FÉACHAIN GLÉIS
TUNING TEST
Edward Bunting records that this musical fragment was notated in 1792 from
Donnchadh ó hAmhsaigh (Denis O' Hampsey). One of his first notations of it has
'First part only of a Vfeaaghan Geleash' written above it. The use of the indefinite
here shows that he understood the title as a genre of music. The proper spelling of
the Irish words would be Féachain(t) Gléis and they mean a 'test of tuning' or in
Bunting's more periphrastic translation (which may have come from Hampsey), a 'try
if it be in tune'. The Scottish equivalent of the term Féachain Gléis is Deuchainn
Ghleusda.
The piece was probably used as a prelude to Cumha Bharúin Loch Mór (Scott's
Lamentation) by Hampsey but it may originally have been a separate lament in its
own right.
Féachain Gléis