What is the Book of Song?
The Book of Song has become three books created for the friends (and bards) of Tuatha de Bhriain of the Bog and for the Irish folk band Bardic Circle from the County Suffolk.
The intent of the book is to serve as a reference for the bards of Bardic Circle and friends and to replace the many loose sheets in three ring binders we ended up lugging around to sessions and events. Herein you may find English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh folk tunes alongside folky re-workings of classic rock and metal tunes, sheet music for some less common songs (as well as many originals), or at the least guitar chords.
There have been two released volumes to date, each with their own unique set of tunes reflecting the music we were playing at the time. To more easily get everyone "on the same page" each book has been formatted for on-demand printing. Below you can click on the image of the book to be taken to the lulu.com page where you can purchase a printed copy of your own.
The goal of this website is to provide all the same material online. Hopefully this will also include the sheet music someday.
Sheet music is created on the fly from abc notation using the awesome abcjs library by Paul Rosen and Gregory Dyke. Working on the sheet music was made so much easier by Clive William's ABC editor and player and Jens Wollschläger's ABC-Transposer. These tools made it easy to take existing abc notation and modify it to match what we play and I encourage you to copy the abc code available below the player and try it out yourself!
Book of Song Vol. I
v.090921The Book of Song Vol. I is a lyrics and music reference for the bards of Bardic Circle. The 2009 edition is 8.5″ x 11″ paperback 207 pages. This is the version with the classic tunes from the Mainlia era, the early Comyns years, and Momus’ hits. This volume is expected to be re-released in a 2nd edition next year with corrections and hopefully more music notation.
While certainly usable, this version contains many errors.
Book of Song Vol. II 2nd Edition
v.151011The Book of Song, Vol I (2009) and Vol II (2012) each contain an entirely different set of songs. This all new Book of Song Vol II, 2nd edition (2015) is 8.5" x 11" spiral bound 197 pages and includes all of the songs originally published in Vol II, 1st edition (2012) but includes corrections and notations made during practices and performances since that time and has been expanded to include 48 new tunes learned and performed since then.
Sheet music has been added to many of the less common tunes (and originals), and there are some handy reference sheets for chords in DADGAD and on mandolin. Many new illustrations add color. While Vol I contains primarily Irish folk tunes, this work is slightly more eclectic. While you'll certainly find more Irish, Scottish, and Welsh folk tunes, there are some classic rock songs and folky re-workings of metal tunes that Bardic Circle regularly performs, as well.
Book of Song Vol. III
Coming Soon!