Category: Sheet Music

This original composition was inspired by Mailí Bhán (Fair Molly), one of the first tunes taught to students of the ancient wire-strung harp; hence, this tune became Molly’s “Return.” You’ll hear the brief original tune at the beginning, which I learned from wire-strung expert Ann Heymann’s first tutor, Secrets of the Gaelic Harp .

Filmed at my home studio and posted to YouTube in February 2024.

PS: Want to play it yourself? You can find the sheet music (PDF) for this composition in my webstore: https://cindyshelhart.com/product/mollys-return-pdf/

I learned this jig/slip jig set from Altan’s CD The Red Crow. Con Cassidy’s is an Irish tune, while The Dusty Millar is common to both Scottish and Irish traditions, and is related to a Robert Burns song by the same name.

Recorded in April 2021 at St. John’s United Church, Chesterton IN, for the 2021 Gebhard Woods Dulcimer and Traditional Music Festival.

Learn more at http://www.gebharddulcimer.org/.

I think of these tunes as “The Attributed Set.” Very little is known about The Clergy’s Lamentation, which is popularly attributed to Turlough O’Carolan. Spagnoletta is likewise attributed to Michael Praetorius, publisher of the dance tune collection Terpsichore (1601), and composer of the Christmas carol Es ist ein Ros’ (Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming). All origins and arguments aside, they make a great set.

Recorded in April 2021 at St. John’s United Church, Chesterton IN, for the 2021 Gebhard Woods Dulcimer and Traditional Music Festival.

Learn more at http://www.gebharddulcimer.org/.

This 1993 original, the title track of my Limberlost Angel CD, was inspired by the 1904 novel Freckles by Indiana author/naturalist Gene Stratton Porter. In the story, Freckles, an Irish orphan from Chicago, finds work guarding valuable timber in the Limberlost forests and swamps of northeast Indiana. Despite many challenges, he meets and wins the love of his life, known to readers only as “the Swamp Angel”; I gave her the new nickname “Limberlost Angel” after composing this air.

Recorded in April 2021 at St. John’s United Church, Chesterton IN, for the 2021 Gebhard Woods Dulcimer and Traditional Music Festival.

Learn more at http://www.gebharddulcimer.org/.

The name of the opening 2/4 march is a bit of a mystery; no one is quite sure where “Redcastle” is.

A. A. Cameron of Dochanassie, Invernesshire (1877-1951) was a world champion Highland heavyweight athlete.

Recorded in April 2021 at St. John’s United Church, Chesterton IN, for the 2021 Gebhard Woods Dulcimer and Traditional Music Festival.

Learn more at http://www.gebharddulcimer.org/.