> One question that just came up here: Can I play a tune called > "Gramachie"? Well, no, I can't, because I can't find it anywhere. My > Tune Finder has never heard of it, and none of the pile of trad tune > books on my shelf seems to contain it.
Here's another interpretation of that title. Robert Chambers' "Popular Rhymes of Scotland" ends with a discussion of a piece from Cromwell's time (or soon after) written in fake Highland Scots dialect (in the "Massacre of Ta Phairson" style). He translates into normal Scots. It begins Te coven welt, tat gramagh ting (The Commonwealth, that _gramagh_ thing) and ends And fen her nen sal se te _re_, Te del may car for gromaghee. (And when her nainsell see the _Rie_, The deil may care for _Gramaghee!_) Chambers comments: The _Rie_ is the king, _Gramaghee_ seems to have been a Highland epithet for Cromwell, to whom it was not inappropriate, as the word signifies one who holds fast, as a pair of forceps. That is, the omission of the "r" from the more familiar "gramachree" might be significant. If anybody is terminally curious (and I can guess who might be) I can look up the original MS Chambers got that from on Thursday. I wonder if the dance is a choreographic interpretation of tax collecting, with one set of dancers rifling the others' pockets? =================== <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> =================== Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
