Lament for the seafarer

In my book On Horse and Harp I write about the three noble strains of music, the Goltrai, the strain that would cause the weeping. The Geantrai, the joyful strain, causing people to laugh and be merry, and the Suantrai, the strain for soothing and sleeping.

The excerpt below is from a day when Orla, my protagonist, was being taught a piece of music in the noble strain of Goltrai. The name of the lament came easily to me at the time of writing, and the tune has now decided it would like to become real. So, placing myself in one of the chambers of the tunnels (souterrains) that run under the 17th century Irish town Cill-Ala (Killala), if you scroll down you can listen to the tune that visited me.

“Today, Maura told me, was the day we would begin work on the Goltrai, the strain of sorrow.

Before Maura played the tune, she told me the story of it. She said that it was of great worth to know the story of the music. To understand the heart of the tune helped with the learning of it, and over time, the recalling of it.

The story was of a woman whose love had drowned at sea.

I did not ask, yet, wondered if this was a tune made by Maura herself, for the tale was so closely likened to her loss of Liam. She did not call the tune Lament for Liam, though it would not have stunned me if it were so called. She called it Lament for the Seafarer.

When finished with the telling, Maura played.

I sat, eyes closed, listening, thinking on the story, breathing in the mood of the lament.

She played it through many times, and with each repeat my sorrow grew. I cannot say if it was the music itself that sorrowed me, the story, or my heart breaking for this woman I’d come to hold dear.” pp 157/58