I recently did an Ancestry DNA test to look at my ancestry. It revealed I am 43% Polish/Slavic (makes sense my dad was a 100% Polish), 27% Irish (Connaght), 9% Norwegian, 8% German, 7% British, 4% Swedish, 1% Baltic, and 1% Finnish. I commented to my Aunt Mary (who is incredibly Irish) that apparently the “Swedish Joints” I have are the only thing I got from the Jernstrom side of the family (my maternal grandfather). In spite of the heavy DNA presence of Slavic Europe, that pesky 27% of Irish (my maternal grandmother) is the one that has had the most influence in my life. Probably explains why I started an Irish folk group in high school aptly named “The Irish Tipplers” (comprised of myself, Doug Meuwissen, Steve Snyder, Bob Windorksi, and Jeff King).
On St Patrick Day in St Paul, we didn’t play in the bars downtown. Rather we played in the big bank lobbies, and picked up gigs at the homes of rich bankers and lawyers. We had kind of a standing gig at some lawyer’s home in Forest Lake ($20 a piece, all the booze and food you could drink and eat … we did have a designated driver back then).
Having been a student of Irish traditional music (books, recordings of numerous Irish musical groups (Dervish, Danu, The Chieftans), harpists like Grainne Hambly, Janet Harbison, Mary O’Hara and others), the folk artists (primarily the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem), I have tried to compose music influenced by these sources.
Many of the Irish traditional bands put jigs, reels, ballads into a set. So that one set of 5 or 6 minutes may have a jig segueing into ballad into a reel, giving you the impression of one song. I submit two songs for this St Patrick’s Day. The first is a prayer song I composed in memory of a great man, Bob Murphy, husband of my cousin Greta, who died from Parkinson’s several years ago. The second is a prayer song I composed for my beloved mother-in-law Rose Ahmann (Burg-McNeily) who use to host a big St Patrick’s Day at the family farm. The third song is a prayer song I composed for my daughter-in-law, Olivia Reyes Wagner.
The one thing that this music reveals is the mix of my DNA (above). The songs start with a strong Irish reel or jig then moves into a distinct Northern European/Slavic middle section, then goes back into jig or reel that started it.
I composed this song for Bob Murphy in May/June of 2016. It begins with a stylized jig that came to me while I was driving one day, segues into an Irish musical decorated slower middle section that evolves almost into a Beethovenesque moment, then back into the Irish jig. For some reason I composed it in Sonata-Allegro form (theme 1, theme 2, development in which both themes appear, then back to theme 1). It was not intentional but serendipity.
This second Irish influenced song for Rose Ahmann was composed in February of 2018. It is a jig, again followed by a Beethoven/Mozart influenced middle section, and then back to the jig. I remember my beloved bride, Ruth, telling me she really liked the middle section … must be the German in her ancestry coming out.
This third song I composed for Olivia Wagner (Reyes) in 2016. It has a very Irish kind of melody. Of course, Olivia, who ancestry is 100% Filipino, would on the surface to be the less likely person, in terms of ancestry, to be Irish. However, Irish men, known to behave whilst in Ireland, sexually misbehaved all over the planet once they left the Emerald Isle. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a hint of Irish in her ancestry. While the melody might be Irish, the rest of it is strictly Northern European based on the musical form, variation on a theme.
HAPPY ST PATRICK’S DAY!
