For those who love music or Scotland, I’d like to throw out a mention today that Nan Hawthorne, author of An Involuntary King,blogger, and internet radio owner, is featuring a week of Scottish music at her radio station, Radio de Danann in honor of Blue Bells of Scotland.
Since taking up harp ten years ago, I have especially enjoyed the music of Ireland and Scotland, and have acquired a collection of hundreds of pieces, including from two 19th century books I was lucky enough to find. I passed on a lengthy but very partial list of titles to Nan. She also collected titles from Bruce Golightly of Druidsong, several other musician friends, and a thorough search on the internet.
Listening to the music of a country is an education in the history, people, language, and land.
Who doesn’t know of Loch Lomond: the bonny banks, the bonny braes, the shady glen, and Where in purple hue, the hielan’ hills we view?
The Loch Tay Boat Songtells us not only about Loch Tay, but:
Nighean ruadh, your lovely hair
Has more glamour I declare
Than all the tresses rare
‘tween Killin and Aberfeldy.
The Braes of Balquhidder describe the landscape:
Will you go lassie go
To the braes of Balquidder
Where the high mountains run
And the bonnie blooming heather
Where the ram and the deer
They go bounding together
Spend a long summer day
By the braes of Balquidder
A glance through titles alone is a lesson in geography: Rowan Tree (with berries red and bright…), Bluebells of Scotland (where the bluebells sweetly smell), The Rising of the Lark (wake to hail the king of day, warbling louder still…) and Flow Gently, Sweet Afton (How pleasant thy banks and green valleys below/ Where wild in the woodlands the primroses blow…). Scottish Rivers celebrates the uniqueness of…well, Scottish rivers:
But our sturdy Scottish rivers, they come tumbling from the bens
Like a crowd of happy children, to make music in the glens.
One of my all-time favorites, whose melody has been frequently re-used, is Wild Mountain Thyme, telling of gathering the thyme from among the blooming heather. (Blooming, in this case, is used in the botanical, literal sense, not in the My Fair Lady sense. Just saying…it could be that someone really hated that heather.)
Other songs describe the the life and customs. The Pleughman (Plowman), and The Piper of Dundee describe typical occupations, while Caller O’u–The Boatmen of the Firth tells a tale with which most of us would be less familiar: the girls who sold oysters door to door, calling caller o’u, caller o’u! Take a Dram andWee Deoch an Doris celebrate the tradition of a parting drink on sending your guest home. Scottish Takeaway, a much more recent piece, celebrates Scottish food:
I love my mince and tatties, haggis, neeps and skirlie too;
If I dinna get my stovies, I dinna ken what I’ll do.
Bagpipes and whisky will always make me sing,
Is there a Scottish takeaway in Beijing?
Black puddin’, white puddin’, porridge for my piece,
Give me Arbroath smokies and I’ll stuff ‘em down my face.
I think that I’ll go crazy, if I don’t get my cullen skink.
Is there a Scottish takeaway in Beijing?
And the lively Mairi’s Wedding, one I often play on harp, tells of the toast for a new bride:
- Plenty herring, plenty meal
- Plenty peat to fill her creel,
- Plenty bonny bairns as weel
- That’s the toast for Mhàiri.
-
Jock O’Hazelden,another song I particularly enjoy playing on harp, tells the sad story of an arranged marriage to the local lord, with the twist of the bride running away with her beloved Jock O’ Hazelden.
And if you’re looking for a lesson in language, Scottish music is full of Scots and Gaelic. Several of my collections of Scottish music feature quite lengthy lists of translations. Here are a few.
braw=excellent, brave
cantie=cheerful
braes=hillsides
furr=furrow
gled=buzzardbrankie=violence
lofe=honour
shank=walk
slaes=blackthornstwa=two
corbies=crows (or ravens)
fail dyke=wall of turf
wot=know
kens=knows
hause-bane=neck bone
een=eye
theek=thatchNot surprisingly, as from the earliest traveling minstrels, music continues to tell the stories of great battles: Gilliekrankie (or Killiekrankieas it’s often spelled) tells of the1689 Jacobite victory at Killiecrankie. In the novel Blue Bells of Scotland, Shawn sings this particular song around a campfire–in 1314. The blank faces around the campfire quickly clue him in to his mistake.
Jamie Foyers focuses on a single battle in the Napoleonic Wars. The Battle of Harlaw, about the battle between Donald of the Isles and Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar, on July 24, 1411, was a popular song in the mid 1500′s, according to The Complaint of Scotland. The Battle of Sherramuir of 1715 is remembered in a song by the same name. William Wallace and his 1297 victory over Edward I at Stirling Bridge have been commemorated from Blind Harry down to Robert Burns. The first verse of Battle of Stirling by William Sinclair tells us:
To Scotland’s ancient realm,
Proud Edward’s armies came;
To sap our freedom and overwhelm
Our martial forces in shame.
“It shall not be” brave Wallace cried!
“It shall not be” his chiefs relied!
By the name our fathers gave her,
Our steel shall drink the crimson stream,
We’ll all her dearest right redeem,
Our own broadswords shall save her.Sound the Pibrochexalts the Jacobites, singing the praises of the clans rallying around Bonny Prince Charlie, carrying us from the Isle of Skye through hills and glens, across Loch Shiel to the sad ending at Culloden, all with a rousing chorus in Gaelic of tha tighin fodham (pronounced Ha Cheen Foam, and meaning, it comes upon me or I have the wish). Bonny Prince Charlie and the Jacobites have a whole host of music in their praise, including Johnny Cope, Yellow Locks of Charlie, andYe Jacobites By Name.
Nan tells me there are several pieces that celebrate the Battle of Bannockburn, in addition to Scots What Hae and Flower of Scotland, Scotland’s national anthem, with its stirring promise to send proud Edward’s army home to think again.
There are historical events that may not have been battles per se: Queen Mary’s Escape from Loch Leven, set to the melody of The Aran Boat Song,tells the fascinating, but litle-known story of Mary’s escape, in May of 1568, from captivity. The song describes escape over water:
Those pond’rous keys shall the kelpies keep,
And lodge in their caverns dark and deep;And it turns out that several hundred years later, a set of heavy keys, thought to be the ones used in Mary’s escape, was indeed found deep in Loch Leven.
The Massacre of Glencoerecounts the midnight murders of the MacDonalds by the Campbells, in the hills of Glencoe, bringing down through history how the MacDonalds fled into the snow-covered mountains, seeking safety.
This, of course, barely skims the surface of Scottish music. Please stop by this week and hear over a hundred pieces of Scottish music at Radio de Danann!
Tags: Nan Hawthorne, radio de danann
Amazing blog post, this is very similar to a site that I have.
Please check it out sometime and feel free to leave me a comenet on it and tell me what you think. Im always looking for feedback.
Hey this is a great post. I’m going to email this to my friends. I stumbled on this while googling for some lyrics, I’ll be sure to come back. thanks for sharing.
Howdy, your site is on air in the radio! Good job mate. Your posts are truly great and bookmarked. Regards
Nice blog, would of made the blog bit longer, enjoyed reading it though.
yay… appreciate you for blogging about this. You make me easy today…
Thanks so much, although there are no doubt others who who like them shorter! Thanks for stopping by.
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it
Hello great web site everytime I come here I am satisfied with the level of quality.
This is a really good read for me, Thanks for posting this informative article.
Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!
[...] Blue Bells of Scotland on Radio de Danann « The World of the Blue … [...]
This is really beautiful!
Yes, didn’t Nan do a great job! A lot of work and research goes into something like this, and I have enjoyed especially hearing a couple of new pieces about Bannockburn that I didn’t know of before.
The article is usefull for me. I’ll be coming back to your blog
hello!, thanks for the info, this post was really nice
Hi, I applaud your blog for informing people, very interesting article, keep up it coming
Thanks for sharing, please keep an update about this info. love to read it more. i like this site too much. Good theme
.
Hi, admin, can I copy some information from the post?
Quoting and linking is always fine as long as it’s credited back. Thanks.
howdy, I read all your articles, keep them coming.
Very agreable site i hope you keep on doing it well
The articles you have on your website are always so enjoyable to read. Good work and I will be returning often.
Hello,I love reading through your blog, I wanted to leave a little comment to support you and wish you a good continuation. Wishing you the best of luck for all your blogging efforts
Hello blogger, good morning. Totally Awesome post. You have gained a new subscriber. Pleasee keep up the good work and I look forward to more of your interesting posts.
Thanks! Glad you could stop by and enjoyed it!
Had difficulty viewing the site in Safari on Linux, but I still loved the post!
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!
Great blog post.Really looking forward to read more.
i just wanna thank you for sharing your this information and your site or blog this is simple but nice article I’ve ever seen i like it i learn something new today?
Sent from my Android phone
I usually don’t post in Blogs but your blog forced me to, amazing work.. beautiful :
Nice post — thanks for sharing.
Where did you get your site template, I really like it
I googled and found it. Good luck.
Your web site is really amazing and I loved the theme. Just thought would let you know that I have subscribed to your rss feed. Also on a couple of pages I also encountered a 404 not found and after refreshing a couple of times was able to view the pages. Thank you
Thank you, Zulma! I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Sorry about the errors. I’m not sure what’s causing them, as nothing has been deleted. Laura