MHF Music Database

Welcome to the Manx Heritage Foundation's Manx Music Database. This database is unique in its construction. It is a bringing together of all known pieces of Manx Music as well as information known about it and performers of it. However, as the amount of music is so vast it would be impossible to make it all available on a website. What this database does, however, is catalogue the music including its exact whereabouts and nature, to act as a first point of contact. Pieces can be chosen and then either found or requested from their original home and many of the hours spent searching for music can be saved by beginning with this central reference point.

As such the database can include far more information than any one library. It can contain information on pieces still in private collections, as well as pieces in different countries and locations. The database includes collections such as those in the Manx National Heritage Library and archives housed in the Manx Museum, the British Library, Vaughan Williams Memorial Library and even Ramsey Town Library. These locations have been searched and chosen to allow users to find Manx Music in accessible places.

The Database has also been set up in such a way as to suit any type of user. Those who know exactly what piece they are looking for can search by piece name or composer. Or if you want a song in Manx with an accompaniment for your choir the loose categories can be searched. Information should be given to make informed choices as to the nature of the music (range, key, time signature etc) and for researchers the majority of composers, arrangers and styles of composition will be represented allowing statistical analysis and a better picture of Manx Music as a whole. There is even a list of groups and musicians on the Isle of Man, so that not only can you find a piece of music, you can find someone to play it for you as well.

Additional Material

Music is not just notes on a page or sounds from an instrument. Manx Music has a rich and varied history and has been recorded in many ways. One of these is through actual physical recording of sounds. Therefore this database also contains a discography element. These recordings are included, track by track, and their names cross referenced with other elements of the database. As yet this discography contains only commercial recordings but will hopefully soon grow to include personal and archive recordings.

Music has also been recorded in a more documentary form. The third element of the database is a bibliography of books, articles and papers written about Manx Music of any kind. Again this term Bibliography is used very loosely and this section includes information on material such as newspaper clippings, photographs, personal correspondence, programmes and other miscellaneous documents that contain information about Music and the collection, composition and performance of Music on the Isle of Man.

Finally, as dance and music are inextricably linked a small dance database has been included, containing references to dance notation, as well as giving information on the appropriate music for each dance to then be cross referenced with other elements of the database to aid research and an informed performance.

If you have any questions, queries, comments or complaints about this site/database, please feel free to contact us.

In particular if you have any music, articles, recordings or dance notes that should be included on the database, or if you are a musician and you would like you details displayed, or if you are organising an event you would like placing on the Calendar, please contact the Manx Music Resource Coordinator as below.

Kiaull Manninagh Jiu (Manx Music Newsletter)

For access to back issues of the Manx Music Newsletter 'Kiaull Manninagh Jiu' please follow the link below. If you would like to receive the newsletter direct into your inbox please contact us using the contact details shown via the button above.

Kiaull Manninagh Jiu

Material Available for Download

The following pieces are available for immediate download for your use. Over the next 12 months more pieces shall be added to this list and incorporated into the main database. As we will endeavour to keep these refreshed on a regular basis, please keep an eye on this page for new and seasonal pieces.

Piece 1: Old Sulby (Brass Band) - Southward

Piece 2: Fantasia on Manx Airs (Piano) - Reeve

Piece 3: Bath Medley from Andreas Flute Book (Folk Instruments)

Piece 4: Miss L.F.'s Favourite from Andreas Flute Book (Folk Instruments)

Piece 5: Lovely Mona (Voice)

Piece 6: Three Manx Dances (Orchestra) - W.H. Gill

Piece 7: Colvack Breck - Collection of J.F. Gill (Folk Instruments)

Piece 8: Mona's Delight - Collection of J.F. Gill (Folk Instruments)

Piece 9: Carval Abban Rushen - Quayle (Choral)

Piece 10: Castletown - Kelly (Solo Voice)

Piece 11: Graves at Patrick - Kelly (Solo Voice)

Piece 12: King of the Earth and Sea - Kelly (Hymn)