The ShadowMusic Web Community

My nomination for the oldest tune recorded by The Shads is the 1980 single Mozart Forte (40?) which is a "cover" of the first movement of Mozart's Symphony no 40 in G minor. According to Wikipedia, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed this Symphony on 25 July 1788, some 87 years before Tchaikovsky's Saturday Nite at the Duckpond.

.....and the same composer's Clarinet Concerto in A written in 1791 and recorded by the Shads as 'Hello Mr W.A.M.' on the Change of Address album runs it a close second!

Cheers.

Tony

Not as old as the Mozart compositions, but also beating Swan Lake's 1875, 'Un Sospero (A sigh)' from 'Shadow Music' was composed in 1848. I've just been viewing it being played solo on Grand Piano as Liszt intended. Fantastic stuff, makes the Shads' take on it sound a bit mediocre, sorry to say. Contrastingly I much prefer The Cougars' Duckpond to the ballet version of Swan Lake.

It is possible, just possible, that the oldest melody recorded by the Shads might be ''Londonderry Air''-aka ''Danny Boy'' The melody first came to national prominence after being collected by Miss Jane Ross, who overheard a young peasant girl singing it at Limavady market in 1855. The girl recalled having learned it as a child sometime during the 1840s. However, it has been established that the 'air' certainly had older origins. Historical research has found that the traditional name for the melody was ''The Young Man's Dream''-first noted as being played by the legendary Denis Hempson at the Belfast Harp Festival in 1792. What cannot be established with 100% certainty is exactly when Hempson first heard the old air for the first time. It could, of course, have been before 1788. Given that ''Streets Of Laredo'' is based on an old tune dating bavk to 1681, then ''Londonderry Air'' could well be older than the Mozart. Curiously, the widely - travelled Hempson lived near Limavady itself -suggesting that the old folk tune originated in the locality. The ''Danny Boy'' lyrics were not written until 1910.

Bests......Rob