Tag Archives: Scottish

Fingal’s Cave, but not by Mendelssohn

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A quick update ahead of FluteFling’s Scottish Flute Day, which is on this weekend. We looked at a tune that is probably a march or possibly a strathspey and I have certainly heard it as a reel.

Fingal’s Cave (Cuilfhionn) was published in Kerr’s Merrie Melodies, possibly in 1875 according to the usually reliable Tune Archive, but there is little information beyond that other a description of it being a Highland tune. It seems to have been relatively little recorded too, although is described as being popular.

I first heard it by Andrew Cronshaw on The Great Dark Water and he got it from Kerr’s if I recall correctly. Other recordings have since been made and my version is derived from one of Christine Martin and Ann Hughes’ Ceol na Fhidle collections — or so I thought but I can’t find it online.

There is another, lesser-known tune with the same title composed by John Gow, one of Niel Gow’s sons, which appears to be unrelated. There’s some background information on the cave and Gow’s version on The Fiddler’s Companion (the precursor to Tune Archive).

I have yet to record this and will do so after the FluteFling weekend. However, the dots are now up on the resources page for this year.

Photo of Staffa by Scott MacLeod Liddle, some rights reserved.

The Iona Boat Song

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The summer term began this week with another gentle Scottish rowing tune.

Caol Muile (The Sound of Mull) or The Iona Boat Song is a Scottish Boat Song intended to assist with the steady rowing rhythm required to cross the stretches of water that link the islands, these are possibly very old tunes. The words for them have been lost but, as with The Skye Boat Song, words have sometimes been added in more recent times.

The excellent archive web site Tobar an Duchais/ Kist o’ Riches has a field recording of Hugh Duncan of Islay singing a version in Gaelic that was collected in 1953. The words were composed by Rev. John MacLeod of Morvern. There are links to other versions of the song on the site from about 30,000 different field recordings in total.

Another author was Sir Hugh S. Roberton, founder of The Glasgow Orpheus Choir. His words evoke the spiritual heritage of the island which has been a final resting place for many saints, leaders and royalty of Scotland.

I taught this tune with the Scots Music Group a couple of years ago. See the Resources page for this class for the music. Our setting owes something to the excellent Ceòl nam Fèis tunebook published by Fèisean nan Gàidheal.

Photo of Iona by Jim Barter, some rights reserved.

FluteFling Summer Term details

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Flute players at the Flute Fling workshops

Flute players at the FluteFling workshops. (c) Ros Gasson

It’s shaping up to be a busy and exciting term. The second FluteFling Scottish Flute Day takes place on 9th of May, with workshops, sessions, a talk and concerts also taking place.

More is also being planned, so do make sure you don’t miss out on one of the flute events of the year.

Regular FluteFling classes also resume this week on Thursday 23rd April, with 5 fortnightly classes for two groups, taking us into the end of June.

Do come along and explore different techniques and expand on your repertoire of music from Scotland, Ireland and beyond. Open to wooden and metal Boehm system flutes, whistles and low whistles. Full details on the Diary and Booking pages.

There is additional good news about our regular venue of St James’s Church Halls in Portobello as the situation remains unchanged for this term at least.

Photo of FluteFling workshop particpants: (c) Ros Gasson

FluteFling Scottish flute day 2015

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Tickets are now on sale for the second Scottish Flute Day as Kenny Hadden, Sharon Creasey and myself return to Portobello in Edinburgh on Saturday May 9th following last year’s successful event.

A day of workshops and tunes focusing on Scottish traditional music on the flute, plus some sessions, a chance to meet other like-minded souls and other related events.

All details can be found on this page, which is continually being updated. Tickets can be found at the Tradfest website.

 

 

A highland tune in a modern style: The Lochaber Badger

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Fred Morrison

This week we continued looking at the tunes that Amble Skuse taught in February. There was a big pentatonic theme and we focused on a modern one by the highly-regarded Fred Morrison, who plays various pipes and whistles and writes distinctive tunes.

The Lochaber Badger is a relatively simple reel with modern-sounding, syncopated phrases that come out of the Highland piping tradition. It makes a good introduction to this style of tune, having a hypnotic quality and able to take being played fairly slowly. Where the notes are held across the main beats, you can provide more air on the beat to make it pulse and give it a bit of swing, which is what we did in the class.

Other Fred Morrison tunes are to be found in two collections of his compositions that can be purchased through his website.

I have recorded Lochaber Badger on flute and whistle, but not provided notation, which can be found with some discussion at The Session website (ours is the first one, in Em). My recording of a simplified, slowed down version can be found on the Resources page. Here is Fred Morrison himself playing it with Michael McGoldrick (the second tune in the set):

Photo of Fred Morrison by BedwyrPhoto.com, some rights reserved.