Scottish tunes?

[Bigtuna]

Does anyone know of any good Scottish tunes that would be good for mandolin? I'm getting married in October and we both have Scottish roots, so any Scottish wedding tunes (if there is such a thing) would be good too. I wouldn't mind sitting in for a song with the two violinist and cello player we've got playing as people come in to sit. More than likely I won't get to play along, so this is more for my entertainment I guess.

[Ravenwood]

'Haste to the Wedding' comes to mind

[Eddie Sheehy]

Marie's Wedding
Flower of Scotland
Will ye no come back again?
Scotland the Brave
The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen
Wild Mountain Thyme
The Road and the miles to Dundee

[Eddie Sheehy]

More:
Fir a Bhata
Over the Sea to Skye
Mile Marbhsaigh

Maybe Dagger will weigh in with some of his gems...

[JeffD]

The mandolin does an exceptional job with slow airs - that tremolo just drags out the emotion.

[kjell]

I've been impressed with a tune called ‘St. Kilda Wedding’ off Fire & Grace by Alisdair Fraser and Natalie Haas. It appears to be scottish. And has wedding right there in the title! It's not too hard to get on the mandolin either.

[kjell]

And I didn't notice you mentioning violin and cello. But those suit the song very well (see Fraser and Haas for a fiddle/cello duet).

[foldedpath]

Our session sometimes plays Arran Boat Song... a.k.a. "Queen Mary's Escape From Lochleven," not exactly a wedding tune, but it's a lovely melody. It's a good one for tremolo on the mandolin, since it's an air and shouldn't be played too fast. Sky Boat Song makes a nice follow-up tune.

[Dagger Gordon]

Well, to be honest most tunes sound pretty good on the mandolin to me.

I play at lots of wedding dances. It's not clear from the original question when exactly in the wedding you want these tunes to be performed. If it's part of the service itself (in a church?), or as background music as people are drinking champagne or as part of the dance would certainly affect what tunes I might play. In a dance situation, we would be concerned more with the types of tunes to fit the various dances - ie Gay Gordons, Dashing White Sergeant, St Bernard's Waltz, Strip The Willow etc. Virtually all the tunes would be Scottish.

I've only played actually during the service twice. On one occasion I'd written a tune for the couple which I played.

There are tunes with the word 'wedding' in the title, but I'm not sure I'd worry about that too much. Few of the guests would probably be aware of the titles, I should think.

Simply play any Scottish tunes you know and would be recognised by your guests as being Scottish would probably be my advice. Scotland The Brave maybe?
Again, it would depend on when the tunes were being played. Jigs and reels in the church might be inappropriate.

[mandroid]

to listen to : http://www.bbc.co.uk/radioscotland/zones/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0079g5m

[steve V. johnson]

I sent this thread to a (non-Cafe member) fiddler friend who loves to play Scottish tunes and lives in rather splendid isolation.

Here's the reply I got:

"hmmm. ‘I’ll get married in my auld claes’. I think it’s northumbrian or tyneside, but hey, da scots never minded taking all the coos they could roond up, I can’t imagine they’d stop at pretty toon! aka ‘hexham quadrille’ -- but richard thompson calls it ‘random jig’ on strict tempo. by any name, a fetching tune."

LOL!!!

stv

[harper]

I played Scottish tunes for a wedding not long ago, though it was on Celtic harp, rather than mandolin. Most of these tunes have been collected and arranged by fiddlers, so they should work well for your violins/cello trio plus or minus mandoin. They are:

Prelude: Pentland Hill / Jamie Come Try Me; both by James Oswald in mid 1700’s; both are 3 / 4 airs.

Attendants’ processional: Lady Dolly Primrose Minuet; the source is Neil, The Scots Fiddle. It is a 3 /4 air.

Bride’s processional: Mrs. Jamieson’s Favorite; composed by Banffshire fiddler Charles Grant in 1800s. This 6/8 air can be found in Martin, Traditional Scottish Fiddling, 2002, p. 114. It was recorded by Alasdair Fraser on “Legacy of the Scottish Fiddle.”

Unity candle ceremony: Bothan An Easan AKA The Cottage Adjoining the Fall and Farewell to GlenShalloch. A fiddler version is in Fraser, The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles, 1874, No. 171, p. 70 and Martin, Taigh na Teud, 1990, p. 19. This is one of my favorite Scottish airs and is in 3 / 4 time.

Recessional: I played two marches. The first was Queen Elizabeth's March by pipe major W. Ross, which is a lively tune in 6/8 time. The second was Loch Maree, composed in early the 1900s by the pipe major George S. McLennan. This a a 3 / 4 retreat march that I found in Neil, The Scots Fiddle. Many Scottish marches would work for recessionals. Retreat marches are regimental tunes played at the end of the day. The name does not refer to a military retreat from battle.

If you need help finding any of these tunes, let me know.

[Dagger Gordon]

I must say, Harper, that's an interesting list.

Where did you learn this stuff? Have you come across Bill Taylor, an American Celtic harper who lives not far from me in Scotland and is an authority on early Scottish harp music?

Mandroid, thanks for that link to Celtic Zones. I wasn't aware of it. I know the presenter Duncan Chisholm well. You would do worse than check his CDs out for good atmospheric tunes. He's a great fiddler, particularly on slow airs.

[harper]

Dagger,

I learned several of these tunes and a lot of other Scottish music from Alison Kinnaird’s harp books, as well as workshops and competitions sponsored by the Scottish Harp Society of America (SHSA) or other US Celtic groups. At these events I been fortunate to meet Scottish harpers Wendy Stewart, Alison Kinnaird, Catriona McKay, Judith Peacock Cummings, William Jackson, and Patsy Seddon and have had a workshop or lesson with most of them. The SHSA now has a repertory book to which all of these harpers plus several more contributed. I have not had the pleasure of meeting Bill Taylor.

Another source from which I learned some of the tunes mentioned is several original fiddle collections from the 18th and 19th centuries, such as those of James Oswald, Capt. Simon Fraser, James Scott Skinner, William Marshall, and the Gows. I have arranged many for harp and some for harp and mandolin.

On another thread I noticed that you will be doing a Scottish Mandolin book and am really looking forward to it.

Best wishes,

[allenhopkins]

Neil Gow's Lament (For the Death of His Second Wife)

[Charles the Bear]

Nigel Gatherer, Scots player and tutor, has lots of tabs on his site:-

http://www.nigelgatherer.com/mando.html


best wishes

Charles