Lough or the open Irish sea, a bell was
heard ringing. No source could be found, though the sound came from the old graveyard. On the ‘night of the big storm’
in 1839 hundreds of trees the length and breadth of Ireland were swept away. In Rostrevor, a tree fell and split apart.
Within the wood of the branches was the bell. The story was that the bell had belonged to St Bronagh. Hung between
the branches of a tree it was used to summon the sisters to prayer. As years went by the convent vanished. The tree
remained, the bell kept secret within its branches until the growth had hidden it completely. The bell is now stored
safely behind bars in the Catholic church in Rostrevor.
12. Voro Ivanicci (Estonian?) country unknown … if you know, please tell us!
Voro voro Ivanicki
Voro voro Ivanic
Jestofar, jestofar, voro Ivanici
Jestofar, jestofar, voro Ivanic
Marie, Maria, Marie, Maria
Marie, Marusch kaia
 Another song we learned from Kate Fletcher. The song-sheet claimed it was a Russian Flirtation Song but it may actually
be Estonian or some other eastern European language? Anyway, we just enjoy singing it …

13. Les Poules Huppées - instrumental (France) music by Gilles Chabenat

I heard this tune (The crested hens) on a CD by the fabulous Irish-American group Solas a few years ago and just fell in
love with it. I love the sound of the mandola on our version and the way the whistle harmony takes off towards the end
…

14. Celtic Blessing (Ireland) trad. Irish blessing, music Laura Plummer
Deep peace
Of the running wave to you
Deep peace
Of the flowing air to you
Deep peace
Of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace
Of the shining stars to you

Deep peace
Of the gentle night to you
Moon and stars
Pour their healing light on you
Deep peace
Of the gentle night to you
Deep peace
Of the shining stars (come) to you

I can’t remember exactly where or when I first discovered this old blessing but I find it deeply moving and hypnotic. It
was strange the way the tune came to me. I had just lifted my copy of the John O’Donohue book ‘Benedictus – a book of
blessings’ to dip into it and the melody came into my head out of thin air – something that has never happened before
(and probably won’t again!) I sat down at the laptop and just wrote it straight into ‘Finale’ (music software programme)
- in case in might disappear just as quickly as it came …
15. Belfast Medley (Ireland) My Aunt Jane/Down by the Laganside/I’ll tell my ma trad./Tommy Sands/trad.
My aunt Jane (old Belfast street rhyme)
My aunt Jane she called me in
She gave me tea out of her wee tin
Half a bap, sugar on the top
3 black balls out of her wee shop
Half a bap, sugar on the top
3 black balls out of her wee shop

Down by the Lagan Side (Tommy Sands)

I thought she was a vision
that stopped me with her smile
Down by the river
we walked along in style
She says you’re welcome back again
and won’t you stay awhile
Down by the Lagan side

Refrain:
And when we dance, we’ll dance together
And when we cry, we’ll hold each other
And when we love, we’ll love forever
Down by the Lagan side

I said who owns that music

that’s so full of joy and pain
That the pipers and the harpers
and the Lambeg drummers play
She aid who owns the teardrops
falling in the rain
Down by the Lagan side
And do you not remember
when we once walked side by side
And the bells of Belfast city
sang harmony and pride
The past it has been taken
but the future’s yours and mine
Down by the Lagan side

I’ll tell me ma (trad. Belfast song)

Chorus:
I’ll tell me ma when I go home,
The boys won't leave the girls alone,
They pulled my hair
And they stole my comb,
But that's all right 'till I go home.
She is handsome, she is pretty
She is the belle of Belfast city,
She is courting, one, two, three
Please won't you tell me who is she?

Albert Mooney says he loves her,

All the boys are fighting for her,
Knocking on the door
And ringing the bell
Sayin’ ‘Oh my true love, are you well?’
Out she comes, as white as snow,
Rings on her fingers, bells on her toes,
Oul’ Jenny Murray she says she'll die
If she doesn't get the fella
with the roving eye

We had good fun with this trio of songs – the first and third are great old Belfast street songs familiar to many of us
from our childhood days. The middle song is by the legendary Tommy Sands from Co Down and in the dark days of the
troubles he managed to get local N Ireland politicians to sing it with him – no mean feat. It is full of hope with one of
the most uplifting choruses you’ll ever sing and is one of our all-time favourite songs. We are absolutely over the moon
to have Tommy singing it with us!

all choral arrangements except nos. 5 & 12 - Laura Plummer