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With this Website www.scottishfiddlemusicinstyle.co.uk

I remember with gratitude my teacher in this idiom

Scots Fiddle Player Hector MacAndrew1903-1980

Feel free to copy the tracks for personal listening and/or the text for personal study purposes - but having done so - please acknowledge

the source.Copying text or illustrations for distribution to third parties or for

commercial purposes should not be undertaken without permission. (email below)

Whilst effort has been made to indicate sources, and in particular to give credit to individuals and organisations - where possible,

the texts (inclusive of historical data and my personal comments) are included to furnish ideas for anyone wishing to take pleasure in more

in-depth exploration, whether academic or recreational.

On-line material has become much more readily available since I established this website some eleven years ago, especially in the Gaelic tradition. Digital archive recordings are readily accessible, in addition to both printed/reprinted (peruse the Taigh na Teud website) and manuscript material in the NLS and in university libraries. Commercial CDs from gifted singers and instrumentalists, who continue the culture of their forebears, will furnish aural reference.

Michael Welchmichaelr.welch@btinternet.comNo. 23 - 1st November, 2018

Programme 231st November 2018

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Please note: Where Gaelic is quoted in the track titles – this is taken directly from the publications from which the tunes are sourced

01) 2/4 March: Pipe Major Alex StewartA bright, lively pipe march with which to begin! This composed by Peter MacAndrew (c.1842-1921), Hector’s grandfather. The composition is dedicated to Peter’s teacher Pipe Major Alex Stewart, aka Alastair Mhor, The Atholl Highlanders.For a printed version see The MacAndrew Collection ed. Doug Veitch, p.33.Here, in addition to the tune, we are presented with a picture of Peter and Alex taken on the Blair Castle estate, as well as a part copy of the original hand-written manuscript. This is a very touching, empathetic link with the culture of this period, colouring understanding and instrumental presentation – unpicking the expression and phrasing crucial to fiddle and pipe performances. I am very fortunate to have heard Hector (with all this unique background) play this tune.This track in memory of my father with whom I first heard the highland bagpipe, London, WW2. A seed lodged itself…

02) Air: The Kilted Lads (Gillean an fhèilidh)No.3 from the Elizabeth Ross Manuscript. See notes on p.28 on the website:https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/imports/fileManager/RossMS.pdfThe online resource consists of Original Highland Airs collected in Raasay in 1812 by Elizabeth Jane Ross edited by Peter Cooke, former Senior Lecturer & Hon. Fellow retd., School of Scottish Studies; Morag MacLeod, Hon. Fellow retd., School of Scottish Studies and Colm Ó Baoill, Emeritus Professor, Department of Celtic, University of Aberdeen.This is all manna from heaven. Not only a broad corpus – tunes, translations from Gaelic, and thoroughly researched notes, sources and references (text and vocal), but also presented in a readily accessible format.I arranged the air in a slow 6/8 rhythm, transposed up a tone to ‘A’ (hexatonic) - ACDEFG. Refrain X 2/verse/refrain X1, repeated twice. Parts: V1, V2, Cello.Refrain: Farewell and good health to you, farewell and good health to the kilted lads.See also Track 6 below.

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03) Air & Reel; The Keel Row; Johnnie MacDonald’s ReelFor background begin here: The Keel Row

As may be expected, the word settings are multifarious and, in some cases, metaphoric Here’s one singable set that will go with this arrangement:

Chorus Oh, weel may the keel row, the keel row, the keel row, Oh, weel may the keel row that my wee laddie’s in.

Verse 1 As I came through Sandgate, through Sandgate, through Sandgate, As I came through Sandgate I heard a lassie sing.

Repeat Chorus

Verse 2 Oh, wha’s like my Johnnie, sae leish [lithe], sae blithe, sae bonny, He’s foremost ‘mang the mony keel lads of the Tyne.

Repeat Chorus

Verse 3 He wears a blue bonnet, blue bonnet, blue bonnet, He wears a blue bonnet, a dimple on his chin.

Final Chorus

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Johnnie MacDonald’s Reel is a composition of piper James Center. A printed version is included in the Logan Collection. There is no connection to the above song, - but minded it when I was looking for a reel to follow on.James Center was born in Edinburgh on April 14, 1875 and died in October 1919. He became a well-known piper, and highland dancer. He was taught piobaireachd by the iconic John MacDougall Gillies. He followed into the pipe making business his father, John Center, had started in 1867. He married Maggie Melvin on June 27, 1900 [1901?]. After emigrating to Australia with his father in 1908 he eventually became pipe and dancing instructor to the Minyip Caledonian Society. He wrote some memorable pipe tunes, of which this is one. It reflects his jaunty style of composition and doubtless his approach to life in general. He was renowned for the eccentric wearing of his bonnet, and could easily be identified whilst marching in company. He lies buried in Burwood, Victoria, Australia. P/M Willie Ross wrote a 6/8 jig for him – Center’s Bonnet.

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04) 6/8 Jig; The CurlewI recently came across my own manuscript of this pipe tune, composed in 1968.Living in an isolated farmhouse at that time, nature was all around, sight and sound, day and night - with no light pollution you would see everything.I decided to add a flute (second) part to the original and, as it turns out, this part was a tune in its own right - and thus it is presented here, with my original tune played on the fiddle in the repeats. The woodblock (tired woodpecker?) is used to steady the beat if dancing to unaccompanied voice or instrument. The iconic little bird sings us out.

Photo WWT

It’s sad to discover that during the 50 years since I wrote this tune, in the UK as a whole, curlew numbers have declined by some 64% (data: Wildlife and Wetlands Trust).

05) Air: The Braes of Glen Bran (Brudhaichean Ghlinn Bra(a?)n)This evocative air is taken from Angus Fraser’s (1802-1870) unpublished manuscript ‘A Collection of the Vocal Airs of the Highlands of Scotland – Communicated as Sung by the People and Formerly Played on the Harp…’ (Edinburgh University Library - GEN 614). Fraser communicates the tune only - with one comment ‘Lament for Absence’. No words. There I would rather leave it – a moment for private reflection.

06) 6/8 March: The Lads wi’ the Kilt (‘Gillean Fheilidh’) This version appears in David Glen’s collection arranged, presumably by himself, as a quickstep. There is also a very similar setting in the William Gunn (born Sutherland c.1788) collection (1848) Gillun an èilidh, p.84. A variant appears for the song in Track 2 above. Or did the song come first?I set this at a steady 6/8 tempo, the lads passing with time, the pipes fading away gradually, finally into silence.

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07) Hornpipes (‘Newcastle Style’): Gateshead; Blaydon Flats; The Old ChurchThe Lads Like Beer – The Fiddle Music of James Hill by Graham Dixon, (1986) is a must read for the curious/uninitiated. The original publication is still available (Amazon c. £30). There is also a subsequent (cheaper) reprint.So, for that matter, is a reprint of William Honeyman’s The Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor. Worthy of scrutiny.A recent visit to Northumberland brought many of these wonderful heart-warming tunes, from Victorian Tyneside, back to mind: I didn’t even notice the LNER journey home…Dixon says … within the context of the fiddle on Tyneside, Hill is reputed to have been one of its finest exponents… Technically, stylistically, the crucial features for performance are the moderate tempo, the dotted rhythm and the bowing necessary to produce the rhythmical effect for movement.Hill was born c.1811 in Dundee[?] but moved south to Newcastle and Gateshead where he became very popular and much sought after in pubs and taverns entertaining customers with his playing and his novel stylistic compositions…The three hornpipes above are taken from the book quoted, pp.24 and 35. Gateshead sourced from the Collingwood mss in the Beamish Museum; The Old Church from a transcription of the playing of Bill Pigg, School of Scottish Studies archive (Tape ref SF/1965/7); Blaydon Flats from the Lockley mss in the Beamish Museum.Whilst it cannot be asserted that all (or any) of these tunes are original Hill compositions they nevertheless reflect the style and structure of those we do know are his.

08) Air: Sad to Me Has Been the Beginning of Winter (‘Solc a fhuair mi tùs a gheamhraidh’)This is a North Highland Air from the Patrick Macdonald (1729-c.1824) Collection (1784), - one of the airs left by Patrick’s brother Joseph (1739-1761) on leaving home (1760) to take up a post with the East India Company, a journey from which, sadly, he never returned. A reprint of the collection, with added notes from three prestigious custodians of the idiom, is available from Taigh na Teud, (Scotland’s Music). Isle of Skye. See link in the introduction above.I have no words for this air, but I imagine the silence of forest winter snowfall. The woodland sleeps: nothing moves. The sadness is perhaps more reflective, philosophical, - in the knowledge that as one remembered season draws to a close, another will yet open, and life will come again…

09) 9/8 Jigs: Fa’s Sae Merry’s the Miller When a’ His Pocks Are Fu; I Ha’e a wife of my Own; The Warld’s Gane O’er Me NowThree lively jigs for the ceilidh, first and third (the latter a pipe jig setting) taken from the William Christie (1778-1849) Collection (1820). Christie was a native of

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Cuminestown, by Turriff, Aberdeenshire. He’s styled in the preface to the collection as A teacher of Dancing.Here we have character, - a mix of older tunes - a definite traditional flavour - with some of his own compositions more in keeping with the ‘ballroom’ clientele for which he played…Hector told me that William’s day job was ‘village postie’. Exit post bag - enter music! Of the second tune I can only say ‘origin obscure’, gun urra. There is a version in Kerr’s Collection. 10) Air: Driving the Steers (‘Ioman nan gamhna’)This setting is taken from the Captain Simon Fraser (1779-1852) Knockie Collection (1816). Driving cattle to market, or to pastures new, was a slow tedious process, guarding the perimeter of the herd, locating suitable grazing ground, seeing to it that animals did not become stressed or injured… Here is what Fraser says about the song.

Unfortunately no words are appended.

11) 2/4 March: John MacFadyen of Melfort This is a composition of John McColl (Oban) (1860-1943). For a biographical resumé follow the link John McCollThe march is often used in both piping and fiddle competitions. I have heard it performed many times. I listen for the subtleties of the overarching phrasing, (dynamics and bowing on the fiddle, ornamentation on the bagpipe) with some very slight rubato here and there, and of course the dotted rhythm which needs to flow with the swish of the kilt and the marching tempo (‘Troop Time’).

12) Strathspey & Reel: Munlochy Bridge; The Highland Road to InvernessThe strathspey is a really illusive one to tie down (as far as one ever can with ‘traditional’ music). The tune, in one form or another, has been around since at least the early 18th century: there are song airs, sundry versions of dance ‘adaptations’ and pipe versions widely printed. So, I have no conscience adding my own hexatonic (EF#GABD) setting. The reel on the other hand is another tune from Captain Fraser’s Knockie Collection of which he explains:

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Motto: Always wear (or carry) clothing appropriate to the terrain and conditions - or your journey may not end the way you intended it to.

13) Air: The Island of the Mist (Eilean a’ Cheo)Although this air already appeared in an earlier website (October, 2011), I include the setting again. The song, by Mary Macpherson, Mairi ni'n Iain Bhain, aka Mairi Mhor nan Oran (Big Mary of the Songs), of Skye, is one I find very moving, reflected in the ‘darkness’ of the violin open G string.There is a text version in Caran an t-Saoghail - The Whiles of the World, An Anthology of 19th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse ed. Donald Meek, which runs to seventeen verses. Oral versions exist on the Bliadhna nan Oran and Tobar an Dualchais websites. Mary projects the pain and suffering she experienced first-hand in her own lifetime on to the inhumane, and all too often, unjust treatment and harassment of her contemporaries, those who were obliged to work out their lives on the island of her birth or to leave it or to take 'the King's Shilling'...Mary, born Mary MacDonald into a crofting community in Skeabost in 1821, was the second youngest of a large family. She married Isaac MacPherson in Inverness c.1848. He died in 1871 and Mary was left a single parent. Subsequent to 1872, after a short spell in prison for theft (apparently a quite unjust conviction for stealing clothes from her employer) she embarked on her cathartic path into poetry. If the quality might give cause for debate (Alexander Nicolson, History of Skye, for example, says of this song '...the whole production too often resolves itself into a glorified tourists' guide...') the allusions and emotions emanate powerfully enough -from one who simply could not contain them any longer. The poems and music allow us a glimpse of what it felt like to be in her world - and that is what interests me.After Inverness, Mary moved to Glasgow and undertook nursing training. She returned to her beloved Skye in the early 1880's becoming 'Bard of the Land League'. The book Gaelic Songs and Poems, transcriptions taken from her own voice, was published in 1891. She died in Portree in 1898 and is buried in the Chapel Yard Cemetery, Inverness. In 2002, Highland Council established a Gaelic Song Fellowship in her memory.

14) 6/8 Jigs: The Grey Buck; The Goatherd and the Shepherd (‘Am boc glas’; ‘Buachill nan Gobhar ‘us Buachill nan Caorach’)Both arranged from the William Gunn collection (1848). I remember buying a reprint of this book after a concert at the National Piping Centre, Glasgow, and being incommunicado on the bus home as a result.These tunes have also been on the website before, but I reworked them recently, adding tuneful flute parts (as per Track 4 above). The Grey Buck aka The Shaggy Grey Buck springs about through the heather in pert fashion (unless of course this in an alias for an individual only known to those and such as those).The two shepherds, it has to be said, are in considerably more lightsome mood than drovers minding steers, - finding time in their day for entertainment.

15) Strathspey & Reel: The Loch of Forfar; DundargThese from the William Christie Collection (see Track 9, above).Played here as unaccompanied dance tunes: the strathspey, mixolydian, - p.7, no composer credit - is aka Blair’s Favourite (see MSS Copy), the lively reel (also

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mixolydian) is one of Christie’s own compositions. The Ancient promontory fort (a more humble predecessor of Fort George!) on the Moray coast must have captured his imagination (the cut and thrust of fifths). A rocky outcrop, inhospitable, wild in winter (and sometimes in summer!). The tune gives us an insight into this man’s creative processes, - thoughts to accompany footsteps or at the fireside - as opposed to the whirling elegance of the ballroom. In common with many collections of the time there are no printed bowings. All this is left to the skill (sometimes improvisatory) of the performer – especially with ‘strathspeys’.Of which - for further in-depth study - see Dr William Lamb’s research material Reeling, in the Strathspey, accompanying video and Grafting Culture.

Likewise, throughout history, stone carving and architecture (military or otherwise) have developed their own stylistic modifications to reflect the demands of current culture, religion or politics.

16) Air: Chapel KeithackFor this, and the next two tracks, we are in company with one of the pillars of Scottish music as it transformed itself into the northeast more ‘classical’ style: William Marshall (1748-1833). For a short biography of him visit the Wikipedia website. Anecdotally he was a very fine performer of this music, - having had firstly the curiosity and then the patience and diligence to hone his skills on the violin. He served the Gordon family well - and with grace and tact.This little chapel, Myra Cowie suggests (Life and times of William Marshall) ‘…was in existence in the 17th century and was probably a small chapel where the Duff family of Keithmore worshipped…’.The composition is dedicated to George Gordon (aka ‘Priest Gordon’) who assisted Marshall, transcribing tunes as he played them.

William Marshall (John Moir, 1819) SNPG

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17) Air: The Marquis of HuntlyThe character of this hexatonic (GABbCDF) tune is entirely different from the one above. Although printed in the 1781 edition of Marshall’s music as The Marquis of Huntly’s Reel – a Strathspey, and in the 1822 edition as The Marquis of Huntly’s Strathspey, nevertheless, Hector played it, very sensitively, as a slow air. That was the path he chose, and the one I endeavour to follow. I pursue the hexatonic mode (no F# in bar 12). The violin chords are not struck but stroked, leaving the G and D strings to resonate. I cannot but help pondering over Marshall first heard in the way of fiddle playing, particularly with tempi and modality. Perhaps this tune revisits some of these embedded resonances?

18) Strathspey and Reel: The Duke of Gordon’s Birthday; Lady Jane Neville’s Reel This is William in celebratory mood, different again from either of the above.This is dancing! – the assembled company’s way of saying ‘happy birthday’ – probably marking an annual occasion. Lady Jane Neville was the eldest daughter of Lady Louisa Gordon (b. 1776) and Charles, Marquis of Cornwallis. In 1819 she married the Hon Richard Griffin Neville. These are but examples of the people Marshall, a musical asset (and curiosity…) to the Gordon family, entertained - they twirled about him and encouraged him to write tunes for them, requests for which he responded gracefully… Many names would have faded now if it were not perhaps for the tunes in his published work.The way it was then…

19) Air; Soft May Morn (‘Madainn chiuin chéiten’)An ‘Argyllshire air’ from the Patrick Macdonald collection (1784), (see Track 8 above), p.24, no.148.I have no words for the song only the inherent musical notion suggested by the title.Played twice, - the second time improvising with birdsong trills…

20) Piobaireachd Urlar (Ground): Field of GoldI leave you with buttercups.

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Photo: Pamela Garden

A composition by Pipe Major Donald MacLeod, MBE (1917-1982).

As this genre of pipe music goes, this is not a ‘big’ tune, but the urlar or ground, on which the variations which follow are based, is a poignant, evocative tune, one always brought to mind when I see a landscape like this.I think of it as his reaction, in awe and humility, - a meditation - on seeing a panorama of these humble little yellow flowers, reaching away before him.

The tutorial of his (piobaireachd – Ceòl Mòr) – 220 recordings in 21 volumes, spoken (canntaireachd) and on the chanter, is legendary.

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Notes © Michael Welch, 30th October, 2018

Next programme – No. 24 – April, 2019__________________________________________________

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