Ailein duinn
Ailein duinn ("Dark-haired Alan") is a traditional Scottish song for solo female voice, a lament that was written in Gàidhlig for Ailean Moireasdan ("Alan Morrison") by his fiancée, Annag Chaimbeul ("Annie Campbell"). Ailean Moireasdan was a sea captain from the isle of Lewis. In the spring of 1788 he left Stornoway to go to Scalpay, Harris, where he was to marry Annag Chaimbeul ("Annie Campbell"). Unfortunately, they sailed into a storm and all the crew sank with the vessel, except Annag. The broken-hearted Annag wasted away through grief and composed this lament for her lost love. Annag lost her will to live and died a few months afterwards. Her body was washed ashore near where her fiancé's was found.
Lyrics
There are many versions of the lyrics and of the melody; the following version was used in the film Rob Roy (the untranslated words are vocables):
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Popular culture
The song was sampled, somewhere around 2000, as a solo voice in a music library called "Vocal Planet" by Spectrasonics, making the a cappella version of the original song very accessible to lot of composers, this would be one of the reasons for which there are so many appearances in the media. The following is a list of songs, some of them using the sample of that music library, while others offer their own new interpretation:
Film
| Movie | Year | Name | Orchestrator | Vocal singing | Album | Track number | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rob Roy | 1995 | "Ailein Duinn" | Carter Burwell | Karen Matheson | Rob Roy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack From The Film |
7 | 2:35 |
| N/A | N/A | "Ailein Duinn"[1] | David Beard | Spectrasonics sample | N/A | N/A | 3:33 |
Modern music
| Name | Year | Length | Artist | Genre/Style | Spectrasonics sample |
External link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Ailein Duinn" [2] | 1993 | 5:17 | Mac-talla | Traditional | No | shazam |
| "Ailein Duinn" | 1995 | 3:35 | Capercaillie | World | No | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn" | 1998 | 3:42 | Celtic Spirit | World | No | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn (Theme From Rob Roy)"[3] | 2000 | 4:33 | Méav | World | No | youtube |
| "A Tear in the Open"[4] | 2002 | 9:23 | DJ Tiesto | Trance | Yes | youtube |
| "Ishka" | 2002 | 5:23 | Angel Tears (duo) | Goa chillout | Yes | youtube |
| "Cura Me" | 2002 | 8:31 | Signum | Trance | Yes | youtube |
| "Dust" | 2002 | 9:33 | Pole Folder & CP | Progressive House | Yes | youtube |
| "Splitting An Atom" | 2003 | 7:22 | Ott | Dub | Yes | youtube |
| "A Tear in the Open (Leama & Moor remix)" | 2005 | 9:55 | DJ Tiesto | Trance | Yes | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn" | 2005 | 1:39 | Trobar de Morte | Neofolk | No | youtube |
| "Cry No More" | 2005 | 5:53 | Ryan Farish | New Age | Yes | youtube |
| "Pacific Wind" | 2005 | 5:26 | Ryan Farish | New Age | Yes | youtube |
| "World Inside My Heart" | 2006 | 5:20 | Deep Spirit of Native Americans | New age, World | Yes | youtube |
| "Hall Of Dreams" | 2006 | 5:47 | En Voice | Ambient enigmatic | Yes | youtube |
| "Hymn to The Celts"[5] | 2006 | 5:37 | Tim Aur | Celtic | Yes | youtube |
| "Uninvited" | 2007 | 5:21 | Freemasons | House | Yes | youtube |
| "Pacific" | 2007 | 5:34 | Freemasons | House | Yes | youtube |
| "Friendship to Last" | 2007 | 3:13 | Two Steps From Hell | World/Trailer | No | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn"[6] | 2007 | 2:36 | Nathalie Kuijpers | Acapella | No | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn" | 2007 | 5:06 | Crépuscule | Traditional Folk | No | amazon |
| "Anna" | 2008 | 6:10 | Spectrum Vision | Psybient | Yes | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn"[7] | 2010 | 4:28 | Wine and Alchemy | World | No | youtube |
| "Avalon" | 2010 | 8:00 | Protoculture | Psy | Yes | youtube |
| "Ailein Duinn" | 2011 | N/A | Quadriga Consort | Early Music, World | No | artistdirect |
| "Ailein Duinn" | 2012 | 9:36 | Niteworks | Electronic, Celtic fusion | N/A | N/A |
| "Ailein Duinn" | 2016 | 3:57 | Siobhan Owen | Celtic | No | youtube |
| "Annie Campbell's Lament" | 2016 | 3:11 | Estrange Waters | World | No | bandcamp |
Listen to the previous table as a playlist on youtube
Video games
| Video Game | Year | Composer | Appearance | Spectrasonics sample |
External link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos | 2002 | Tracy W. Bush | Starts when the player loses as a Night Elf | Yes | youtube |
| CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (video game) | 2003 | N/A | Very briefly used in one of the songs | N/A | N/A |
| Chaos Legion | 2003 | Hideyuki Fukasawa | BGM for "Kuzca the Grand Cave" entitled "I can hear the shriek" | N/A | youtube |
| Rome: Total Realism | 2005 | Vlad Kuryluk | Title Credits | Yes | youtube |
| Spartan: Total Warrior | 2005 | Jeff van Dyck | After the final mission in Athens, as the heroes mourn the slain Pollux |
N/A | youtube |
| World of Warcraft | 2004 | N/A | First cinematic, before the game was released | Yes | youtube |
| Tomb Raider: Legend | 2006 | Troels Folmann | Main theme includes the song with an Ave Maria chorus |
Yes | youtube |
| Tomb Raider: Legend | 2006 | Troels Folmann | In Nepal, original pitched down voice together with a male voice |
Yes | youtube |
| Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms | 2007 | Jeff van Dyck | In its Britannia campaign as part of a composition entitled Dream of Albion |
Yes | youtube |