Traditional Irish, arr. Celil Refik Kaya : Danny Boy: DOz

Traditional Irish, arr. Celil Refik Kaya

Les Productions D’Oz: 4 pages

With a tuning of 1st string to D, 2nd string to A , and 6th string to D, Celil Refik Kaya, has managed to put quite a new slant on this much loved folk melody. As one of my favourite top 3 folk melodies of all time, I was delighted to see this in my review batch! Of course this tuning does make for very hard reading, until one gets used to it, but the key of D Major is helped by the top and bottom strings both being a D.

The melody goes through three times in this piece, each time developing more as it progresses, with the first time mainly in two voices. The second time other voices develop around the theme, and there are more chords including a couple that would have been impossible in normal tuning.

Finally the last time round the melody begins in the bass with a simpler top part until half way through the melody returns to the treble for a gentle coda, befitting the beauty of the melody.

This is a slightly off – kilter arrangement, but one that definitely works and one which players will love getting their fingers around, once they get used to the tuning.

Chris Dumigan