Dawning of the Day
Above are videos to play along with, and below is the score for the duet arrangement of this beautiful and well-known Irish air. The Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh used the melody to create the song Raglan Road, which has become quite famous (but we are keeping it instrumental here).
Notes on Playing the Tune
What makes this relatively simple tune come alive is dynamics, both between sections and within individual notes. In the music I have marked some of the places to make very noticeable changes in volume, but there are a lot more places you could swell notes so you can listen for that in the recordings above (it would be impractical to write them all in)
Remember, as violinists we have the ability to swell (or die away) within the space of even a very short note. To make a dramatic swell, start soft enough so you have room to grow, using a very slow bow speed at first, then accelerate your arm while adding a bit of weight at the same time. It takes some practice for the motions to create this sighing sound to become natural, so practice away in your scales if you like.
The idea I like to give to students when playing slow and pretty melodies is to sound like a voice, by connecting notes into phrases and to have some swells on notes that call for it. In this piece the first note of each measure is one good place to swell, but some other places can work, too, so that can be partly left up to you. A good exercise is to hum or sing a melody to yourself and try to make the instrument sound like your voice.
