RE: [scots-l] Kerr's reel-and-strathspey pages
I'm no historian, so be warned! I believe there were dances known as "strathspey reels". I don't believe anyone really knows how they were danced; there are people who try to work it out. Is it possible that reels and strathspeys were not played as differently two or three hundred years ago as they are now? E.g., it seems to be well known that strathspeys for Scottish dancing were played a good deal quicker in the early years of the 20th century than they are now. How were the reels played? Interesting example: compare the tune for the Duke of Perth in the early editions of RSCDS Book 1 with the current version; the current version is tuneful and danceable; I can't imagine what the original sounded like, if played at (about) 60 bars per minute. Another example is The Lassie Wi' the Yellow Coatie; when played as usually written at even close to the above speed, it is (to me) jittery and unpleasant, but if one doubles the number of bars (by adding an extra bar line in the middle of each in the original) and plays at the same number of _new_ bars per minute, one gets a lively, lilting tune. Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Re: Scots Music Quiz
> 8. He was from Dundee, and in 1921 at age eleven he saw Scott Skinner > perform at the Caird Hall. His own recording began with Beltona in > 1931, and he played with many of Scotland's top musicians. His > popular compositions include "Lament for Will Starr" and "J B Milne." > Who is he? Angus Fitchet? --- Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Burns Night
We played at St John's College (U of MB) Burns Supper, a half hour or so of background music before dinner, and a couple of tunes after. There was a sing-along there, and I think the audience did find the songs difficult. Possibly that was because the people who had organized the sing-along made some very unusual (to me) choices about the music. Green Grow the Rashes was done with an odd rhythm, almost like a calypso, and Ca' the Yowes was done to the tune I know as Cutting Ferns, or Pulling Bracken, with a rhythm almost like a Schottische. Still, the audience made a good effort, and eveyone seemed to enjoy it. Re choruses, it's not a big chorus, but if one does Duncan Gray, everyone can join in on Ha, Ha, ... . Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] traditional tune names?
Dave, Have you tried asking the local teacher for some suggestions - dances that they do, and the tunes named for them? That might give you a list to take to your abc etc. libraries. Also consult the teacher about phrasing; e.g., Mairi's Wedding (the dance) requires 40 bar phrasing. Two or three fairly easy tunes: White Cockade, Highland Laddie, Duncan Gray, My Love She's But a Lassie Yet, Corn Rigs; Also, many of the jigs played in Scottish dance sets are (more or less) common to both Scottish and Irish repertoire; e.g., Smash the Windows, Haste to the Wedding; and there are tunes which I never know whether they are jigs or marches, Bonnie Dundee, Atholl Highlanders, and on and on. Have a great time, and best wishes to your local dancers, Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Valse Eccossaise
On Mon, 18 Nov 2002, Derek Hoy wrote: > Nigel asked: > > I've been handed this waltz. I've heard it before but I can't think > > where. Does anyone else recognise it? > The trad music group Helicon include this tune (very minor variations) on their CD "The Titan", list it on the cover as a "Waltz from Cape Breton," and in the notes gove the title "Isle of Lismore". Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
RE: [scots-l] Music source books
On Mon, 7 Oct 2002, Jack Campin wrote: > The early 6/8 quicksteps were sometimes adapted from Irish, English > or Scottish jigs and sometimes gave rise to them. An example of a jig, and the adaptation to make a quickstep, and/or vice versa, would be interesting to see. Also, if anyone knows of good Canadian sources from which to obtain Scottish tune collections, I'd be glad to know about them. Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
[scots-l] Musician in Glasgow (fwd)
If anyone can help, please reply directly to Dianna: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks, Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB -- Forwarded message -- Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 00:46:48 -0500 From: Dianna Shipman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Strathspey Articles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Musician in Glasgow One of our fiddlers will be in Glasgow all of July and half of August - I'd appreciate info anyone might have on venues or activities of interest to musicians in the Glasgow, Scotland area - he's in his early 20's and there for a music course - private replies would be fine. thanks for any help, Dianna Houston, Texas Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
RE: [scots-l] Tam Lin
On Tue, 11 Jun 2002, Clifford Abrams wrote: > Has anyone mentioned the very nice, authentic-sounding version done > by Frankie Armstrong on a recent (sorry, i forgot the name, but can > dig if you're interested) CD? I'm interested; please dig. Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion
I'd be interested in a reprint too, if it's available. The last I heard (about two years ago), the Scottish Music Information Centre would provide copies of this (and other things) for a fee. The URLs I have are : Scottish Music Info Centre http://www.music.gla.ac.uk/HTMLFolder/Resources/SMIC/homepage.html SMIC - Oswald listing http://www.music.gla.ac.uk/HTMLFolder/Resources/SMIC/html/18C.html#JO (not sure when I last used either of these; I hope they're up to date). Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Re: Foss tunes (was Re: Lily of the Vale)
On Mon, 6 May 2002, Nigel Gatherer wrote: > Could the eightsome reel benefit from specially written measured tunes? > It's just that whenever I've played for it we've played a series of > reels AABBAB, giving 24 bars - it's difficult when you're not used to (Is this one of those situations where the "bar" is in the ear of the player, listener etc? - since I think of the central figure of the eightsome as a 48 bar sequence. Anyhow, ...) The main figure of the Eightsome Reel is actually made up of 8 bar bits, so 12 bar phrasing would not likely be helpful for the dancers. However, speaking for myself, I think that reels that could be played ABBABB would be a good choice for this dance. I wonder whether that would be easier for the musicans, too? Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Re: Lily of the Vale
> book - The Galloway Album - published by Foss in which are four of his > tunes. Strange from a musician's point of view, because all have four > 6-bar sections. I've no doubt it makes perfect sense from a dancing > p.o.v. - my woeful ignorance of dancing hampers me once again! Actually, Foss's dance "Cairn Edward", for which these tunes were set, is almost unique in SCD; I know of just one other, "Tweedside", in RSCDS Book 19, which is built on 6 bar phrases (it uses 3/4 tunes, and a modified waltz step). It _does_ make sense when you try it out - an example of Foss's considerable insight and inventiveness. The trouble is, there seem to be essentially no other tunes in this style - I looked for another tune to go with Tweedside and its companion, Tam Glen, without success. Also, I wouldn't rush to compose a bunch of these tunes; the large part of the SCD community doesn't seem too interested in this kind of innovation. Thanks for the reference to The Galloway Album. Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Re: Lily of the Vale
On Wed, 1 May 2002, Nigel Gatherer wrote: > I've been looking for you, Peter, but I've turned up a total blank so > far. It's possibly one of Foss's own tunes. If Anselm Lignau is > listening in, he'd be able to help more than I. There's a database of > CD tunes somewhere, but I've mislaid the URL. > Thanks, Nigel. This is already interesting, as I hadn't been aware that Hugh Foss wrote tunes as well as dances. I wonder whether anyone wouold be in contact with Bill or Hope Little (dance teachers from Castle Douglas, and I believe Bill was church organist), who might know more about this. Perhaps I'll try posting on the Strathspey list, where Anselm is almost surely "listening in". Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
[scots-l] Lily of the Vale
A dance I want to teach (by Hugh Foss) specifies the tune "The Lily of the Vale is Sweet". Does anyone know of this? A source? Thanks for any help, Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Few Notes
On Mon, 15 Apr 2002, Jack Campin wrote: > in my modes tutorial > I'd be interested in knowing more about this tutorial, including where to get it. Also, is it part of a larger course? Again, where to find that? Thanks for any information, Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
[scots-l] Optional snaps and Wendel's Wedding
On Sun, 10 Feb 2002, Steve Wyrick wrote: > This reminds me of another probably dumb question I have: Is a snap > considered an optional ornament? What I mean is, can you substitute it for > 2 eighths or for a dotted 8th-16 combination for effect, or is it only > played when written? This reminds me of an earlier post, which gave an abc of Tony Cuffe's tune, Wendel's Wedding. By the way, I'm very glad to have that, and grateful for that post. Anyway, I noticed that in the first part of the tune, most of the "pairs" of notes were weighted, either long-short or short-long, while in the first line of the B-part, there were few if any weightings in the pairs. I assumed that was intended, and have got used to playing it that way. Now I wonder whether some freedom of interpretation would be intended here. I've heard the tune on the radio, but so long ago that I can't remember that kind of detail. Any information welcome, Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Tempi
On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Nigel Gatherer wrote: > As for dancers not knowing the difference between a reel and a jig: why > on earth should they? I can't see that it's very relevant to how they > dance. One plays 2 or 4 notes to the beat, the other 3, but the beat > remains the same, doesn't it? Actually, it does matter a bit. As Ian has pointed out (referring to strathspey steps, but it applies to most of the steps used in dancing to reels and jigs as well), a step has four "bits", roughly step-close-step-and; and where they fit on the music is different for reel and for jig. (It's right that the "step" bits come on what you refer to as the "beats" if I'm understanding properly; but the other bits matter.) I believe that's the main reason that jig music is preferred for teaching the "skip-change-of-step", and reel for the "pas de basque". In the end, both steps have to be done to either kind of music, and _should_ be slightly different depending on the music. Enjoying the discussion, Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
Re: [scots-l] Wake Up Call
Re the dance Gramachie: the Ramsay Index (cross references Scottish country dances and tunes used in recordings for same) lists no _tune_ named Gramachie; apparently this has been arranger/band-leader's choice. However, the source for the dance itself does hint that there is an "original" tune for it. Peter McClure Winnipeg, MB Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
