Peter, Great to hear these Shetland jigs; they make fine flute tunes! The Shetland Museum Archives have some fine reel to reel tape recordings of Tom Anderson playing in various settings with different groups. Recording TA/73/C/2 has the Shetland Fiddlers Society playing the "Da Aald Hill Grind" & "Fram Apon Him" around 1975
What a delight. Like being taken on a tour of a forest, with an entertaining, expert guide and raconteur, and shown multiple different paths to explore. Well done both of you!
Totally subscribe to Munro's view that knowing about the background of the tune helps in playing, and listening to, the music in an informed way. What an inspring version of Miss Stewart of Grantully!
This video is a gem, thank you so much! I'm a flute beginner who lives in Scotland, and only find Irish music for flute, so it is great to listen this Scottish tunes. I really love the strathspeys tempo.
You're very welcome! If you are able then have a look at the flutefling website and consider joining them for their upcoming flute weekend in Edinburgh on the weekend of 19th April. It starts on the Friday with a concert with Calum Stewart and continues with workshops and sessions until Sunday afternoon. flutefling.scot/scottish-flute-events/edinburgh-flutefling-10th-anniversary-weekend-2024/ Aberdeen also has an active core of flute players with good teaching through Scottish Culture and Traditions (the classes have just finished and the summer term is for mix instrument classes this year but the regular classes, including flute, will start up again in the Autumn) Whatever you do, keep playing ! Cheers
@@scottishflute3444 thank you! I live in Edinburgh and am aware about the flute weekend. I don't have the confidence for the workshop yet, but I will try to pop in the concert. It seems that Aberdeen is the place for Scottish flute!!
Well, if you do come along to the concert make sure you talk with Gordon Turnbull, he used to run flute and whistle workshops in Edinburgh and one of the main driving forces behind flutefling. I'm not sure if these workshops have started up again but Gordon is the man to ask ! (Gordon - if you see this message . . . .)
Struy Vale Backstory: Volume 2 of “The Caledonian Pocket Companion”, published around 1750 by James Oswald, claims to contain “50 of the most favourite Scotch Tunes, several of them with Variations, all set for the German Flute, by Mr. Oswald”. Page 5 of this volume includes a tune, in A major, with the title “Strily Vale” which is clearly the antecedent of what we now play in Strathspey form as “Struy Vale”. Nigel Gatherer has it that in 1744 James Oswald published ten airs of his own composition "for the Tragedy of Macbeth" and that “Strily Vale” is one of them. Six of the twelve volumes of ” The Caledonian Pocket Companion”, including Volume 2, have been digitised by the National Library of Scotland.
“Captain Campbell” Backstory: Another venerable tune going back over 200 years when it appeared in Malcolm MacDonald’s 1789 2nd Collection. The full title of the tune is "Captain Campbell of Carphen": it may have been composed by MacDonald, this has not been confirmed. MacDonald was from Dunkeld, Perthshire and was contemporary of Inver fiddler-composer Niel Gow, whom he sometimes accompanied on the cello. John Campbell, 1st Marquis of Breadalbane (1762-1834), who was educated at Winchester and succeeded to the earldom of Breadalbane and Holland in 1782 was a titled contemporary of MacDonald. In 1784 he was elected as one of the sixteen Scottish representation Peers to sit in the House of Lords and was also appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society in the same year. Although a military man, there is no record that John Campbell was ever a "Captain" or was addressed as such. He did raise the Regiment of Fencibles and served as Lieutenant-Colonel in Ireland becoming Colonel in 1802, Major-General in 1809 and Lieutenant-General in 1814. In 1806 he was created Baron Breadalbane of Taymouth Castle, Perth which entitled him to a seat in the House of Lords. He was made Earl of Ormelie and Marquess of Breadalbane in 1831 and died at Taymouth Castle three years later. It’s possible Campbell was a patron of Macdonald.
“The Braes o’ Mar” Backstory: A set of "Braes of Mar" appears in the Drummond Castle Manuscript (also called the Duke of Perth MS), as a country dance. The manuscript is inscribed 'A Collection of Country Dances written for the use of his Grace the Duke of Perth by Dav. Young, 1734. The tune appears in “Anderson's Budget of Strathspeys, Reels & Country Dances”, c. 1820 on p. 11 James Hunter attributes this tune to John Coutts of Deeside in his 1988 book “The Fiddle Music of Scotland. In “Musical Scotland: Past and Present, 1894” David Baptie says Coutts was said to have been a "talented composer...but of his biography little seems to be known". Imported by Scottish emigrants to the new world, "Braes of Marr" is considered an old tune in the Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, fiddling repertoire. Some people think the third turn is of Cape Breton origin. In Western Ireland the tune is played without the distinctive dotted rhythm and is sometimes known as "Johnny Will You Marry Me," and used for the dance "the Fling". Another variant of the tune provides the melody for the song “Some Say The Devil Is Dead”. Some say the deil's dead, the deil's dead, the deil's dead, Some say the deil's dead and buried in Kirkaldy. And others say he rose again, he rose again, he rose again, And others say he rose again and danced the Hielan Laddie. or, as the last two lines have sometimes been heard in Ireland: More say he rose again, rose again, rose again, More say he rose again and joined the British army!
Ha ha, technically filmed on different days. Pulling back the curtain slightly . . . .The tunes were filmed on Saturday when I was also busy outside. The intro was filmed just before stitching everything together and uploading to RU-vid.
Hello there! Writing from India. Loved the tunes. I am following your channel too. I was working and listening to your flute and it just brought me into good spirits. So, thank you! And keep up the good work. Merry Christmas
Peter, Thanks for this; just the inspiration I needed to check out the copy of "The Patrick McDonald Collection " I got from the Gaelic Book Council in Glasgow earlier this year. I can recommend their website for an interesting range of CDs and mucic books.
Missed this first time round, Peter. Charlotte started this at the Friday night session, and I came back with the march version, as popular in the North of Ireland, which I had taught at the SC&T flute class. Always liked both versions. Remind me next time I see you to tell you about Johnny Cunningham and the request he got on a "Silly Wizard" tour of the USA to play "Come Eat My Apple", and his reply. :)
Playing an old traditional wooden flute is something else, I was privileged to try not one but four that one person was kind enough to allow me to try, with a view to a future purchase. The truth is that I fell in love with a very similar model, but there was also another flute, something more traditional or folk, I don't know, without the inner metal tube, and with smaller holes and a small embouchure hole, which has a really warm and soft sound, especially for the second octave, and the first octave very quiet, I just wanted to escape with all of them hahahaha. The flutes are special, it is nice to see content of people cultivating the style, taking care of the wooden flutes and keeping that pure sound alive <3
This is a very interesting topic, from a very interesting flute player... but the volume of the sound xD I can barely hear them talk, subtitles help btw
You are absolutely right. I can only apologise. I was a bit opportunistic in asking Calum to do the interview and he agreed there and then so I couldn't turn down the chance. That was the only space I could find at short notice. The singing class were enthusiastic but unfortunately they were in the room next door. This is also a learning curve for me and that has been two interviews where external sounds caused a bit of a problem. I can't promise that all of my future videos will be perfect but I will think more carefully about the location from now on. However, I am glad you enjoyed the content !
@@scottishflute3444 Yes, even if the conditions weren't perfect the content of the video and the topics talked in the interview for sure were far more important, thanks for sharing it :D
Thanks so much for this interview ! 😃 It's not always easy to find interviews from the Celtic musicians that we like, and you let him speak, unlike some journalists on tv !! 😁 Vive la flute 👍
Hatao, I'm glad you enjoyed the interview, I enjoyed chatting with Calum. Great suggestion about Hamish, he is on my radar but I have not been in touch with him yet - watch this space (but it may take a while).
Thanks, the tune is great, I kind of rushed the video as the light was fading so the timing could be better. I stopped by your channel and would encourage everyone else to do so, what an inspiring thing to do, congratuations. just search youtube for @visionpiping1048.
Here’s a whistle recording I did on Play a Strathspey Day, minus the running triplet variation at the end. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-P9bLh_ebj0c.htmlsi=_C3bCyhCish3uRcb
