Re: [scots-l] What makes a style "Scottish?"

[David Kilpatrick]

Anselm Lingnau wrote:
> 

> 
> As a pianist, I don't know what to make of all this varied-interval
> business. On the one hand, I'm half glad that I don't have to worry
> about it; on the other hand it seems that I can't really play Scottish
> music, which I think is a pity :^(
> 
The use of crushed notes, semitone slurs and little passing notes on the
semitone adjacent, either higher or lower, can create the right sort of
'feel' on the piano. I also believe that some composers use particular
chord intervals or keys because they create harmonics, or sound more
appropriate. I do know for certain that playing on an electronic
(Clavinova) piano in the keys of D or A, which are those used most often
in the session music I know, sounds totally wrong. For some reason keys
like E flat or C minor sound far better - the black note keys seem to
have better intervals. I have not tried using the 'transpose' function
on the keyboard to shift Eb down to D.

Tony McManus was playing some Scottish pieces on guitar at a local
concert last month, and for one piece he used almost nothing but touched
harmonics - that gave the intervals a different sound.

David
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