Now, after music industry established and mass media grew big, we sometimes really feel that not always a songwriter can express himself to the fullest – for the reason that radio-friendly edits exist, songs have been shortened, bad words in lyrics have been an object of censorship and cover art has been sometimes heavily altered, so that to get rid of anything controversial.
What an irony: these edits are nothing compared to what was done to a version of the song by Frederick Crouch called Kathleen Mavourneen in several self-titled films of the early 20th century. Censored version had neither lyrics nor… music at all! Before you start thinking about how cruel it is in relation to this beautiful song, I should make a remark: absolutely all compositions in three versions of Kathleen Mavourneen’s soundtrack were treated this way. I know how confusing it sounds, so here I should make things clear: actually it happened due to these being silent films and not some conspiracy whatsoever.
I think the time has come for Crouch’s piece to be heard – download sheet music of it arranged by Brinley Richards here: Kathleen Mavourneen.
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