''Sí Beag, Sí Mór'', "Small Fairy Mound, Big Fairy Mound", is an

Irish folk Irish traditional music (also known as Irish trad, Irish folk music, and other variants) is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland. In ''A History of Irish Music'' (1905), W. H. Grattan Flood wrote that, in Gaelic Ireland, there we ...

tune. The title uses the word ' Sí', the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

for 'fairy mound'. Dictionary of the Irish Language:
síd, síth
'

Origins

The tune is usually attributed to blind harpist and singer

Turlough O'Carolan Turlough O'Carolan ( ga, Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin ; 167025 March 1738) was a blind Celtic harper, composer and singer in Ireland whose great fame is due to his gift for melodic composition. Although not a composer in the classical sense, ...

(16701738) as his first song, written to the tune of "The Bonnie Cuckoo" (

Roud The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

24351). One author describes it as a "beautiful old Irish air, usually played simply and leisurely, and occasionally played as a waltz". Sí Mór (Sheemore) and Sí Beag (Sheebeg) are the names given to two small hills, situated close to each other in south

County Leitrim County Leitrim ( ; gle, Contae Liatroma) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the ...

, said to be ancient burial sites, and to a site in Carolan's birth county of Meath.

Recordings

In modern times the tune has been recorded by many artists, first by

Planxty Planxty were an Irish folk music band formed in January 1972, consisting initially of Christy Moore (vocals, acoustic guitar, bodhrán), Andy Irvine (vocals, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, hurdy-gurdy, harmonica), Dónal Lunny (bouzouki, guitars ...

on their 1973 debut album ''

'', and then by

The Chieftains The Chieftains are a traditional Irish folk band formed in Dublin in 1962, by Paddy Moloney, Seán Potts and Michael Tubridy. Their sound, which is almost entirely instrumental and largely built around uilleann pipes, has become synonymous wi ...

on their 1975 album '' The Chieftains 5'', as part of "The Humours of Carolan" suite. It has been performed live on numerous occasions by Fairport Convention, who also recorded it for the B-side of their 1987 single release of "

Meet on the Ledge "Meet on the Ledge" is a song written by British singer-songwriter Richard Thompson and recorded by British folk rock band Fairport Convention in 1968 on Island Records. It was their second single. Background The song was taken from the albu ...

". It is commonly played on the fiddle – Fairport Convention's fiddler

Dave Swarbrick David Cyril Eric Swarbrick (5 April 1941 – 3 June 2016) was an English folk musician and singer-songwriter. His style has been copied or developed by almost every British and many world folk violin players who have followed him. He was ...

showcased the tune in his touring partnership with

Simon Nicol Simon John Breckenridge Nicol (born 13 October 1950) is an English guitarist, singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He was a founding member of British folk rock group Fairport Convention and is the only founding member still in the ...

. – and is also a favourite of various

fingerstyle guitar Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with a single plect ...

ists, including Tony McManus, Joseph Chester and

Pierre Bensusan Pierre Bensusan (born 30 October 1957) is a French-Algerian acoustic guitarist. As Sephardic Jews, his family came from Spain, Spanish Morocco, and French Algeria. His music has been characterized as Celtic, folk, world music, New-age, and ch ...

. The Galician folk band

Milladoiro Milladoiro is a music band from Galicia. Often compared to the Chieftains, it is among the world's top Celtic music groups. Biography In 1978, Rodrigo Romaní and Antón Seoane released an album named "Milladoiro", on which they were joined b ...

recorded a version of this song in their 1980 debut album A Galicia de Maeloc.

References

External links

"Sí Beag, Sí Mór" scores on TheSession.org
Retrieved 31 January 2016.
List of "Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór" recordings on amazon.co.uk
Retrieved 2 November 2016.
"Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór" on irishtune.info
Retrieved 2 November 2016. Irish folk songs Year of song unknown {{song-stub