Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye, UCLA Chorale, Donald Neuen

Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye' Arr. by Alice Parker (b. 1925)
UCLA Chorale
March 16, 2013; Schoenberg Hall
Donald Neuen, conductor
Mona Lands, piano

[@tfeledy]

The singing starts at 1:06, after the conductor's explanation of the song.

[@felineempress3939]

Tom Feledy thank you

[@aymanelyakoubi8941]

tnx

[@vickeymaxey6935]

This is a threat to Irish music I swear

[@talonsoftheraven6693]

An absolutley fantastic performance of an Irish classic. As an Irishman born and bred i cried while listening to this . Great conductor and an awesome choir with such a warm energy. Much love and respect from Ireland! To those complaining about the pronunciations . "ye" in ireland is both "yee" and "yea" so for the choir to sing "johnny i hardly knew ye" is totally acceptable to my irish ear. its simular to the Scottish folk song "will ye no come back again" though it uses "ye" in the lyrics it means "you" . either way Celtic peoples tend to make happy allowances for certain errors in syntax based on the fact that its not how you speak these words its rather down to how much you mean them. Athy is indeed pronounced "athai" but again as an irish person hearing the choir sing "athee" i know where they are describing so doesnt really bother me , it doesnt diminish the power of the piece at all!

[@JohnSmith-rk3td]

Undoubtedly the best version I heard of this song

[@Sberuz23]

Vero

[@habit4ming2000]

I love the ghost story and the lulling section of hums as she holds him again, even though she understands it is fleeting.

[@moirbasso7051]

Haven't heard this since High School, when we did it- what remained with me after forty years, was the palpable sense of IDENTIFICATION with the song- we sang this song in an America ('70's) who had a sense of what this war song meant. What is missing in this renditio, is a sense of the collective identification of the choir with the text, or the people, this song portrays. Don does well, but this version is a clear attempt a cultural appropriation - for all cultures have the right to speak to their own racial and religious past, that fails when portrayed by another.

[@strinauna]

The most beautilful thing/song I saw today. You made my day. Thank you for this experience.

[@PFLAT-rt6ck]

This is amazing guys 👍👍👍👍

[@aelondorr]

Beautifully done! Goosebumps all over the place...

[@vitalman8844]

Great! I hardly knew UCLA had this amazing choir band!

[@omnacky]

How do people have such beef with this, it sounds so dank. Especially at 2:40 to 3:00. The only thing about it that isn't perf is how they say "yee"

[@IUFTR]

I love this arrangement of Alice Parker's, as well as most others. This performance seems to be sung with shallow breathing, consequently notes that are meant to be short are too short. Deep breathing can articulate more quickly allowing the notes to last longer. End the note with inhalation. Spontaneous beginnings of notes are also possible with deeply articulated breath. Glad the kids had the joy of singing this touching bit of Irish emotion.

[@nazkadellamorte]

Just beautiful!

[@충용김-h9l]

멋져요 ~~~^^

[@johannharr]

This is Awesome!

[@n.afonso7171]

❤️❤️❤️

[@Sam-ym9sr]

Господи, как же это красиво) великолепная песня и ее исполнение

[@michaelmerrigan8229]

That man He said it all

[@crisameijenda]

increíble!

[@camitful]

Very important choir UCLA Chorale, but to Donald Neuen know how to use those choir!!!!!!!!

[@muulka]

The pronunciation isn't great- Athy is pronounced more like Athai, and ye is more like yah

[@ks0ta]

+OHeaney Aye! That was the first thing i've noticed :/ it bugged me so much for some reason haha

[@USMCshamus]

Glad I wasn’t the only one

[@stevenweven8949]

OHeaney tell em

[@qwasyx3]

You'd think that the rhyme with "eye" would be a clue...

[@orioncosx3893]

goosebumps

[@paulstilgenbauer8015]

i'm french.. no! sory!! i'm "Breizh" et j'aime le celte ! et ça, c'est magnifique !!

[@jeanbombeur239]

attention aux troubles en ireland du nord qui vont revenir si tu dois y aller mon ami

[@evgeniyber2150]

Заслушался, поют красиво. Где среди исполнителей потомки тех про кого сложена песня?

[@luboko87]

Amazing

[@dfen7440]

the ye is pronounced ya not yee

[@22grena]

No its pronounced ye

[@maestiffler7808]

As somebody that performed this in choir, it sounds a lot better as "yee."

[@jennawalsh6120]

D fen it’s pronounced ye

[@williamraymondbagnall5698]

For anyone from Athy as I am it's pronounced A-Toy

[@MikhaelAhava]

It's a song made in 1867 in Britain. Wasn't it?

[@n1ckskelton]

Yes. It's a song from the English music hall. The original tune has been lost and it is now sung to the tune of When Johnny Comes Marching Home, which is the song that George Geoghan (the composer) was parodying when he wrote the song.

[@hexenkessel1104]

It is a 300 year old song... from the war of occupation, by the British in Ceylon, Sri Lanka kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4KvXp-BmpKDoJY late 1700's...

[@n1ckskelton]

@Allo I can't remember where I read that he used his own tune. My apologies for giving his name as George, that was a momentary lapse of memory. The tune that's now used for the song is that of When Johnny comes marching home (which was written by an Irishman, as it happens). As I said, the song is from England. Geoghan's father was born in Dublin, but he himself was from the Manchester area and the fact that the song is set in Ireland probably has more to do with the fact that the 'Irish' song (comic, sentimental or both) was a stock part of music hall and vaudeville entertainment in the 19th century than the fact that the composer was partly of Irish extract. It's true that Geoghan's link to Ireland may have had some influence on his composing this (and Paddy works on the railway, which he called Pat works on the railway), but we mustn't forget that this was written as a comic song (not the anti-war protest song that it's usually presented as these days, and certainly not as an anti-British song) and that Geoghan also wrote a good few patriotic English songs. There's a list of some of his songs in this Mudcat thread: mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=129312,129312. Steeleye Span incorporated a different version of the song into their track Fighting for strangers (kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqTNmJR9hbpghrs). I don't know where they got this version from, but my guess is that it comes from the oral English tradition, since a lot of music hall songs passed into the oral tradition of the various countries in our islands and then underwent changes there.

[@n1ckskelton]

@@hexenkessel1104 I'm afraid the information given in your link is wrong. Check out the Wikipedia page on the song and this link: mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=129312,129312

[@n1ckskelton]

@Allo I suppose it's always possible that the tune of Steeleye Span's version is the original Geoghan tune. It's clearly related to the When Johnny comes marching home tune, so could have been invented to mimic that tune since Geoghan's song's a parody of it. From the Mudcat thread it looks as though there are some people who've dedicated quite a lot of time to trying to research Geoghan's life and compositions. They might know of a source for the original tune. I think the fact that the tune of the original song should have been taken up for the parody isn't very surprising. The original audience for the song was obviously aware that it was a parody of the American song, and it quickly became popular, so people could easily have started singing it with the American tune, especially if Geoghan's tune was similar.

[@roscomeon3965]

Excellent rendition of this beautiful anti war song .

[@mrerasmo1985ms]

guys damn im italian and it's impossible for me get the right pronunciation....

[@crisameijenda]

La pizza il mascalzone !

[@jeanbombeur239]

beautifull same if i prefere benjamin luxon version. northern ireland trouble will be back soon infortunately....i am french so sorry if bad writting.. do you know in the reality americans are irishmens this nis irish who find america territory and not christophe colomb or other people. respect fort ireland and too much suffered of shitttt war

[@cultpixel]

UCLA I hardly knew ya!! you better have to sing " born in the usa as an anti war song !!! what a doleful damsel I did cry

[@WayneCocaine1]

Johny I hardly enjoy ya

[@VeryCoolCatBF]

Would be ten times better with deep voice

[@brene2764]

It's certainly an interesting rendition of the song, yeah Athy pronunciation is butchered, phonetically it's more like "a thai". Johnny did not go to war in Ireland he went to war in Ceylon, which was the name for Sri Lanka back then. It was not uncommon at the time for young Irish men to join the British Army, either for the pay, adventure or due to family expectations especially among the Protestant Gentry Class. Johnny like many other young Irish men at the time who chose to take the Kings Shilling, became cannon fodder for the British Empire

[@balz0nurch1n80]

I'm sorry man, but this song will be more compatible with baritone and bass voices. The person who composed it did a bad job.

[@22grena]

Terrible introduction

[@stevenweven8949]

This be garbage

[@msfsaint]

lots of Asians. Just sayin'