Tag Archives: Edinburgh

A Hebridean rowing tune

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The new term began last night with one of a handful of rowing tunes that I am aware of. Iomramh eadar Il’as Uist (Rowing from Islay to Uist) was originally published in 1815 in Captain Simon Fraser’s collection — perhaps my favourite of the older collections. If you don’t have it, a PDF of a later edition can be found on the International Music Score Library Project.

The Skye Boat Song is the best known of these tune types (see the interesting history of it on Wikipedia) and the Arran Boat Song is widely played but Rowing from Islay to Uist perhaps less so. I first heard it on Ossian’s St Kilda Wedding (highly recommended) and it has been recorded by others since.

Ossian played it in Am but it fits the whistle and flute well in Bm. It is usually written out in a slow, rocking, 6/8 time and it is often described as a jig due to this. 3/4 makes sense to me but I have adhered to the original time signature. It’s a long way from Islay to Uist, so take your time with this one. The weaker c# notes on our instruments can be bent to good effect.

Resources for the tune can be found on the Resources page for the classes.

Photo: North Uist near Solas by Scot Tares, some rights reserved.

Summer term begins this week

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Pentland Spin by Barney, on FlickrA quick update to remind everyone that the Summer term resumes this week with the Slow and Steady class. The Improvers and Beyond class resumes next week.

There are five classes and no mid-term break. All dates can be found on the Diary page.

A reminder to book for the Scottish Flute Day on 10 May if you haven’t already done so. Booking is not through me, but through Tradfest. The response has been promising and spaces are limited, so make sure you aren’t disappointed.

Image: Pentland Spin by Barney, some rights reserved.

 

The Sailor’s Bonnet

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So we finished the term with the concluding tune of The Tarbolton Set of reels associated with Michael Coleman.

The Sailor’s Bonnet sits pretty solidily in D with some B minor phrases. The first part is repetitive and rhythmic, with the B part flying out high from this with high B rolls possible. The leaps can be quite demanding for the wind player, flutes especially as the notes can easily go out of tune if not shaped correctly. However, it makes for a strong finish to the set and the phrases are relatively straightforward, especially when compared with The Tarbolton Reel.

While it is quite common for D and Bm to go together in tunes, the structure of this reel is unusual as the B part is twice as long as the A part. Certainly it is often played that way.

Alan Ng suggests that the earliest recording is Coleman’s of 1934, however while he certainly popularised it, The Fiddler’s Companion puts Leitrim flute player John McKenna and Sligo fiddler James Morrison as getting there first, citing musicologists Harry Bradshaw and Jackie Small. The alternative title The Highlander’s Bonnet hints at a Scottish connection, but it could simply refer to similar styles of hat.

Resources are up for this tune. Term begins again 24th April. In the meantime, sign up for the Scottish Flute Day on 10th of May while sitting back and enjoying the last two tunes of The Tarbotlon Set:

Image: Sailing on the North-Sea, Germany by Peter Femto, some rights reserved.

The Longford Collector

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After the recent challenges of The Tarbolton Reel, the Improvers and Beyond class looked at the next reel in the Michael Coleman set, The Longford Collector.

This tune in G sits nicely on flutes and whistle and offers some scope for variation, particularly in the B part. There is not much known abut this tune, which is strongly associated with this set. There are a few variations on the title, and an account of how Michael Coleman gave it its current title on Alan Kuntz’s Tune Archive web site.

Some information on recordings of the tune can be found on Alan Ng’s site Irishtune.info, which puts the earliest source of the tune as 1936, when it was first recorded.

I have put resources for this tune and The Sailor’s Bonnet up on the Resources page for this year.

Photo: Summer sky in Longford, Ireland by Paul Wilson, some rights reserved.

Katie Bairdie: a 500 year old children’s tune

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Katie Bairdie is the most recent tune we have covered can be played as a strathspey, a schottische, a reel, a waltz and it was originally a march on the highland pipes.

Resources for this can be found on the Resources page for the year.

The tune is one with a very ancient and coloured history. It’s often taught in schools as a playground song, Katie Bairdie, which has lots of variations. It’s great to teach in schools as a spur for songwriting. Singer Christine Kydd has recorded some of these with schools and written on the background of the song, with one suggestion being it can be traced back to 1628.

However, there is evidence that the melody goes back further than that. Katherine Campbell and Ewan McVicar include it in their schools’ anthology, Scottish Traditional Songs and Music. There is it called Sherramuir March or The Stewart’s March. It was originally a pipe tune with 9 parts entitled Gabhaidh Sin An Rathad Mór (We Will Take the High Road), and associated with the MacIntyres of Cruachan, Argyll. The Stewarts of Appin then claimed it and played it when returning from the Battle of Pinkie in 1547. The Gaelic title refers to the Battle of Inverlochy of 1644.

It was played by the Stewarts of Perthshire at the Battle of Sherrifmuir of 1715, which is where the English title comes from. James Hogg may have added lyrics to the tune and Robert Burns also wrote about the battle.

Eventually the Katie Bairdie lyrics are added and at some point it also becomes the tune for London Bridge is Falling Down, itself an old song. More information from Education Scotland, which also quotes from Campbell and McVicar.

However the story doesn’t end there, as it is also goes by the title Kafoozalum, the title of a bawdy song to the tune printed in the USA in the mid 19thC. I have seen reference to it being in vaudeville theatre and a search shows that Rudyard Kipling and James Joyce referenced it in their own ways.

More recently, Belfast flute Harry Bradley recorded it on his first CD and called it Davy Maguire’s after the flute player he associated with it. Davy Maguire teaches flute in Belfast and else where. Here the snaps have been smoothed out, but it is recognisably the same tune: