John Muir Wood

“ It is certainly one of the worst that has ever appeared, and if being overlaid with what is called the 'Scotch snap' will make it Scotish, then no further evidence would be required of the strength of the Gaelic claim. The version is so peculiar, and so little known, that it is given below. Much more might no doubt be said on both sides, in all likelihood without coming to any definite conclusion; the composition of the tune may therefore be left as a moot point; both countries have indeed so many fine airs that they can afford to leave it so. ”

“ And it need not excite much surprise to find that here, as in many similar ill-advised enterprises, the greater the genius, so misapplied, the more signal the failure. Beethoven was employed to write arrangements of Scotish airs, and although all his arrangements bear the impress of his genius, he has too often missed the sentiment of the simple melodies. The versions of the airs sent him must have been wretchedly bad, and they seem to have imbued him with the idea that the 'Scotch snap' was the chief feature in the music. ”

“ Patrick Macdonald says 'the very simplicity of the music is a pledge of its originality and antiquity.' Judged by this criticism his versions of the airs seem much more authentic than those of his successors. Captain Fraser of Knockie, who published a very large and important collection of Highland airs in 1816, took much pains, in conjunction with a musical friend, to form what he terms a 'standard.' As he had no taste for the old tonality, he introduces the major seventh in minor keys, and his versions generally abound in semitones. ”

“ The spread of musical education, together with the general use of the piano in all classes of households, must of necessity interfere with the old style of singing Scotish songs in their original and native simplicity. When sung with a piano accompaniment their peculiar charm is in great measure lost; indeed a Scotish song properly rendered is now to be heard only in the rural districts, where on a winter's evening servants and milkmaids sit round the farmer's 'ingle' and 'lilt' in the genuine old traditional style. ”

“ SCOTCH SNAP or CATCH is the name given to the reverse of the ordinary dotted note which has a short note after it—in the snap the short note comes first and is followed by the long one. It is a characteristic of the slow Strathspey reel rather than of Scotish vocal music, though as Burns and others wrote songs to some of these dance-tunes, it is not infrequently found in connection with words. 'Green grow the rashes,' 'Roy's wife,' 'Whistle o'er the lave o't,' and above all, Hook's excellent imitation of the Scotish style, 'Within a mile of Edinburgh,' contain examples of the snap. ”

“ But it is to be regretted that by changing the characteristic names of many of our old dance tunes, giving them the titles of the leaders of fashion of the day, they have created much uncertainty as to the age, and even the composition, of the tunes themselves. The tempi at winch reels and strathspeys should be taken is naturally to a great extent a matter of taste, or rather of feeling. Farquhar Graham has given the movement of the reel as = 126 Maelzel, and that of the strathspey as = 94. ”

“ They are succeeded by longer musical phrases, well suited it may be to heighten the effect of the Gaelic verse, but apart from that, formless, and uninteresting as mere music. From these emerge airs still wild and irregular, but with a certain sublimity arising from their very vagueness. Even when they become more rhythmic, the airs do not at once settle down into phrases of twos and fours, but retain an easy indifference to regularity ”

“ Catherine Hayes, so famous for her rendering of Irish airs, comes next as an interpreter of the simple melodies of Scotland. Clara Novello studied to good purpose several of the Jacobite songs; and other exceptionally gifted and cultured artists have been known to rouse their audiences into enthusiasm, though in most cases the result was only a succes d'estime. The attempts of the most illustrous composers to write accompaniments to our national songs have fared no better. ”

“ He asserts that Rizzio was brought over from Italy by James V., lived twenty years in Scotland, and thus had sufficient time to get a knowledge of the style, and ample opportunities for improving it. It is well known, on the contrary, that Rizzio came over in the suite of the Piedmontese Ambassador in 1561, 19 years after the death of James V., and was little more than four years in Scotland. That he ever composed anything in any style has yet to be shown. Tassoni, who was born the year of Rizzio's death (1565) , and who speaks of Scotish music—as has already been noticed—entirely ignores him. ”

“ Many great artists have attempted to sing aright some of the finest Scotish airs, but generally without success, at least to Scotish audiences. The really great public exponents of Scotish song were Wilson and Templeton (tenors) , both Scotchmen. Though neither was a thoroughly educated musician, both in their youth, without much knowledge of music, learnt by tradition the real art of singing our national airs. ”

“ Chappell informs us, was known as the Hanging tune, from 'the metrical lamentations of extraordinary criminals being always chanted to it.' The only tune in the volume with any Scotish characteristics is 'The gowans are gay, my jo,' which is written on four notes, and ends on the second of the scale. It is easy to see that popular Scotish tunes were intentionally avoided, as the object of the work was to teach the young to read at sight, and not to sing by ear. ”

“ As the air has a good deal in common with 'My dearie, an thou dee,' there seems considerable probability that it was another version of the same, or that the one gave rise to the other, a thing likely enough to happen in days when there being no books to refer to, one singer took his tune as he best could from his neighbour. ”

“ It is sung to a Gaelic tune of its own name, so quickly and so widely spread as to be found in a Northumbrian MS. of 1694, as the Irish Gillicranky. It is a stirring bagpipe tune, no doubt older than the words.
A still more celebrated air, now known as 'Scots wha hae,' received its name of 'Hey tuti taiti' from a stanza of a song of 1716 (?) , 'Here's to the king, sir; Ye ken wha I mean, sir.' The stanza is worth quoting, and would be yet more so could it tell us the still earlier name of the tune, a subject which has caused much discussion. ”

“ Above all, it contains the ancient original melody of 'The flowers of the forest'; whose simple pathos forbids our believing it to be the expression of any but a true sorrow, the wail of a mourner for those who would never return—and which no doubt is nearly coeval with Flodden. The MS. was published in 1838 by Mr. Wm. Dauney, with a Dissertation, excellent in many respects, on the subject of Scotish music. He was greatly assisted by G. Farquhar Graham, who not only translated the MS. from Lute Tablature, but contributed much musical and other information. ”

“ Like many other Scotish tunes, a considerable number of the airs take some trouble to avoid the key-note as a close. [See Scotish Music, p. 446.] They have also that almost invariable characteristic of Scotish melody, the occurrence of phrases constructed on the harmony of the subdominant—the fourth of the scale; while in the national airs of most other countries a preference is given to phrases on the dominant—the fifth of the scale ”

“ The airs of Scotish origin appear to be about 45, of which 25 were previously unknown. Many of the latter are no doubt sufficiently commonplace in style, but a few are really fine melodies worthy of a place in our present collections, and worthy of the attention of rising poets. In some instances the airs are in a simple unadorned vocal state, a few being even pentatonic; of which Lady Rothiemay's Lilt, Lady Laudian's Lilt, and the first part of 'Kilt your coat, Maggie,' may be named as examples. In most cases the first half strain of the air is simple, the repetition more florid ”

“ Another example is 'The wauking of the fauld,' which, played in the same key (G minor) , has the same peculiarity in the 13th bar; this however is the case only in modern versions of the air, for that given by Allan Ramsay in the 'Gentle Shepherd' (1736) is without the E.
The closes of Scotish tunes are often so singular that a notice of their peculiarities ought not to be omitted. The explanation of the fact that almost every note of the scale is found in use as a close, is really not difficult, if the circumstances are taken into consideration. ”

“ The foreign dances, however, were confined to the upper classes, the peasantry keeping to their own truly national dances, which have not only survived but have since become fashionable in the highest circles, alike in England and Scotland. The manner of singing or playing on instruments the music of these reels [see Reel, vol. iii. pp. 91–93] and strathspeys is quaintly described by the Rev. Dr. Young in the dissertation prefixed to the collection of Highland airs published by the Rev. Patrick Macdonald in 1781. ”

“ The dance music of Scotland may be said to consist solely of Reels and Strathspeys. Farquhar Graham mentions, in his introduction to the volume of the 'Dance Music of Scotland,' edited by Surenne, that in the oldest MS. collection of Scotish dance tunes, there are to be found Allemands, Branles, Courantes, Gaillards, Gavottes, and Voltes dances imported from France, although not all of French origin ”

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One exception to this ought to be noted; the tune now known as 'Wae 's me for Prince Charlie' is really ancient. In the Skene MS. (1635) it is called 'Lady Cassilis' Lilt'; it is also known as 'Johnny Faa,' and 'The Gypsy laddie,' all three names connected with what is now believed to be a malicious ballad written against an exemplary wife in order to annoy her Covenanting husband, the Earl of Cassilis, who was not a favourite. ”

“ The specimens given of the most ancient music are interesting only in so far as they show the kind of recitative to which ancient poems were chanted, for they have little claim to notice as melodies. The example here given is said to be 'Ossian's soliloquy on the death of all his contemporary heroes.'
There are however many beautiful airs in the collection ”

“ These are not by any means numerous, though their characteristic leap between the third and fifth, and sixth and eighth of the scale, is so common in Scotish melody, that many persons not only believe the greater part of our airs to be pentatonic, but do not admit any others to be Scotish. ”

“ The question naturally arises, where did Allan Ramsay get his copy of the ballad, if not from the singing of the people. Certainly not from England, for there it was then unknown.
The ancient Percy MS. contains, however, several excellent stanzas not found elsewhere, as well as some others that by the total absence of sense as well as of rhymes show they are corrupt. In the last stanza the transcriber of the MS. has given the sound rather than the sense, as conveyed by the words of the Scotish Version. ”

“ Of course in harmonising the tune it would be necessary to write it in two flats; but in the melody the B is entirely avoided and the E♮ in the 15th bar is used to modulate into D minor, thus skilfully making a note available which belonged to the scale of the instrument though not to that of the tune. ”

“ Of the Gaelic Music.
If the difficulty of estimating the age of the music of the Lowlands is great, it is as nothing compared to what is met with in considering that of the Highlands.
When a Gael speaks of an ancient air he seems to measure its age not by centuries; he carries us back to pre-historic times for its composition. The Celts certainly had music even in the most remote ages, but as their airs had been handed down for so many generations solely by tradition, it may be doubted whether this music bore any striking resemblance to the airs collected between 1760 and 1780 by the Rev. ”

“ The discovery in this MS. of these and of some other tunes, otherwise unknown until the middle of the following century, proves that first appearance in print is no guide whatever to actual age. The appearance also in it of so many as 25 previously unknown airs leads to the belief that the loss of ancient melodies may have been as great even as that of songs, in regard to which Ritson, in a letter to George Paton, after enumerating about 120, adds that he believes he has the names of as many more, none of which he had ever been able to recover. ”

“ Captain Fraser stigmatises the previous collections of Patrick Macdonald and Alexander Campbell (Albyn's Anthology) as very incorrect. But Eraser's own versions have in many cases been much altered in the second edition (1876) , while more recent works—notably that issued by the Gaelic Society of London—differ most remarkably from earlier copies. The airs are evidently still in a plastic state, every glen, almost every family seems to have its own version. ”

“ She was of the family of Oliphant of Gask, well-known adherents of the Stuarts. They were out both in the '15 and the '45, were attainted, and lost their estates. A cadet of the family, equally enthusiastic for the dynasty, repurchased a small part of the property. That he should sing 'Awa, Whigs, awa' with much vigour is not to be doubted; and that the following is his tune seems to be exceedingly probable:—
Awa Whigs, awa! ”

“ This is more particularly the case with the very old melodies, which wander about without any attempt at rhythm, or making one part answer to another. The following air is an excellent example of the style:—
Wet is the night and cold. ”