Luminate@Home: ‘S ann an Ìle: introducing a Gaelic port à beul – song lyrics, sheet music and piano track

We have launched an online programme of creative activities called Luminate@Home.

There are lots of older people at home or in care homes right now who are isolated because of the coronavirus outbreak. We hope you will enjoy trying the activities in the films at this difficult time, and also afterwards when the outbreak is over.

The activities are designed to be done at home or in a care home. They are led by professional artists, and feature different artforms including crafts, poetry, music and dance.

You will find all the short films on Luminate’s website, Luminate’s facebook page and on our YouTube and Vimeo channels. Once we have uploaded them, we will leave them online for you to enjoy when it is convenient.

On Friday 29th May, we released a film of Gaelic singer Joy Dunlop taking you through her arrangement of the traditional Gaelic song, ‘S ann an Ìle. You can watch the film on the Films page of this website. This port à beul is accessible for both Gaelic and non-Gaelic speakers, so you can enjoy learning it together with your household or online with family and friends. 

As an accompaniment to this film, we’ve provided the song lyrics with their English and phonetic translations, along with sheet music for the melody and harmony parts which you can download by clicking on the download button at the top of this page. You can also read the lyrics and translations below. There is a piano accompaniment track arranged and recorded by Andrew Dunlop which you can listen to and sing along with once you’ve learned the song. This is available below and on our Vimeo or YouTube channels.

Luminate@Home is supported by Baillie Gifford and presented in partnership with Scottish Care. The films are co-produced by Graeme Roger.

‘S ann an Ìle: introducing a Gaelic port à beul

Traditional, Arrangement by Joy Dunlop www.joydunlop.com

This strathspey is an example of Scottish Gaelic ‘puirt à beul’ or mouth music. In puirt à beul, the rhythm and sound of the song often have more importance than the depth, or even sense of, the lyrics. These songs were sung for dancing and hopefully, this will get your toes tapping!