Being a drone musician Peacock might have had an insight into the
tonality of the tune. The first impulse is to think he just wanted to
fit it on the keyless chanter. It's in Em (the relative minor of
G). Ending on an A, the tune is usually said to be in Am which, which,
as Barry points out, misses the point altogether.
Another Highland tune that moves intact to the NSP and also seems
happier there is "The Little Cascade." William Donaldson called it a
Modernist masterpiece, but I think he didn't hear that the tune would
lose all it's supposed Modernism when played against G drones, which
fit its modality better than A drones. Like the other meddling
Modernist, Campbell of Kilberry, he imposed his 20th century High Art
ideals on a music that gets along quite nicely without them.
On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 1:43 AM, <[1]barr...@nspipes.co.uk> wrote:
If I can change the tune in question to illustrate a point.
Oyster Wives' Rant which appears in Peacock's Tunes is also well
known in another tradition as Mullen Dhu. In that tradition it is
played against A drones and becomes yet another Scottish tune with
not a lot to recommend it. When the Northumbrian pipers got hold of
it, I am sure they would have played it against G drones and played
in this way it becomes to me a very exciting and harmonically
interesting tune.
In the days of the simple chanter, Northumbrian pipers mercilessly
butchered tunes from other traditions to fit them to the pipes. -
Anyone remember the story of The Bed of Procrustes? In doing so we
got such gems as The Bonny Pit Lad.
I remember well being at a 'G' music session with Johnny Handle
playing accordion and at one time he stopped playing, and at the end
of the tune said, "That's a real pipe tune. Ye cannot put any chords
to it."
I don't think we should expect our music to always obey rules
derived from other traditions.
From an earlier e-mail
Quoting [2]gibbonssoi...@aol.com:
But is the best thing we can say about it that it's grammatical?
So is Chomsky's 'Colourless green ideas sleep furiously',
though it is totally meaningless.
The sentence may be meaningless but it is still pleasant to the
ear, and very challenging in a 1960s sort of way.
Barry
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References
1. mailto:barr...@nspipes.co.uk
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