Re: [scots-l] Re: two tunes
What's your story, Rog? Well... the way I originally got into this music was through dancing reels with family and friends, in the dance-style of the Highland Balls, a tradition that's easily maligned due to its class connections, but one that I feel is important, as being neither the high style of the RSCDS nor the country style of the usual Scottish ceilidh; the traditional dances and tunes still play a very strong role. For those that haven't tried it, the nearest other dance tradition in spirit that I've found is perhaps Contra which seems to have the same kind of emphasis on fun, fast turns, and close association of dance with music. I'd always loved the music too, but although I was taught the violin, I knew no-one that played the fiddle so, beyond a scrapy rendition of the Drunken Piper, and Hamilton House, I never associated the two. That changed a little when I was drafted in to play in the extras band (a scratch band that plays one number when the real band have a break) at the Skye Balls one year, great fun, but still reading from music, a bare substitute for the real thing. This started to change after some years, when I started discovering folk music, something I hadn't known existed in the modern world, and in particular I encountered a folk night at a pub near where I lived in York. This gave me an incentive to drag the fiddle out from where it had been mouldering in its case and try to actually play some of this stuff. One thing led to another; I discovered a proper session, abandoned written music, obtained a decent sounding fiddle and started to really enjoy playing. And ten years down the line, I find myself in a place where I seem to be half way between several worlds - I'm happy in the local session scene, play along with a bit of old timey kinda stuff on Sundays, enjoy trying to make up accompaniment for folks singing songs, but my heart is still with those old scots tunes and the infectious dancing that goes with them. I just can't get enough of them! Which is why it was so nice, the other weekend, to encounter these folks from Boston that knew loads of Scottish tunes, a joy to play along with. One of them, a guy named Tom Pixton, fantastic on the box and piano, sent me a CD he'd done with Lissa Schneckenburger (who plays with Hanneke) with some excellent stuff on it, highly recommended (http://www.pixton.org/scottishinsalem/sallycd.html), which kind of brings this post full circle, I guess! You asked for it! cheers, rog. 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: two tunes
T:Boston Urban Ceilidh um, it occurs to me that the tune i just posted is neither traditional nor scottish, and hence is probably off topic. Phooey. It would fit just fine in a set of Scottish reels (with Jenny Dang the Weaver or Glenburnie Rant, maybe?). Or you could play it slowly and it could be a swinging 4/4 march like Hamnataing. - Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760 http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack * food intolerance data recipes, Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files and CD-ROMs of Scottish music. off-list mail to j-c rather than scots-l at this site, please 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: two tunes
i wrote: T:Boston Urban Ceilidh um, it occurs to me that the tune i just posted is neither traditional nor scottish, and hence is probably off topic. sorry about that. (although in mitigation, can i say that the tune's composer does play in scottish style (strongly influenced by alasdair fraser)?) 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: two tunes
Hey, don't worry about it! Hanneke's one of our favorites here; she's from Port Orford, OR, but grew up attending Alasdair's Valley of the Moon fiddle camp here in the San Francisco Bay Area and is an adopted member of the San Francisco Scottish Fiddle club! Her CD of dance music with Dave Weisler, Many Happy Returns is a favorite of the local Scottish country dancers (at least, those who aren't tied to the idea that a good SCD album has to feature accordian); I frequently turn to that one for inspiration for my own dance fiddling. I don't think that anyone on this list will berate you for posting one of Hanneke's tunes; it's a nice change from those URGENT MESSAGES that have been so frequent on this list as of late! -Steve [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: i wrote: T:Boston Urban Ceilidh um, it occurs to me that the tune i just posted is neither traditional nor scottish, and hence is probably off topic. sorry about that. (although in mitigation, can i say that the tune's composer does play in scottish style (strongly influenced by alasdair fraser)?) -- Steve Wyrick - Concord, California 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] Re: two tunes
Jack Campin wrote: God, things are dead here... something to be going on with: X:2 T:Edmund MacKenzie of Plockton C:Andrew Rankine The other day a fiddler and I, bored and with obviously nothing better to do, played a string of tunes we hated. Edmund MacKenzie of Plockton was one of them! I can't really see much to recommend it, but perhaps I'm missing something. Mind you, it's easily learned in a few minutes, so it may be a good tuition tune - I'm always on the lookout for those. I've just come back from the Tinto summer school, which was wonderful in many ways. It's a residential school for children, and it was remarkable to spend a week with so many talented young people playing traditional music. I also learned a few new tunes, so it was worthwhile for me too! I'll discuss them later. Part of the week involved going to a Fine Friday concert. Boy, they're a terrific band and they were cooking that night. I mean musically. -- Nigel Gatherer, Crieff, Scotland mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 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] Re: two tunes and a list wanted
Jack Campin wrote: ...Jimmy Shand's books of waltzes (were there three or four of them?)... I've got the first two (wre there others?) Yes; I was surprised too, but I saw them last time I was in Perth. I'm going in again this afternoon, so I'll try to buy them and report back. Funnily enough I found the first two in a charity shop in Edinburgh the other day. Here in Crieff I picked up a book called 'Eilean Fraoich - Lewis Gaelic Songs and Melodies' (1982) which has more than 150 melodies, including songs, orain luaidh (waulking songs), puirt-a-beul and orain gaoil gun urrainn (I'm guessing rowing songs?). My dad found an interesting publication for me yesterday in Dunkeld: 'Scott Skinner's Book of Selected National Songs' (1923), which I've never seen before. It's in the same series as his life story, which was presented in serial as a supplement to the People's Journal. Included is one of his songs, The Bonnie Ann, for which he wrote the music and words. Well, let's just say he isn't famous for his songs. The People's Journal published many supplements, and I have a few. One I'm looking at just now is '100 Humorous Scottish Songs'. There's not a big difference between these and chapbooks or broadsides, and I'm sure some singers used them in the same way, as repositories for the words of songs. Musings from a pen. -- Nigel Gatherer, Crieff, Scotland [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/gatherer/ Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
