Box and Fiddle
Year 29 No 10
June 2006
Price £2.20
44 Page Magazine
12 month subscription £24.20 + p&p £7.50 (UK)
Editor – Karin Ingram, Hawick
B&F Treasurer – Charlie Todd, Thankerton
The main features in the above issue were as follows (this is not a comprehensive detail of all it contained. The Club reports, in particular, are too time consuming at this stage to retype).
Editorial
Well done to all the winners at Oban, Newtongrange and Scarborough! The adjudicators at these competitions have a difficult task, because the standard of entries is always exceptionally high. We hope you like the photos in this month’s magazine.
Congratulations too, to Ian Green of Greentrax who has been made an Honorary Doctor of Music by the RSAMD. Ian has had a fantastic year, celebrating his 70th birthday, his golden Wedding, 20 years of Greentrax, winning the Hamish Henderson Award at the Trad Music Awards, and now his latest accolade!
The votes have finally been counted for the Box and Fiddle Awards. You can see the 6 nominees in each category on Page 37. The winners will be announced at the Ceilidh after the AGM and Luncheon on June 25th. We look forward to meeting up with many of you that day. We had the highest number of votes ever this year, and all of the nominees have done really well to reach the top six.
Remember, we’re always looking for articles and photographs for the B&F. We also need the Club syllabuses in soon so that we can compile the calendars in good time this year.
Karin Ingram
Highlands & Islands Music & Dance Festival – Oban 2006
by Margo MacLennan
Talented musicians from all over Scotland ………….
Classical Connections
by Finlay Forbes
Franz Joseph Haydn
They say that confession is good for the sole. If that is so then I am about to confer considerable benefits upon my immortal remains or at least what I hope will be my immortal remains when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil. Yes I admit it; I am a compulsive classical CD buyer. No sooner do I resolve to arm myself against temptation than my Internet supplier sends me a newsletter laden with irresistible special offers. Failing that, some enterprising independent label is sure to release something that is just too fascinating to ignore. In the face of such forces, rampant recidivism is inevitable. Well it isn’t really but I have yet to find an effective cure. Such crude remedies as ‘just stop buying’ only bring about side effects indescribably more distressing than the original ailment.
Already, some readers will be asking why I am choosing the B&F as a substitute for the confessional in relation to a matter that seems to be at best only connected only tenuously to the magazine’s normal content. The answer is simple. There are some surprising and very enlightening links between the classical and Scots tradition as I discovered with one of my recent compulsive purchases – a ‘Brilliant Box’ of Scottish songs arranged for the Scots music publisher George Thomson by the great Joseph Haydn. (4 CDs for £11 was too much of a bargain for a North East loon to resist).
Brilliant Classics is a business that perhaps typifies more than anything, he cultural differences between Britain and its European neighbours. It is a super-bargain ‘no frills, pile high, sell cheap’ label designed to stimulate impulse buying in places like pharmacies and supermarkets. It is difficult to imaging your average British trolley pusher bunging in a box of Nielsen’s symphonies to go with the plastic cheddar and all-chemical bacon.
Brilliant’s target market means that it tends to concentrate on high-quality reissued recordings of core repertoire rather than the untrodden ways of the classical repertoire. (I can strongly recommend the Beethoven symphony cycle played by the Staatskapelle Dresden under Danish maestro Herbert Blomstedt – big band Beethoven at its very best).
Given the label’s background, the Haydn series is definitely something beyond its normal stock in trade. For a start, it is not a reissue. All recordings are being issued for the first time under a project funded by bodies as diverse as The University of Glasgow and Austrian Wind Power. It is a project that could so easily have misfired by allowing over-hyped big-name singers to murder the Scots language and let their egos get in the way of the music but this has not happened. Brilliant wisely chose two native Scots – Lorna Anderson and Jamie MacDougall to do the singing and the highly specialized and accomplished Haydn Trio Eisenstadt to play the instrumental parts. The results are well worth hearing. If you thought you knew about the wonders of the Scottish song repertoire – think again. There are discoveries aplenty in this series of recordings, including a very witty marital dispute set to the tune The East Neuk o’ Fife taken more like a schottische than the more familiar hornpipe. Lorna Anderson sounds particularly formidable as the aggrieved lady of the house. Then there are the familiar words of Ca’ the Yowes tae the Knowes sung to the not-so-familiar Gaelic air The Maid that Tends the Goats. It works!
Why did Haydn arrange so many songs (around 400 in all)? The short answer is quite simple – because someone paid him to do it. George Thomson was the main, but not the only, publisher who commissioned Haydn to do this work and the Brilliant series has thus far concentrated on the settings for Thomson.
Haydn composed these arrangements between 1791 and 1805, an era in which he was undisputed cock of the European musical roost. Up until 1791, he had shared domination of musical Europe with Mozart in a curious mutual admiration compact under which each believed the other to be the greater composer. After 1805, Haydn attempted, without too much success, to retire completely from composing by which time a new figure in the person of his erstwhile pupil Ludwig van Beethoven was beginning to catch the ears of Europe’s music-loving public.
Haydn’s arrangements for piano, violin and ‘cello, although clearly written in his own masterly style, show a remarkable sensitivity towards the character of the tunes. Such sensitivity is all the more remarkable when we consider that all he had to work on was an untitled melody line of each song. Haydn’s command of English was not particularly strong, and his knowledge of Scots probably non-existent, so it is unlikely that giving him the titles would have added much in the way of insight. In fact, he conducted his correspondence with Thomson in Italian, that being the one language with which both men were reasonably conversant. (As a point in passing, on of Haydn’s more remarkable settings of the Italian language is an operatic aria in praise of the laxative properties of rhubarb!)
Linguistic problems aside, Thomson may have had other reason for keeping Haydn in the dark about the subject matter of the tunes. In song making terms, Thomson was something of a matchmaker and would often attach a set of lyrics to a tune for which they were not originally intended – so be prepared for some surprises. Thomson always used the original tune titles, presumably because they were the ones that his potential buyers would recognize even if the words to which he eventually attached them bore little relationship to the title. His subscribers were unlikely to have been disappointed at the unfamiliar words since most of them were by high quality poets of the age, such as Allan Ramsay (1686 – 1758 from Leadhills / Edinburgh) and a certain Mr R. Burns from Ayrshire.
This is where the surprises begin. Any Doric speakers looking forward to hearing Lorna Anderson’s elegant soprano voice negotiating the intricacies of The Muckin’ o’ Geordie’s Byre will be surprised but probably not disappointed by the results. The song in question has nothing to do with the ongyauns at a lea rig craft upon a hill and everything to do with the sisterly request for relationship counseling so wittily reflected in Burn’s ‘Tam Glen’. Yes, there are two tunes called The Muckin’ o’ Geordie’s Byre and this is the other one! It is also the one with the more legitimate claim to the title. The tune that most of us recognize as The Muckin’ o’ Geordie’s Byre is a variant of the old air Taymouth. In a slower form it becomes Bonnie Strathyre and with a bit of West Highland tweaking turns into the first strain of Westering Home. Some listeners will be equally surprised to hear the Jacobite words of Up and Waur them a’ Willie supplanted by the poetically superior and more enduring sentiments of ‘A Man’s a Man for a’ That’. Any melodic similarities between Up and Waur them a’ Willie and There’s nae Luck aboot the Hoose are not due entirely to coincidence. Once upon a time, they were the same tune!
One of the more revealing aspects of these releases is that it gives us access to the tunes as they were before the army of Victorian editors and ‘improvers’ stuck their editors’ pens into them. The Flowers of Edinburgh set to Burn’s ‘Here is the Glen and here the Bower’ recasts the now familiar hornpipe/reel as a slow Scots Measure of great beauty and elegance.
Do Haydn’s arrangements work? Doubtless the corduroy-breeked ranks of the pithead and midden school of fake campus folkery will object to the imagined gentrification of the Scots tradition but that’s predictability for you. In fact the wheelwright’s son from Rohrau in Austria shows astonishing sensitivity to the subtle nuances of these glorious melodies and sets them very much as a master jeweler would set a fine gemstone. To anyone familiar with Haydn’s large-scale works, this should come as no surprise. The Austro-German symphonic school that Haydn fathered is more strongly rooted in central European folk idioms than many classical experts in the United Kingdom are willing to admit. In no sense does Haydn attempt to sacrifice the music’s native beauty on the alter of his own stylistic ego. In a sense, Haydn was to classical music what Robert Burns was to poetry. Both had the genius to blend everyday items into more complex structures without creating any sense of incongruity.
One of the less obvious benefits of these CDs is that they offer us the chance to hear some of our current dance tunes like, Muirland Willie, Maggie Lauder and Jenny’s Bawbee in something approaching their original form and in arrangements that capture the spirit of the age.
They are a ‘must have’ for anyone interested in the history of Scottish music but that is not all. These performances are worth hearing on their musical merits alone. I can hardly wait for Volume 3.
Disc details :-
Joseph Haydn : Scottish Songs for George Thomson Vol 1 (27 tracks) Brilliant Classics 92278 1 CD
Joseph Haydn : Scottish Songs for George Thomson Vol 2 (91 tracks) Brilliant Classics 92542 4 CD Boxed Set
The Third Southern Hemisphere International School of Scottish Fiddle
by Hamish Paterson
For the third consecutive year………
Fiddle Music from Fife
by
Thanks to a chance meeting….
From Little Acorns
by Caroline Hunt
Years ago one of my school friends…….
Newtongrange Competitions
by Heather McLean
Sunday 16th April 2006……..
CD Reviews – See Hear with Judith Linton
Back on Track – Michael Philip SDB – CDLBP2031 – Lochshore
Down to the Hall – The Occasionals – CDTRAX289 – Greentrax
Steaming all Over – Gary Blair – BRCD043 – Bryansroom Recordings
Take the Floor – Saturday Evenings 19.05 – 20.30 with Robbie Shepherd
Repeats
3rd June 06 – Kenny Thomson & the Wardlaw SDB (Feature – Jack Delaney)
10th June 06 – Craigowl SDB (Feature – Jack Cooper)
17th June 06 – The Lothian Band (Feature – Davie Flockhart)
24th June 06 – OB from Beauly with Marian Anderson SDB and guests Duncan Chisholm & Fiona MacKenzie
CLUB DIARY
Aberdeen (Westburn Park Lounge) –
Alnwick (The Farrier’s Arms – Shilbottle) 14th June 06 – Locals Night
Annan (St Andrew’s Social Club) - 18th June 06 – George Hood SDB
Arbroath (Viewfield Hotel) - 4th June 06 – Bill Black SDB
Armadale (Masonic Hall) –
Balloch (St. Kessog’s Church Hall) –
Banchory (Burnett Arms Hotel) – 26th June 06 – Steven Carcary SDB
Banff & District (Banff Springs Hotel) – 28th June 06 – The Lindsay Sound
Beith & District (Anderson Hotel) –
Belford (Community Centre) –
Biggar (Municipal Hall) –
Blairgowrie (Moorfield Hotel) - 13th June 05 - tbc
Bromley (Trinity United Reform Church) -
Button Key (Windygates Institute) –
Campsie (Glazert Country House Hotel) -
Carlisle (St Margaret Mary’s Social Club) -
Castle Douglas (Urr Valley Country House Hotel) –
Coalburn (Miners’ Welfare) -
Crieff & District (Crieff Hotel)
Cults (Culter Sports & Social Club) 14th June 06 – Lindsay Weir Trio
Dalriada (Argyll Hotel, Lochgilphead)
Dingwall (National Hotel) – 7th June 06 – Nicky McMichan Trio
Dunblane (Victoria Hall) – 2nd June 06 – Dance to Jack Delaney SDB
Dunfermline (Headwell Bowling Club) –
Dunoon & Cowal (McColl’s Hotel)
Duns (Masonic Lodge, Newtown St)
East Kilbride (Masonic Hall, Kittoch St) –
Ellon (Station Hotel) – 20th June 06 – Lindsay Weir Trio
Fintry (Fintry Sports Centre) –
Forfar (Plough Inn) - 25th June 06 – Jennifer Forrest Trio
Forres (Victoria Hotel) –
Galashiels (Abbotsford Arms Hotel) –
Glendale (Black Bull Hotel, Wooler) –
Glenfarg (Lomond Hotel) - 7th June 06 – Ian Cameron Duo
Glenrothes (Victoria Hall, Coaltown of Balgownie) - 27th June 06 – MacKay’s Band
Gretna (Social & Athletic Club) -
Haddington (Railway Inn) -
Highland (Drumossie Hotel) – 19th June 06 - AGM
Inveraray (Argyll Hotel) -
Isle of Skye – (The Royal Hotel, Portree) -
Islesteps (The Embassy Hotel) –
Kelso (Cross Keys Hotel) – 14th June 06 - AGM
Kintore (Torryburn Hotel) – 7th June 06 – Graeme Mitchell SDB
Ladybank (Railway Tavern) - 18th June 06 – Club Band Day
Lanark (Ravenstruther Hall) - 17th June 06 – Dance to Gordon Shand SDB
Langholm (Crown Hotel) –
Lewis & Harris (Stornoway Legion) - 1st June 06 – Club Night
Livingston (Hilcroft Hotel, Whitburn)
Lockerbie (Queen’s Hotel) -
Mauchline (Harry Lyle Suite) -
Montrose (Park Hotel) – 7th June 06 – Dick Black Band
Newburgh (The Ship Inn) -
Newmill-on-Teviot (Newmill Country Inn) - 18th June 06 – Open Day
Newtongrange (Dean Tavern) –
North East (Royal British Legion, Keith) – 6th June 06 - AGM
Oban (McTavish’s Kitchen) –
Orkney (Ayre Hotel, Kirkwall) – 28th June 06 – Open Night
Peebles (Rugby Club) –
Perth (Salutation Hotel) –
Phoenix (Argyll Arms hotel, Ardrishaig)
Premier NI (Chimney Corner Hotel) -
Reading Scottish Fiddlers (Willowbank Infant School, Woodley) - 7th June 06 – Robert Whitehead & Roddy Matthews
Renfrew (Masonic Hall, Broadloan) –
Rothbury (Queen’s Head) - 1st June 06 – AGM & Neil Hardie SDB
Scottish Accordion Music (Banchory) -
Selkirk (Cricket Club) -
Shetland (Shetland Hotel, Lerwick) -
Stonehouse (Bowling Club) -
Sutherland (Rogart Hall) -
Thornhill (Bowling Club Hall) -
Thurso (Pentland Hotel) –
Turriff (Royal British Legion) – 1st June 06 – Gavin Piper
Tynedale (Hexham Ex Service Club) – 15th June 06 – Ian Thow & Alastair Salter
West Barnes (West Barnes Inn)
Wick (MacKay’s Hotel) –
THERE WERE CLUB REPORTS FROM :-
1. Aberdeen
2. Alnwick
3. Annan
4. Balloch
5. Banchory
6. Belford
7. Blairgowrie
8. Button-Key
9. Castle Douglas
10. Coalburn
11. Crieff
12. Cults
13. Dingwall
14. Dunblane
15. Dunoon & Cowal
16. Duns
17. Fintry
18. Forfar
19. Forres
20. Glenrothes
21. Highland
22. Inveraray
23. Isle of Skye
24. Kintore
25. Ladybank
26. Langholm
27. Livingston
28. Mauchline
29. Montrose
30. Newburgh
31. Rothbury
32. Tynedale
33. West Barnes
34. Wick
CLUB DIRECTORY AS AT OCT 2004
(Clubs didn’t necessarily notify the Assoc when they closed so the following may not be entirely correct. Only the clubs submitting the reports or in the Club Diary above were definitely open.)
1. Aberdeen A&F Club (1975 – present)
2. Alnwick A&F Club (Aug 1975 – present)
3. Annan A&F Club (joined Assoc in 1996 but started 1985 – present)
4. Arbroath A&F Club (1991? – present)
5. Armadale A&F Club (Oct 1978? or 80) originally called Bathgate Club (for 2 months) Closed early 08-09
6. Balloch A&F Club (Sept 1972 – per January 1978 issue – present)
7. Banchory A&F Club (1978 – present)
8. Banff & District A&F Club (Oct 1973 – present)
9. Beith & District A&F Club (Sept 1972 – per first edition – present)
10. Belford A&F Club (joined Sept 1982)
11. Biggar A&F Club (Oct 1974 – present)
12. Blairgowrie A&F Club (
13. Brittania B&F Club ( joined 07-08
14. Bromley A&F Club (joined 95-96 – closed early 08-09)
15. Button Key A&F Club (
16. Campsie A&F Club (Nov 95 – present)
17. Carlisle A&F Club (joined Sept 1993 -
18. Castle Douglas A&F Club (c Sept 1980 – present)
19. Coalburn A&F Club (
20. Crathes (aka Scottish Accordion Music – Crathes) (Nov 1997 -
21. Crieff A&F Club (cSept 1981)
22. Cults A & F Club (
23. Dalriada A&F Club (Feb 1981)
24. Dingwall & District A&F Club (May 1979 – per first report)
25. Dunblane & District A&F Club (1971 – present)
26. Dunfermline & District A&F Club (1974 – per first edition)
27. Dunoon & Cowal A&F Club (
28. Duns A&F Club (formed 20th Sept 04 – present)
29. East Kilbride A&F Club (Sept 1980 – Closed 04/05)
30. Ellon A&F Club (
31. Fintry A&F Club (Dec 1972 – reformed Jan 1980 – present)
32. Forfar A&F Club (
33. Forres A&F Club (Jan 1978)
34. Galashiels A&F Club (joined Sept 1982 - present)
35. Galston A&F Club (Oct 1969 – per first edition – closed March 2006)
36. Glendale Accordion Club (Jan 1973)
37. Glenfarg A&F Club (formed 1988 joined Assoc Mar 95 -
38. Glenrothes A&F Club (Mar 93?
39. Gretna A&F Club (1991) Known as North Cumbria A&F Club previously (originally called Gretna when started in June 1966 but later had to move to venues in the North of England and changed name. No breaks in the continuity of the Club)
40. Haddington A&F Club (formed Feb 2005 - )
41. Highland A&F Club (Inverness) (Nov 1973 – present)
42. Inveraray A&F Club (Feb 1991 - present)
43. Islesteps A&F Club (Jan 1981 – present – n.b. evolved from the original Dumfries Club)
44. Isle of Skye A&F Club (June 1983 – present)
45. Kelso A&F Club (May 1976 – present)
46. Kintore A&F Club (
47. Ladybank A&F Club (joined Apr 98 but formed earlier
48. Lanark A&F Club (joined Sept 96 – closed March 2015)
49. Langholm A&F Club (Oct 1967 - present)
50. Lewis & Harris A&F Club (Aug 1994 -
51. Livingston A&F Club (Sept 1973 – present)
52. Lockerbie A&F Club (Nov 1973 - present)
53. Maine Valley A&F Club (
54. Mauchline A&F Club (Sept 1983 - present)
55. Montrose A&F Club (joined Sept 1982 - present)
56. Newburgh A&F Club (joined 2002 but founded
57. Newmill-on-Teviot (Hawick) (Formed late 1988 joined Assoc 1999
58. Newtongrange A&F Club (joined Sept 1977 - present)
59. North East A&F Club aka Keith A&FC (Sept 1971 - present)
60. Oban A&F Club (Nov 1975 - present)
61. Orkney A&F Club (Mar 1978 - present)
62. Peebles A&F Club (26 Nov 1981 - present)
63. Perth & District A&F Club (Aug 1970 - present)
64. Premier A&F Club NI (April 1980)
65. Phoenix A&F Club, Ardrishaig (Dec 2004 -
66. Renfrew A&F Club (1984 -
67. Rothbury Accordion Club (7th Feb 1974) orig called Coquetdale
68. Selkirk A&F Club (
69. Shetland A&F Club (Sept 1978 - present)
70. Stonehouse A&F Club (first report June 05 -
71. Sutherland A&F Club (
72. Thornhill A&F Club (joined Oct 1983 – see Nov 83 edition – closed April 2014)
73. Thurso A&F Club (Oct 1981 - present)
74. Turriff A&F Club (March 1982 - present)
75. Tynedale A&F Club (Nov 1980 - present)
76. West Barnes ( - present)
77. Wick A&F Club (Oct 1975 - present)
Not on official list at the start of the season (closed, did not renew membership or omitted in error?)
78. Acharacle & District A&F Club (cMay 1988)
79. Ayr A&F Club (Nov 1983 – per Nov 83 edition) Closed
80. Bonchester Accordion Club (Closed?)
81. Bridge of Allan (Walmer) A&F Club (Walmer Hotel, Bridge of Allan) (c March 1982)
82. Brigmill A&F Club (Oct 1990) Closed
83. Buchan A&F Club
84 Callander A&F Club (
85 Campbeltown & District A&F Club (c Dec 1980)
86 Cleland (cNov 1981 – March 1985) originally called Drumpellier A&F Club (for 2 months)
87 Club Accord
88 Coquetdale A&F Club (Feb 1974 or c1976/77 – 1981/2? – became Rothbury?)
89. Coupar Angus A&F Club (cSept 1978 - ?)
90. Cumnock A&F Club (October 1976 - forced to close cDec 1982 - see Jan 83 Editorial)
91. Denny & Dunipace A&F Club (Feb 1981)
92. Derwentside A&F Club
93. Dornoch A&F Club (first mention in directory 1986)
94. Dumfries Accordion Club (Oughtons) (April 1965 at the Hole in the Wa’)
95. Dunbar Cement Works A&F Club (Closed?)
96. Dundee & District A&F Club (1970? – 1995?)
97. Edinburgh A&F Club (Apr 1981) prev called Chrissie Leatham A&F Club (Oct 1980)
98. Falkirk A&F Club (Sept 1978 - )
99. Fort William A&F Club (21st Oct 1980 – per Dec 1980 B&F)
100. Gorebridge (cNov 1981) originally called Arniston A&F Club (for 2 months)
101. Greenhead Accordion Club (on the A69 between Brampton and Haltwistle)
102. Islay A&F Club (23 Apr 93 -
103. Kirriemuir A&F Club (cSept 1981)
104. Lesmahagow A&F Club (Nov 1979 – closed May 2005)
105. M.A.F.I.A. (1966 – 1993?)
106. Monklands A&F Club (Nov 1978 – closed cApril 1983)
107. Morecambe A&F Club (joined Sept 1982)
108. Muirhead A&F Club (Dec 1994 -
109. Mull A&F Club
110. Newcastleton Accordion Club
111. New Cumnock A&F Club (cMarch 1979)
112. Newton St Boswells Accordion Club (17th Oct 1972 see Apr 1984 obituary for Angus Park)
113. Ormiston Miners’ Welfare Society A&F Club (closed April 1992 – per Sept Editorial)
114. Reading Scottish Fiddlers (cMarch 1997
115. Renfrew A&F Club (original club 1974/5 lapsed after a few years then again in 1984)
116. Stirling A&F Club (Oct 1991 – closed 20000/01?)
117. Straiton Accordion Club (c1968 – closed March 1979)
118. Stranraer & District Accordion Club (1974 – per first edition)
119. Torthorwald A&F Club (near Dumfries)
120. Tranent A&F Club
121. Vancouver
122. Walmer (Bridge of Allan) A&F Club
123. Wellbank A&F Club
124. Yarrow (prev known as Etterick & Yarrow) (Jan 1989 – closed 2001/02)
Advertising rates
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Full Page (colour) - £220
Full Page (b&w) - £140
Half Page (colour) - £110
Half Page (b&w) - £70
Quarter Page (colour) - £55
Quarter Page (b&w) - £35
Eighth Page - £18
Small Boxed £12
B&F Treasurer – Charlie Todd, Thankerton
The main features in the above issue were as follows (this is not a comprehensive detail of all it contained. The Club reports, in particular, are too time consuming at this stage to retype).
Editorial
Well done to all the winners at Oban, Newtongrange and Scarborough! The adjudicators at these competitions have a difficult task, because the standard of entries is always exceptionally high. We hope you like the photos in this month’s magazine.
Congratulations too, to Ian Green of Greentrax who has been made an Honorary Doctor of Music by the RSAMD. Ian has had a fantastic year, celebrating his 70th birthday, his golden Wedding, 20 years of Greentrax, winning the Hamish Henderson Award at the Trad Music Awards, and now his latest accolade!
The votes have finally been counted for the Box and Fiddle Awards. You can see the 6 nominees in each category on Page 37. The winners will be announced at the Ceilidh after the AGM and Luncheon on June 25th. We look forward to meeting up with many of you that day. We had the highest number of votes ever this year, and all of the nominees have done really well to reach the top six.
Remember, we’re always looking for articles and photographs for the B&F. We also need the Club syllabuses in soon so that we can compile the calendars in good time this year.
Karin Ingram
Highlands & Islands Music & Dance Festival – Oban 2006
by Margo MacLennan
Talented musicians from all over Scotland ………….
Classical Connections
by Finlay Forbes
Franz Joseph Haydn
They say that confession is good for the sole. If that is so then I am about to confer considerable benefits upon my immortal remains or at least what I hope will be my immortal remains when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil. Yes I admit it; I am a compulsive classical CD buyer. No sooner do I resolve to arm myself against temptation than my Internet supplier sends me a newsletter laden with irresistible special offers. Failing that, some enterprising independent label is sure to release something that is just too fascinating to ignore. In the face of such forces, rampant recidivism is inevitable. Well it isn’t really but I have yet to find an effective cure. Such crude remedies as ‘just stop buying’ only bring about side effects indescribably more distressing than the original ailment.
Already, some readers will be asking why I am choosing the B&F as a substitute for the confessional in relation to a matter that seems to be at best only connected only tenuously to the magazine’s normal content. The answer is simple. There are some surprising and very enlightening links between the classical and Scots tradition as I discovered with one of my recent compulsive purchases – a ‘Brilliant Box’ of Scottish songs arranged for the Scots music publisher George Thomson by the great Joseph Haydn. (4 CDs for £11 was too much of a bargain for a North East loon to resist).
Brilliant Classics is a business that perhaps typifies more than anything, he cultural differences between Britain and its European neighbours. It is a super-bargain ‘no frills, pile high, sell cheap’ label designed to stimulate impulse buying in places like pharmacies and supermarkets. It is difficult to imaging your average British trolley pusher bunging in a box of Nielsen’s symphonies to go with the plastic cheddar and all-chemical bacon.
Brilliant’s target market means that it tends to concentrate on high-quality reissued recordings of core repertoire rather than the untrodden ways of the classical repertoire. (I can strongly recommend the Beethoven symphony cycle played by the Staatskapelle Dresden under Danish maestro Herbert Blomstedt – big band Beethoven at its very best).
Given the label’s background, the Haydn series is definitely something beyond its normal stock in trade. For a start, it is not a reissue. All recordings are being issued for the first time under a project funded by bodies as diverse as The University of Glasgow and Austrian Wind Power. It is a project that could so easily have misfired by allowing over-hyped big-name singers to murder the Scots language and let their egos get in the way of the music but this has not happened. Brilliant wisely chose two native Scots – Lorna Anderson and Jamie MacDougall to do the singing and the highly specialized and accomplished Haydn Trio Eisenstadt to play the instrumental parts. The results are well worth hearing. If you thought you knew about the wonders of the Scottish song repertoire – think again. There are discoveries aplenty in this series of recordings, including a very witty marital dispute set to the tune The East Neuk o’ Fife taken more like a schottische than the more familiar hornpipe. Lorna Anderson sounds particularly formidable as the aggrieved lady of the house. Then there are the familiar words of Ca’ the Yowes tae the Knowes sung to the not-so-familiar Gaelic air The Maid that Tends the Goats. It works!
Why did Haydn arrange so many songs (around 400 in all)? The short answer is quite simple – because someone paid him to do it. George Thomson was the main, but not the only, publisher who commissioned Haydn to do this work and the Brilliant series has thus far concentrated on the settings for Thomson.
Haydn composed these arrangements between 1791 and 1805, an era in which he was undisputed cock of the European musical roost. Up until 1791, he had shared domination of musical Europe with Mozart in a curious mutual admiration compact under which each believed the other to be the greater composer. After 1805, Haydn attempted, without too much success, to retire completely from composing by which time a new figure in the person of his erstwhile pupil Ludwig van Beethoven was beginning to catch the ears of Europe’s music-loving public.
Haydn’s arrangements for piano, violin and ‘cello, although clearly written in his own masterly style, show a remarkable sensitivity towards the character of the tunes. Such sensitivity is all the more remarkable when we consider that all he had to work on was an untitled melody line of each song. Haydn’s command of English was not particularly strong, and his knowledge of Scots probably non-existent, so it is unlikely that giving him the titles would have added much in the way of insight. In fact, he conducted his correspondence with Thomson in Italian, that being the one language with which both men were reasonably conversant. (As a point in passing, on of Haydn’s more remarkable settings of the Italian language is an operatic aria in praise of the laxative properties of rhubarb!)
Linguistic problems aside, Thomson may have had other reason for keeping Haydn in the dark about the subject matter of the tunes. In song making terms, Thomson was something of a matchmaker and would often attach a set of lyrics to a tune for which they were not originally intended – so be prepared for some surprises. Thomson always used the original tune titles, presumably because they were the ones that his potential buyers would recognize even if the words to which he eventually attached them bore little relationship to the title. His subscribers were unlikely to have been disappointed at the unfamiliar words since most of them were by high quality poets of the age, such as Allan Ramsay (1686 – 1758 from Leadhills / Edinburgh) and a certain Mr R. Burns from Ayrshire.
This is where the surprises begin. Any Doric speakers looking forward to hearing Lorna Anderson’s elegant soprano voice negotiating the intricacies of The Muckin’ o’ Geordie’s Byre will be surprised but probably not disappointed by the results. The song in question has nothing to do with the ongyauns at a lea rig craft upon a hill and everything to do with the sisterly request for relationship counseling so wittily reflected in Burn’s ‘Tam Glen’. Yes, there are two tunes called The Muckin’ o’ Geordie’s Byre and this is the other one! It is also the one with the more legitimate claim to the title. The tune that most of us recognize as The Muckin’ o’ Geordie’s Byre is a variant of the old air Taymouth. In a slower form it becomes Bonnie Strathyre and with a bit of West Highland tweaking turns into the first strain of Westering Home. Some listeners will be equally surprised to hear the Jacobite words of Up and Waur them a’ Willie supplanted by the poetically superior and more enduring sentiments of ‘A Man’s a Man for a’ That’. Any melodic similarities between Up and Waur them a’ Willie and There’s nae Luck aboot the Hoose are not due entirely to coincidence. Once upon a time, they were the same tune!
One of the more revealing aspects of these releases is that it gives us access to the tunes as they were before the army of Victorian editors and ‘improvers’ stuck their editors’ pens into them. The Flowers of Edinburgh set to Burn’s ‘Here is the Glen and here the Bower’ recasts the now familiar hornpipe/reel as a slow Scots Measure of great beauty and elegance.
Do Haydn’s arrangements work? Doubtless the corduroy-breeked ranks of the pithead and midden school of fake campus folkery will object to the imagined gentrification of the Scots tradition but that’s predictability for you. In fact the wheelwright’s son from Rohrau in Austria shows astonishing sensitivity to the subtle nuances of these glorious melodies and sets them very much as a master jeweler would set a fine gemstone. To anyone familiar with Haydn’s large-scale works, this should come as no surprise. The Austro-German symphonic school that Haydn fathered is more strongly rooted in central European folk idioms than many classical experts in the United Kingdom are willing to admit. In no sense does Haydn attempt to sacrifice the music’s native beauty on the alter of his own stylistic ego. In a sense, Haydn was to classical music what Robert Burns was to poetry. Both had the genius to blend everyday items into more complex structures without creating any sense of incongruity.
One of the less obvious benefits of these CDs is that they offer us the chance to hear some of our current dance tunes like, Muirland Willie, Maggie Lauder and Jenny’s Bawbee in something approaching their original form and in arrangements that capture the spirit of the age.
They are a ‘must have’ for anyone interested in the history of Scottish music but that is not all. These performances are worth hearing on their musical merits alone. I can hardly wait for Volume 3.
Disc details :-
Joseph Haydn : Scottish Songs for George Thomson Vol 1 (27 tracks) Brilliant Classics 92278 1 CD
Joseph Haydn : Scottish Songs for George Thomson Vol 2 (91 tracks) Brilliant Classics 92542 4 CD Boxed Set
The Third Southern Hemisphere International School of Scottish Fiddle
by Hamish Paterson
For the third consecutive year………
Fiddle Music from Fife
by
Thanks to a chance meeting….
From Little Acorns
by Caroline Hunt
Years ago one of my school friends…….
Newtongrange Competitions
by Heather McLean
Sunday 16th April 2006……..
CD Reviews – See Hear with Judith Linton
Back on Track – Michael Philip SDB – CDLBP2031 – Lochshore
Down to the Hall – The Occasionals – CDTRAX289 – Greentrax
Steaming all Over – Gary Blair – BRCD043 – Bryansroom Recordings
Take the Floor – Saturday Evenings 19.05 – 20.30 with Robbie Shepherd
Repeats
3rd June 06 – Kenny Thomson & the Wardlaw SDB (Feature – Jack Delaney)
10th June 06 – Craigowl SDB (Feature – Jack Cooper)
17th June 06 – The Lothian Band (Feature – Davie Flockhart)
24th June 06 – OB from Beauly with Marian Anderson SDB and guests Duncan Chisholm & Fiona MacKenzie
CLUB DIARY
Aberdeen (Westburn Park Lounge) –
Alnwick (The Farrier’s Arms – Shilbottle) 14th June 06 – Locals Night
Annan (St Andrew’s Social Club) - 18th June 06 – George Hood SDB
Arbroath (Viewfield Hotel) - 4th June 06 – Bill Black SDB
Armadale (Masonic Hall) –
Balloch (St. Kessog’s Church Hall) –
Banchory (Burnett Arms Hotel) – 26th June 06 – Steven Carcary SDB
Banff & District (Banff Springs Hotel) – 28th June 06 – The Lindsay Sound
Beith & District (Anderson Hotel) –
Belford (Community Centre) –
Biggar (Municipal Hall) –
Blairgowrie (Moorfield Hotel) - 13th June 05 - tbc
Bromley (Trinity United Reform Church) -
Button Key (Windygates Institute) –
Campsie (Glazert Country House Hotel) -
Carlisle (St Margaret Mary’s Social Club) -
Castle Douglas (Urr Valley Country House Hotel) –
Coalburn (Miners’ Welfare) -
Crieff & District (Crieff Hotel)
Cults (Culter Sports & Social Club) 14th June 06 – Lindsay Weir Trio
Dalriada (Argyll Hotel, Lochgilphead)
Dingwall (National Hotel) – 7th June 06 – Nicky McMichan Trio
Dunblane (Victoria Hall) – 2nd June 06 – Dance to Jack Delaney SDB
Dunfermline (Headwell Bowling Club) –
Dunoon & Cowal (McColl’s Hotel)
Duns (Masonic Lodge, Newtown St)
East Kilbride (Masonic Hall, Kittoch St) –
Ellon (Station Hotel) – 20th June 06 – Lindsay Weir Trio
Fintry (Fintry Sports Centre) –
Forfar (Plough Inn) - 25th June 06 – Jennifer Forrest Trio
Forres (Victoria Hotel) –
Galashiels (Abbotsford Arms Hotel) –
Glendale (Black Bull Hotel, Wooler) –
Glenfarg (Lomond Hotel) - 7th June 06 – Ian Cameron Duo
Glenrothes (Victoria Hall, Coaltown of Balgownie) - 27th June 06 – MacKay’s Band
Gretna (Social & Athletic Club) -
Haddington (Railway Inn) -
Highland (Drumossie Hotel) – 19th June 06 - AGM
Inveraray (Argyll Hotel) -
Isle of Skye – (The Royal Hotel, Portree) -
Islesteps (The Embassy Hotel) –
Kelso (Cross Keys Hotel) – 14th June 06 - AGM
Kintore (Torryburn Hotel) – 7th June 06 – Graeme Mitchell SDB
Ladybank (Railway Tavern) - 18th June 06 – Club Band Day
Lanark (Ravenstruther Hall) - 17th June 06 – Dance to Gordon Shand SDB
Langholm (Crown Hotel) –
Lewis & Harris (Stornoway Legion) - 1st June 06 – Club Night
Livingston (Hilcroft Hotel, Whitburn)
Lockerbie (Queen’s Hotel) -
Mauchline (Harry Lyle Suite) -
Montrose (Park Hotel) – 7th June 06 – Dick Black Band
Newburgh (The Ship Inn) -
Newmill-on-Teviot (Newmill Country Inn) - 18th June 06 – Open Day
Newtongrange (Dean Tavern) –
North East (Royal British Legion, Keith) – 6th June 06 - AGM
Oban (McTavish’s Kitchen) –
Orkney (Ayre Hotel, Kirkwall) – 28th June 06 – Open Night
Peebles (Rugby Club) –
Perth (Salutation Hotel) –
Phoenix (Argyll Arms hotel, Ardrishaig)
Premier NI (Chimney Corner Hotel) -
Reading Scottish Fiddlers (Willowbank Infant School, Woodley) - 7th June 06 – Robert Whitehead & Roddy Matthews
Renfrew (Masonic Hall, Broadloan) –
Rothbury (Queen’s Head) - 1st June 06 – AGM & Neil Hardie SDB
Scottish Accordion Music (Banchory) -
Selkirk (Cricket Club) -
Shetland (Shetland Hotel, Lerwick) -
Stonehouse (Bowling Club) -
Sutherland (Rogart Hall) -
Thornhill (Bowling Club Hall) -
Thurso (Pentland Hotel) –
Turriff (Royal British Legion) – 1st June 06 – Gavin Piper
Tynedale (Hexham Ex Service Club) – 15th June 06 – Ian Thow & Alastair Salter
West Barnes (West Barnes Inn)
Wick (MacKay’s Hotel) –
THERE WERE CLUB REPORTS FROM :-
1. Aberdeen
2. Alnwick
3. Annan
4. Balloch
5. Banchory
6. Belford
7. Blairgowrie
8. Button-Key
9. Castle Douglas
10. Coalburn
11. Crieff
12. Cults
13. Dingwall
14. Dunblane
15. Dunoon & Cowal
16. Duns
17. Fintry
18. Forfar
19. Forres
20. Glenrothes
21. Highland
22. Inveraray
23. Isle of Skye
24. Kintore
25. Ladybank
26. Langholm
27. Livingston
28. Mauchline
29. Montrose
30. Newburgh
31. Rothbury
32. Tynedale
33. West Barnes
34. Wick
CLUB DIRECTORY AS AT OCT 2004
(Clubs didn’t necessarily notify the Assoc when they closed so the following may not be entirely correct. Only the clubs submitting the reports or in the Club Diary above were definitely open.)
1. Aberdeen A&F Club (1975 – present)
2. Alnwick A&F Club (Aug 1975 – present)
3. Annan A&F Club (joined Assoc in 1996 but started 1985 – present)
4. Arbroath A&F Club (1991? – present)
5. Armadale A&F Club (Oct 1978? or 80) originally called Bathgate Club (for 2 months) Closed early 08-09
6. Balloch A&F Club (Sept 1972 – per January 1978 issue – present)
7. Banchory A&F Club (1978 – present)
8. Banff & District A&F Club (Oct 1973 – present)
9. Beith & District A&F Club (Sept 1972 – per first edition – present)
10. Belford A&F Club (joined Sept 1982)
11. Biggar A&F Club (Oct 1974 – present)
12. Blairgowrie A&F Club (
13. Brittania B&F Club ( joined 07-08
14. Bromley A&F Club (joined 95-96 – closed early 08-09)
15. Button Key A&F Club (
16. Campsie A&F Club (Nov 95 – present)
17. Carlisle A&F Club (joined Sept 1993 -
18. Castle Douglas A&F Club (c Sept 1980 – present)
19. Coalburn A&F Club (
20. Crathes (aka Scottish Accordion Music – Crathes) (Nov 1997 -
21. Crieff A&F Club (cSept 1981)
22. Cults A & F Club (
23. Dalriada A&F Club (Feb 1981)
24. Dingwall & District A&F Club (May 1979 – per first report)
25. Dunblane & District A&F Club (1971 – present)
26. Dunfermline & District A&F Club (1974 – per first edition)
27. Dunoon & Cowal A&F Club (
28. Duns A&F Club (formed 20th Sept 04 – present)
29. East Kilbride A&F Club (Sept 1980 – Closed 04/05)
30. Ellon A&F Club (
31. Fintry A&F Club (Dec 1972 – reformed Jan 1980 – present)
32. Forfar A&F Club (
33. Forres A&F Club (Jan 1978)
34. Galashiels A&F Club (joined Sept 1982 - present)
35. Galston A&F Club (Oct 1969 – per first edition – closed March 2006)
36. Glendale Accordion Club (Jan 1973)
37. Glenfarg A&F Club (formed 1988 joined Assoc Mar 95 -
38. Glenrothes A&F Club (Mar 93?
39. Gretna A&F Club (1991) Known as North Cumbria A&F Club previously (originally called Gretna when started in June 1966 but later had to move to venues in the North of England and changed name. No breaks in the continuity of the Club)
40. Haddington A&F Club (formed Feb 2005 - )
41. Highland A&F Club (Inverness) (Nov 1973 – present)
42. Inveraray A&F Club (Feb 1991 - present)
43. Islesteps A&F Club (Jan 1981 – present – n.b. evolved from the original Dumfries Club)
44. Isle of Skye A&F Club (June 1983 – present)
45. Kelso A&F Club (May 1976 – present)
46. Kintore A&F Club (
47. Ladybank A&F Club (joined Apr 98 but formed earlier
48. Lanark A&F Club (joined Sept 96 – closed March 2015)
49. Langholm A&F Club (Oct 1967 - present)
50. Lewis & Harris A&F Club (Aug 1994 -
51. Livingston A&F Club (Sept 1973 – present)
52. Lockerbie A&F Club (Nov 1973 - present)
53. Maine Valley A&F Club (
54. Mauchline A&F Club (Sept 1983 - present)
55. Montrose A&F Club (joined Sept 1982 - present)
56. Newburgh A&F Club (joined 2002 but founded
57. Newmill-on-Teviot (Hawick) (Formed late 1988 joined Assoc 1999
58. Newtongrange A&F Club (joined Sept 1977 - present)
59. North East A&F Club aka Keith A&FC (Sept 1971 - present)
60. Oban A&F Club (Nov 1975 - present)
61. Orkney A&F Club (Mar 1978 - present)
62. Peebles A&F Club (26 Nov 1981 - present)
63. Perth & District A&F Club (Aug 1970 - present)
64. Premier A&F Club NI (April 1980)
65. Phoenix A&F Club, Ardrishaig (Dec 2004 -
66. Renfrew A&F Club (1984 -
67. Rothbury Accordion Club (7th Feb 1974) orig called Coquetdale
68. Selkirk A&F Club (
69. Shetland A&F Club (Sept 1978 - present)
70. Stonehouse A&F Club (first report June 05 -
71. Sutherland A&F Club (
72. Thornhill A&F Club (joined Oct 1983 – see Nov 83 edition – closed April 2014)
73. Thurso A&F Club (Oct 1981 - present)
74. Turriff A&F Club (March 1982 - present)
75. Tynedale A&F Club (Nov 1980 - present)
76. West Barnes ( - present)
77. Wick A&F Club (Oct 1975 - present)
Not on official list at the start of the season (closed, did not renew membership or omitted in error?)
78. Acharacle & District A&F Club (cMay 1988)
79. Ayr A&F Club (Nov 1983 – per Nov 83 edition) Closed
80. Bonchester Accordion Club (Closed?)
81. Bridge of Allan (Walmer) A&F Club (Walmer Hotel, Bridge of Allan) (c March 1982)
82. Brigmill A&F Club (Oct 1990) Closed
83. Buchan A&F Club
84 Callander A&F Club (
85 Campbeltown & District A&F Club (c Dec 1980)
86 Cleland (cNov 1981 – March 1985) originally called Drumpellier A&F Club (for 2 months)
87 Club Accord
88 Coquetdale A&F Club (Feb 1974 or c1976/77 – 1981/2? – became Rothbury?)
89. Coupar Angus A&F Club (cSept 1978 - ?)
90. Cumnock A&F Club (October 1976 - forced to close cDec 1982 - see Jan 83 Editorial)
91. Denny & Dunipace A&F Club (Feb 1981)
92. Derwentside A&F Club
93. Dornoch A&F Club (first mention in directory 1986)
94. Dumfries Accordion Club (Oughtons) (April 1965 at the Hole in the Wa’)
95. Dunbar Cement Works A&F Club (Closed?)
96. Dundee & District A&F Club (1970? – 1995?)
97. Edinburgh A&F Club (Apr 1981) prev called Chrissie Leatham A&F Club (Oct 1980)
98. Falkirk A&F Club (Sept 1978 - )
99. Fort William A&F Club (21st Oct 1980 – per Dec 1980 B&F)
100. Gorebridge (cNov 1981) originally called Arniston A&F Club (for 2 months)
101. Greenhead Accordion Club (on the A69 between Brampton and Haltwistle)
102. Islay A&F Club (23 Apr 93 -
103. Kirriemuir A&F Club (cSept 1981)
104. Lesmahagow A&F Club (Nov 1979 – closed May 2005)
105. M.A.F.I.A. (1966 – 1993?)
106. Monklands A&F Club (Nov 1978 – closed cApril 1983)
107. Morecambe A&F Club (joined Sept 1982)
108. Muirhead A&F Club (Dec 1994 -
109. Mull A&F Club
110. Newcastleton Accordion Club
111. New Cumnock A&F Club (cMarch 1979)
112. Newton St Boswells Accordion Club (17th Oct 1972 see Apr 1984 obituary for Angus Park)
113. Ormiston Miners’ Welfare Society A&F Club (closed April 1992 – per Sept Editorial)
114. Reading Scottish Fiddlers (cMarch 1997
115. Renfrew A&F Club (original club 1974/5 lapsed after a few years then again in 1984)
116. Stirling A&F Club (Oct 1991 – closed 20000/01?)
117. Straiton Accordion Club (c1968 – closed March 1979)
118. Stranraer & District Accordion Club (1974 – per first edition)
119. Torthorwald A&F Club (near Dumfries)
120. Tranent A&F Club
121. Vancouver
122. Walmer (Bridge of Allan) A&F Club
123. Wellbank A&F Club
124. Yarrow (prev known as Etterick & Yarrow) (Jan 1989 – closed 2001/02)
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