Tag Archives: Scottish

A strathspey: The Braes of Mar

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This is a four part strathspey that sounds very much like a pipe tune but the fourth part drops below the piping range, suggesting that this may be a fiddle setting.

The Fiddler’s Companion confirms that the itself tune is old, having first appeared in the Drummond Castle Manuscript of 1734 as Sir Alexander McDonald’s Reel and later printed in Bremner’s Collection of 1757 as Sir Alexander McDonald. It has traveled to Canada and Ireland and exists in many forms under different names, including as as fling and as a jig. Some say the Devil’s Dead is a well-known song in Ireland that is set to this tune.

I first learned this as an Irish two-part reel that I later realised was a fling. I then found it was a strathspey and discovered from Edinburgh fiddler Doug Patience (now in Meenross, County Clare) that it had a third part. And finally, years later I learned it had a fourth part. It seems that 2, 3 and 4-part versions are common.

The most frequent decoration here is cuts and casadhs (a late double grace note), but there is an opportunity to roll in the third part on the high E in the opening phrase and later in the 4th part on a low E phrase near the end. Keep a regular pulse throughout with the breath and it’s OK to tongue the shorter parts of the scotch snaps to give them more punch. Look out too for opportunities to put in a brief pause on the longer parts of the snaps.

The resources for the tune can be found on the Resources page for this year’s classes.

Photo: Native pine at Glen Derry, Mar Lodge Estate. Copyright C Mills 2013. Used with kind permisssion.

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.

 

Bonus holiday tune: The Cameron Highlanders

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A quick unexpected update as the classes aren’t due to resume until later in the month. However, a good tune to get to help get to grips with a resonant bottom D on the flute is The Cameron Highlanders.

A composition by James Scott Skinner, which you can see here, the Traditional Tune Archive puts the date at 1880. The Cameron Highlanders were a Scottish Regiment first raised in the 18th Century.

Don’t confuse this tune (as I often do) with The Cameronian Reel or Cameronian Rant, both different tunes, possibly related, with similar structures and Scottish origins. Confused? You’re not alone.

My version is much influenced by the Irish setting (and maybe by those other tunes), where it is played as a barndance. Some discussion of the different versions can be found on The Session website.

I haven’t put up music notation for this yet, but have recorded it on whistle and flute. You can find them on the Resources page for this year.

Image: Donald Callander graduation, Sandhurst 1939 by A.D.F.Callander, some rights reserved.

A slow tune: The Braes of Locheil

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I first heard the tune on a recording by Sprangeen in the early 1980s. An all-female band that included the harp duo that would become Sileas, the diverse lineup included flute and concertina player Ann Ward. If you haven’t heard it, it’s worth checking out.

At that time very few people had recorded Scottish traditional music on the flute and it became became an inspiration for me as a beginner on the instrument. Later on I had the good fortune to play alongside Ann and for a couple of years the Thursday flute and whistle classes that became FluteFling were held in her house in Edinburgh. On that recording she plays Boehm system flute, but she also plays wooden flute as well as cello.

A popular tune, there are many more recordings, but I next heard it by fiddler John Martin recorded it with singer guitarist Billy Ross on The Braes of Locheil. The two had been half of the Ossian lineup for two recordings and Billy Ross sings the song in Gaelic (Braigh Loch Iall), which is where the melody originally derives.

This BBC Alba link is to a setting of it sung by Art MacCarmaig and the Tobar and Dulchais/ Kist o’ Riches web site has 17 entries, including this one, sung by Captain Donald Joseph MacKinnon of Barra.

Another flute player to have recorded the tune is Belfast’s Desi Wilkinson, who plays a highland pipe setting on Shady Woods. He plays it in a staccato manner using tonguing for emphasis that suits the pipe march rhythm.

The tune itself first appeared in the Simon Fraser Collection that was published in 1816, but much of which was collected in the late 18th Century. There are reprints of it but a scanned PDF of it is available from the Petrucci digital archive of public domain music. One of my favourite earlier collections, many of the tunes are accessible to whistle and flute.

There is more on the background of the tune at the Tune Archive.

Resources for this tune are available on the Resources page for the classes.

Photo: Sunset on Loch Eil by Duncan McNeil, some rights reserved.