The hornpipe “An Comhra Donn” is light-hearted. I learned from a Belfast concertina player in the mid-1980s and brought to the KC sessions back in 2007. The name is pronounced “Ahn Cowrah Dune” and translates from Irish to English as “The Brown Box” – an Irish euphemism for a coffin. Comhra (coffin) is not to be confused with Comhrá (chat), for good reason. There are few different versions of this tune. It shows up as tune #210 in Breandán Breathnach’s Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1, in Fintan Vallely’s The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (pg. 190), in Phil Rubenzer’s Midwestern Irish Session Tunes, Millennium Edition (pg. 197), and an interesting version shows up as “Spellan’s Fiddle” (No. 1616) in O’Neill’s 1850 — that is, O’Neill’s Music of Ireland (1903).
An Comhra Donn (D)
The hornpipe “An Comhra Donn” is light-hearted. I learned from a Belfast concertina player in the mid-1980s and brought to the KC sessions back in 2007. The name is pronounced “Ahn Cowrah Dune” and translates from Irish to English as “The Brown Box” – an Irish euphemism for a coffin. Comhra (coffin) is not to be confused with Comhrá (chat), for good reason. There are few different versions of this tune. It shows up as tune #210 in Breandán Breathnach’s Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1, in Fintan Vallely’s The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (pg. 190), in Phil Rubenzer’s Midwestern Irish Session Tunes, Millennium Edition (pg. 197), and an interesting version shows up as “Spellan’s Fiddle” (No. 1616) in O’Neill’s 1850 — that is, O’Neill’s Music of Ireland (1903).
For the ABC click An Comhra Donn
An Comhran Donn, slow tempo
An Comhran Donn, med tempo
An Comhran Donn, the dots
An Comhra Donn, Hornpipe in D
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