January Tunes - 2025
Skip Gorman shares tips on backup techniques for three Scottish traditional tunes: a Scott Skinner slow air, a marchy/bouncy strathspey, and a Shetland reel.
The Cradle Song was composed by the self-styled "Strathspey King," James Scott Skinner (1843-1927), and printed in his Logie Collection (1888).
The music is in D major, and common time (C), in the usual arrangement of violin/voice part, and the piano part for two hands.
Squeezed underneath the title is 'As sung by Miss Dolly Donaldson'.
Originally written as a song (words are by Alexander Hastings, from Huntly, Aberdeenshire) and extremely popular when he was alive, its inspiration was Skinner's sympathetic observations of a widowed mother caring for her sick son in a hotel room in Forres.
Come, O guardian angels, enter here tonight;
O'er my fevered darling, watch till morning light.
From our home forever, went my Love away,
Crossed the darkling river, entered endless day.
In the Logie Collection, the melody was set in A major for violin. Compare this version with the above setting, where the Cradle Song vocal line is set comfortably for the middle range of most voices.
The violin begins five notes higher, since violinists, unlike singers, don't have to worry about how high they can play. Where music is played with one long bow stroke, Skinner uses slurs: curved lines over the notes.
The vocal setting is much simpler, and slurs are only used four times to show notes sung in one breath, on the words angel, darling, ever, and river. The song melody is also quite plain, and none of the small 'grace' notes which decorate the melody here are included.
Listen to a recording of Skinner himself playing the air by clicking on this link .
Visit the Aberdeen University website for more on James Scott Skinner.
Most of the above information came from there.
*************************************************************************
Skip’s Scottish March is typical of the tunes often used for the Highland Fling, such as Bog an Lochan (12.1) and Gillie Callum, and for dancing a Schottische or a bouncy strathspey
To my ear, the melody resembles Loudon’s Bonnie Woods and Braes aka Lord Moira. The B part has birls or cuts on the E note, also found in the following reel where the cuts are on the A note.
Millbrae is an A major reel, composed by Shetlands pianist and accordion player Ronnie Cooper (1934-1982) of Lerwick. The notation for the January music is from Christine Martin’s Ceol na Fidhle.
Millbrae was the name of the home of pianist Eileen Hunter, with whom Cooper was staying while playing for a wedding on the Shetland island of Unst. The house was a shop in the early 19th century.
*Photo from TuneArch.org annotation
