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Si Begh Si Mohr

[Turlough O’Carolan]

Steeleye Span played Turlough O’Carolan’s tune Si Begh Si Mohr on their 2004 CD They Called Her Babylon, live at the Rose Theatre Tewkesbury on 20 April 2004 on their video The 35^th Anniversary World Tour 2004, and live at the Southampton Civic Hall on 15 May 2004 on The Official Bootleg. Peter Knight commented in the first CD’s sleeve notes:

This beautiful tune was composed by the blind Irish harpist, poet and composer O’Carolan. His compositions for the harp borrowed a great deal from the Irish tradition, but also included elements from continental classic music—he was said to be influenced by Vivaldi and Corelli.

I didn’t want to get to precious with the recording of this tune so we recorded it as a band in one take and with no overdubs.