Re: [scots-l] Re: ABCs
Matt spots the deliberate mistake this week - glad you're awake, Matt! Yes Nigel, but I was really wondering whether it should be mixolydian rather than dorian - ? 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] Glasgow free concert
Apologies for mass-posting. This is at short notice and will only be relevant or of interset to a few, but, for those few - There'll be a performance, free of admission charge, by myself and the Eildon Strings, of my Border Pipes and String Quartet music at RSAMD Glasgow on Thurs 24 June at the RSAMD Glasgow at 7:30 pm, almost certainly in the Guinness Room (we'll leave details at Reception if it's a different room). Some new pieces have been added since the Border Seasons CD. Hope to see some of you there Best wishes Matt 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] Consultation
We may even end up with another music category - 'Art Trad'. We've already got it. It's what Matt Seattle and David Greenberg do. It's good stuff and you should listen to some of it. She already does, Jack (see Erika's earlier posts) Some great points in your message - love the bit about the suburban supermarket manager! Matt Seattle (income equivalent, supermarket checkout assistant, ego - don't ask) 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] tune title
The tune we know now as the Irish jig Langstrom's Pony appears (differently) in 18th century Scottish sources as Lass Trumponey, Lang Strumpony and other permutations - do any Gaelic scholars here know if this might be a rendering of a lost Gaelic title? Thanks Matt Seattle 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] Petrie's collections
Cliff Abrams wrote: Please use usual keys: d, g, c, a or f Why? Fiddlers write tunes in specific keys deliberately. Certainly some of James Hill's tunes (for example) are in more 'awkward' keys (E, Bb) but if you change them you find even more awkward string crossings. Matt Seattle 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] Variations
Derek Hoy wrote: As a paid-up member of the Anti-Variation Front, I couldn't disagree more. Your Variationalism would have exactly the opposite effect- exhausting our tune stock by grinding each melody into the ground and bringing the Traditional Music Industry to its knees. Lovely post, Derek. I detect a tongue in the cheek, but there are some serious points there, so - the Traditional Music Industry, eh? Yes of course there is a commercial element to trad music, but when the values of the market place are supreme, art dies. I am something of an enthusiast for variations because of my personal perceptions and experiences. I know they are not popular - they are of course deeply unpopular. I would not try to convince anyone, but I would mention that as a younger person I found jazz boring, and as an older person I realised it was because I didn't understand any of it. When I understood some of it I found that some jazz is indeed boring, and some isn't, with all the shades in between. Same with variations. Some of the best minds in traditional music have occupied themselves with variations and some of the best players have played them. I mentioned David Greenberg's Black Jock - if you don't like it, fair enough, but I'm surprised. To me the reason for variations is simple - if a tune is good, let's have more of it. Collective tune playing would die out, Collective tune playing is only one aspect of the traditional music experience - enjoyable, but not the only way to fly. And of course it's not the best vehicle for variations. And the fact that it is so popular among Northumbrians simply proves the point. Please explain Leave these boring, repetitious wanderings where they belong- in the dusty tomes where even Gore feared to tread. Yes, but not the exciting, creative, challenging, and heart-melting ones. Cheers Matt 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] Variations
Nigel You've probably got all the relevant currently available Scottish stuff, but maybe have a look at the related Northumbrian piping tradition, which stll keeps the variation flame burning, as does the Border piping tradition, but with even fewer exponents. I've followed up many of the leads in David Johnson's book, and would single out the early fiddler (fl. 1700) John MacLachlan/ McLaughlin as a Master, one of the greatest ever Scottish fiddlers IMHO and hardly known at all today. His work features heavily in the Balcarres Lute Book in transcription/arrangement by 'Mr Beck'. I hear there are (very long-delayed) plans to publish Balcarres, but meanwhile some of the tunes are on recordings by Rob MacKillop and Ronn MacFarlane which are well worth hearing, To me the art of variations stands in great contrast to the omnipresent medley approach. It is more ecologically sound - recycling and enriching the tune rather than disposing of it after one or two plays and on to the next - but then I'm old-fashioned that way. Nearly forgot - David Greenberg's rendition of Black Jock is a beacon in these dark times. Matt Seattle 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: Matt Seattle's 'Border Seasons'
Rather than intervene between David F and Jack C about the merits of Fred Freeman's work I'd like to say a huge thank you to Erika Mackenzie for her review of Border Seasons - thank you Erika! It's great when someone really gets the point of what you're trying to do - the idiom may be a kind of Chamber/Trad, but the aim is simply to reach the heart, and it's good to know that it sometimes does. The only thing I'd add to Erika's post is that, naturally enough, the live gigs had something extra that the recording doesn't capture. If there's anyone here who has input into festival planning and was touched by Erika's review, you may be interested to know that I plan to reprise the pipes and string quartet combination next year. Cheers Matt 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] Roman wall
Never done this before, but working by analogy from what you wrote, here goes - X: ? T:The Roman Wall M:6/8 L:1/8 C:? R:Jig Z:Adam Gray, transcribed by Matt Seattle K:A E|ABA cBA|cea ecA|def ecA|GBB B2E|ABA cBA|cea ecA|def ecA|BAG A2:: e|a2a gfe|fga ecA|def ecA|GBB B2e|aba gfe|fga ecA|def ecA|BAG A2e| a2a gfe|fga ecA|def ecA|GBB B2E|ABA cBA|cea ecA|def ecA|BAG A2|| It's not that different from the Pete Coe version, I suspect Pete (whom I know) changed it a wee bit in learning it. I've been playing this into Calliope House, going from A to E. The chords are obvious I IV and V, except that in bars 1, 5 and 9 of strain 2 I use F#m - C#m. I'm aware of the Cape Breton 'same root' practice, but am more used to going from one key to another in medleys. The logical conclusion of the same root is to stick to one tune only and play variations - which I sometimes do when playing pipes. I have a few extreme examples which I occasionally inflict on dancers and my colleagues... Cheers Matt Seattle 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] E Jig set suggestions (Calliope House)
Another one in A (obviously there are hundreds) which works well _before_ Calliope House is the Northumbrian jig The Roman Wall, a version of The Eavesdropper. A young fiddler I accompany picked it up at the Folkworks Summer School from Peter Tickell (he'd learnt it from one of my books, The Morpeth Rant, not currently in print). Back to Calliope House - it really is a great tune, Dave Richardson must be very pleased with it. I devised an accompaniment on guitar in standard tuning which sounds like open tuning if you let the Es and B ring and do most of the fingering on the other strings. The chords are the same for both strains, 1 line per bar (I can't abc, sorry): E B/E - E F#m - E/G# A E - E/D# E/C# - E/B A(maj7) - E/G# F#m7 E B/E - E F#m - E/G# A E - E/D# E/C# - E/B A(maj7) - A/B E Cheers Matt Seattle 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] chamber music
Erika Mackenzie wrote: snip I'm always on the lookout for other 'chamber music cum folk music' works. I can't find enough of it to satisfy my taste. In that case maybe I can mention my Border Seasons CD? Border Pipes with String Quartet, mainly original but (partly) with an antique flavour, and including a MacGibbon minuet. It's available from the www.musicscotland.com website. Cheers Matt 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] Ferintosh in Linlithgow
I think it's 2 pm Jack. I saw them in Penicuik last night. FanTAStic. I thought they would be good but they were much better than that. I only just managed not to shout for Purple Haze at encore time. Go see them if you can. Matt S Jack Campin wrote: Just a note to say that Ferintosh (Dave Greenberg, Abby Newton and Kim Robertson) will give an informal and FREE performance in St Peter's Church, Linlithgow this Sunday 15th September as part of Doors Open Day/Linlithgow Folk Festival. Has anybody got a definite time for this? I was going to come through for it, but the box office (01506 433 634) doesn't know anything. - Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760 http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ * homepage for my CD-ROMs of Scottish traditional music; free stuff on food intolerance, music and Mac logic fonts. Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html 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] Ferintosh in Linlithgow
Ferintosh will also be in Penicuik, Biggar, and Stirling on this trip. Dates? 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] Modal Tunes (but seriously)
Jim Dawson wrote: Alan MacDonald.. in fact wrote a thesis on the subject of pibroch and his conclusion was that modern pibroch, to which you refer was actually a fabrication of what real pibroch was. And is not 'real pibroch' also a fabrication?!? Or did it arrive with the rest of the Universe..(and where did that come from etc.)? I raise the point not to score a point, but because I think the discussion is touching something essential about being human, and it does no harm to acknowledge it. The issue is one of freedom and order - either of which may lead to hell if not balanced by the other. Pibroch I regard as SEP (Someone Else's Problem, to quote Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), but I have picked up enough to know that a lot of the arguments about pibroch are not really about music or aesthetics, but people's personalities or characters. When the *sense* has gone out of something through a process of chinese whispers, certain types will cling on to the *letter* out of insecurity, ignorance or whatever. It seems that Alan's efforts are in rediscovering the sense of pibroch, particularly in its relation to Gaelic song, so good luck to him. As for improvisation - there's no need to have a problem with it, it's always(?) been a part of trad music, but if it's not your thing, there are still plenty of great tunes to play. Cheers Matt Seattle 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] Modal Tunes (but seriuosly)
Toby Rider wrote: That stuff is rubbish, just like top 40 music of every other genre nowadays.. Sad.. Craig David's pretty good, no? 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] Modal Tunes (but seriously)
Perhaps it's got a bit out of hand, very hot weather here in the Borders at the moment at any rate. Most genres have their 'quality' artistes, and in mentioning Craig David I was referring to top 40 generally, not of course 'country' music. As for understanding modes (etc. etc.) I don't think it ever did anyone any harm to analyse musical practice (theory being the attempt to understand practice, not a set of rules). It is of course granted to some to be an instinctive genius, but I am of the opinion that for most of us a 'harmonious' discipline in music involves the heart, hands AND head. A list like this may occasionally throw light on the former two, but by its verbal nature it is more likely to involve information of various kinds, with the heart lifted by the occasional welcome burst of enthusiasm - as a friend wrote, 'we can't get far on enthusiasm, but we won't get far without it'. Rambling further.. PW mentions Owsald. There's been a bit of a renaissance and reappraisal of JO recently, with some CDs on the 'serious' end of the market. What I've heard sounds pleasant but lightweight to me, but might not be the best stuff(?). Oswald was also of course an important collector, publisher and arranger of trad tunes, and The Cal Pocket Companion was famously one of Burns' reference works. It is indeed a goldmine, with a high proportion of very choice nuggets among the mud and rocks. I heard that someone was going to publish a facsimile, but haven't seen it yet - any news? If not, a good project for Jack maybe? Hugs to all Matt 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
Bruce Olson wrote: ... That's all that come to the top of my mind at present, but I'm sure others can add more to this short list. That's plenty indeed. What interests me particularly about Oswald is where he's reworked traditional variation sets, or come up with his own variations entirely - it often looks like a combination of aural tradition (as evidenced by comparing with earlier written sources) and his own ideas. His own ideas are inconsistent in quality (whose aren't?) but the good ones are very good: Portpatrick, Hit Her on the Bum, Up Waur 'Em A' Willy (minus last 2 strains) come to mind as versions I've got a lot out of personally, with many others still to explore. Cheers Matt Seattle 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] Tunes
There are now a few tunes on my website, traditional and original, for fiddle and/or pipes, in printable form, which you won't (or shouldn't) find anywhere else. Go to http://www.dragonflymusic.co.uk and click the Sheet Music button. Hope you enjoy them. This is a repeat posting to the piping groups because my URL didn't show up in the message header. Cheers Matt Seattle 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] simple tunes for young fiddlers
Jack Campin wrote: It occurs in a manuscript of Lady John Scott's along with a bunch of Scottish traditional material (some of which occurs nowhere else) - so it seems to have been absorbed into Scottish tradition within only a few years of its composition. That's very interesting Jack, and I'd like to learn more about Lady John Scott's ms, but... It's so similar to Off She Goes and Hit Her on the Bum it's not very similar to Off She Goes (Humpty Dumpty for those of us who 'listened with Mother') and nothing at all like HHOTB, a good lowland pipe tune - I know that Bremner's fiddle setting has some LH pizzicato, but that's the only point in common with Pop Goes The Weasel. Cheers, Matt Seattle 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] Celtic Connections/SHSA Comps/fusions/the whole nine yards
Sensible words from Cheyenne. I would only add by way of reinforcement that historical authenticity is never a sound way to judge traditional music - you could easily say that the violin is a new import from Italy which only came into Scotland in the late 1600s, and traditional musicians should therefore play mediaeval 3-string fiddles. Or accordions are a 20th century innovation. Etc. It's ALL relative. ALL traditions are MADE UP BY PEOPLE, some known, some unknown, some recently, some not. The question is, does it work in any combination of aesthetically, intellectually, emotionally, instinctively, even spiritually? If it raises hairs on the back of your neck, brings a lump to your throat or a tear to your eye or a smile to your face, it's authentic for you now. Matt Seattle (part-time musical historian...) 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] Westlin Winds
Apologies if this has been covered before. Burns' song Now Westlin Winds in the Scots Musical Museum is directed to be sung to 'Come kiss wi' me, come clap wi' me' but the tune given there is not the familiar one of that title (which is often also the title of 'Had I the wyte', aka the reel Bob of Fettercairn etc). Any enlightenment on this would be appreciated, but what I'd *really* like to know is the source of the tune which is nowadays generally used for the lyric, as recorded by Dick Gaughan and others. There's no written record of it as far as I can tell - did a modern singer compose it? Thanks Matt 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: Gudewife, admit the wanderer
Hi Nigel- Good to see you too, amd other friends here. I think this is not the time or place to give a résumé of my 'musical adventures', but I'm keeping busy, thanks! Just back o'er the border after two Burns night ceilidhs in England, piping and fiddling with Border Directors. See you anon Matt Nigel Gatherer wrote: Welcome, Matt! Good to see you on the list. The small pipes classes at ALP in Edinburgh are ensuring that the piping population proliferates perfectly. What musical adventures have you been getting up to? Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
