Free Irish Sheet Music
White Orange and Green

Beginning singers really enjoy learning White, Orange, and Green. It reminds me of another Irish song, Wearing of the Green, in which "they" [the English] have "gone and passed a law against the wearing of the green." Just as the teller of that story says that he'll keep on wearing the patriotic color until the English can stop the shamrocks from growing green, so in this song the spirited young girl declares she won't give up her banner of white, orange and green until blood has been spilt! Whenever I have a student sing this Irish song at a recital, there's always someone in the audience whose eyes fill with tears. (It used to be me, but I've gotten tougher after playing this song some hundreds of times for lessons and performances over the years!)

For guitar players, the key of D is perfect. This song is usually how I introduce the Bm chord to them, and we play each verse with a different style of accompaniment; combination bass plus strum, and different styles of fingerpicking.

With piano students, this song presents a chord-playing challenge also. In addition to the arrangement I have written here, I have kids try to give each verse have a different feeling by using a variety of chord patterns.



Download free vocal sheet music White Orange and Green in Key of F

Download folk sheet music in Key of Eb

Download free printout sheet music in Key of D

The actual tune of free Irish sheet music is easy, but with good opportunities to train your voice students how to sing better. Just working on the phrasing in this song will teach them a lot about breathing for singing.

Beginning singers will want to take breaths right in the middle of sentence clauses. They're just used to it! I like to stop, occasionally, and stare at them without a word after they have taken an inappropriate breath, and they know at once what they have done.

The commas come frequently enough in White, Orange and Green that controlling breathing is really quite easy IF THEY THINK ABOUT IT.

Because the range is small -- only a 9th -- young singers will feel comfortable with the notes... except for one phrase. In the third line, the notes leap up a 6th, and it somehow feels like an extremely high note (by comparison). Some kids will squeak or pinch it out, imagining unreachable heights. So we may practice that spot with sliding notes (a "siren") to show them that it is easily attainable. We do the leap on vowels, with humming, with an open back of the throat... It's almost more psychological than physical. I suggest to them that on the words "her AGE was sixteen" they use the "-r" on the end of "her" to help pop them up onto that high note on the word "age." If they can roll the "r" enough to sound almost like a "d", even better.

One fun thing I ask students to try with this song (IF THEY WANT) is to put on a fake Irish accent. This may seem corny to some (and won't fool any Irish folks, certainly!) but it helps singers step outside their safety zone and imagine themselves into the story. This is good for voice students, who need to get used to laying their egos out in front of everybody. (As I tell them from time to time, "You are a singer now, so you have to be willing to look silly. It takes great courage!")

I said you wouldn't find this free Irish sheet music White, Orange, and Green anywhere else. Well, you won't find it precisely like THIS arrangement, and with exactly these words. That's because my daughter, Elizabeth, substituted the words "black steed" for the original syllables, "machine." Yes, that's right -- the original words talk about the soldier getting off and on his MACHINE. We'd rather sing about a horse; even better, a black steed.

This is surely one of the reasons folk song variations abound! Since the original composer is nowhere to be found with this public domain music, you get to decide what you want to say and sing. Another version of this old song is titled "The Gay Galtee Mountains," with mostly similar words (and an extra verse) but a different tune.

I hope you love this free Irish sheet music as much as we do!

Comments

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