T he Strathspey in Scottish Music: Early History and Development

1. The Strathspey in Scottish Music: Early History and Development Scots Fiddle Festival 23 November 2013 Dr Will Lamb University of Edinburgh

2. Outline of talk • Overview: definitions and main positions • Semantics of ‘fused’ music-dance categories • Why we get confused by the early collections • Gaelic song • The ultimate roots of the strathspey • Conventionalisation as a ‘tune type’ • How the strathspey got its name

3. Main Positions • The rhythm associated with the strathspey is so ubiquitous in Gaelic ‘motion’ song that it must have developed as part of that tradition • Before being conventionalised as a ‘tune type’ in the 18th century, it was a general style of dance music and song amongst Gaelic speakers • As a tune type, it was a culture graft: a product of contact between Anglo and Gaelic society • Strathspey was a dynamic nexus point between these cultures

4. Many Faces of the Strathspey • As a rhythmic ‘meme’ permeating Scottish musical culture, esp Gaelic song • As a type of instrumental dance music • As a slow form of ‘listening’ music • As a type of dance

5. Strathspeys: standard account • It is a type of fiddle music (Collinson 1966) • Conceived in the 18thcentury, in the Speyside area of the Highlands (Doherty 1999). • Earliest players were the Browns, of Kincardine-on-Spey, and the Cummings, of Grantown-on-Spey (Bruford 1994).

6. Strathspeys and Reels: Modern Definitions • Strathspey: slow pointed tune in common time (4/4) with dotted notes and ‘Scots snaps’ • Reel: fast round tune in alla breve (‘cut time’: 2/2) with smooth, regular quavers

7. Angus Cumming’s collection (1780)

8. Two Strathspeys from Cumming (1780) Strathspey? ✔ Strathspey?? Reel ✖

9. Diverse tune or dynamic dance? • Francis Peacock: dance master • (1723-1807) • Marked no distinction in the steps for the strathspey versus the reel. • Additionally: said that the strathspey was found across the Highland region.

10. The strathspey, in Cumming’s time, was not a tune type. It was a semantic fusion. It was a dance-music complex incorporating a tempo change and pointed rhythm.

11. Semantic fusion: Gaelic song ‘I never heard my friends in Glendale hum or sing an old tune without words. To them the words and the air were inseparable.’ --Margaret Fay Shaw 1955: 76 ‘The tune without the words is as a voice without a mouth.’ --Martin Freeman 1920-21: xxv

12. Synecdoche: when a part is used to describe a whole • (Song)

13. Dance Songs ‘[The titles in this collection are] the original Gaelic designations by which the [tunes] have been known in the Highlands ... These designations consist generally of something peculiar or striking in the verse or verses to which they were composed’ --Wm Gunn (1848): Preface to the Caledonian Repository of pipe music

14. ’S ann an Ìle (strathspey) Hugh Duncan, Islay Strathspey followed by reel: normal speed

15. A Chur nan Gobhar às a’ Chreig (Reel) Hugh Duncan, Islay Strathspey at normal tempo followed by 3rd part of reel, stretched to the same tempo

16. Nuair a Bha Mi an Cùl a’ Bhealaich (Reel) Jonathan MacDonald, Skye Text Strathspey at normal tempo followed by 3rd part of reel, stretched to the same tempo

17. Ruidhlidh Mo Nighean Donn (Reel: bars 9-12) Peggy MacRae, South Uist Slowed down slightly

18. Pretty Marion: Pipe Reel Rona Lightfoot, South Uist Strathspey (end of Moneymusk) in normal tempo followed by 3rd part of reel (Pretty Marion), stretched to same tempo

19. Brà Brà Bleith: Quern Song Annie Johnson, Barra Normal speed

20. Griogal Cridhe: Lullaby Jessie MacKenzie, Lewis Normal Speed

21. Griogal Cridhe cont Sped up to strathspey tempo

22. Cò Sheinneadh an Fhìdeag Airgid: Waulking song From Waulking Songs of Barra Sped up to strathspey tempo

23. In both the playing and singing of reels and slower work songs one finds an underlying strathspey feel, when performed by Gaelic speakers Is the ‘strathspey’ a wide, underlying rhythmic matrix for Gaelic song associated with movement?

24. Aboriginal concept of ‘Dancing’ ‘Yoiis defined by the Tiwi not only as the dance, to dance, and the social event (that includes dance), but also as the songs used for dance, the rhythm of these songs, and to sing for dance. Thus yoi denotes the whole event’ (Grau 1983: 32)

25. Motion-song in early Gaelic culture < luinne ‘ferocity of the dance’?

26. Possible evolution of Luinneagan (pl.) Structural diversions Disassociation of song and dance Movement coordinated with song Timeline

27. Why was it called the ‘strathspey’? • The strathspey, as a form of dance music, first entered the written record in the 1740s • At this time, the Spey valley region was on the border between Anglo and Gaelic society • The rhythm is likely to have been noticed by violin playing nobility, or musicians in their employ • The strathspey - as we know it today - is a product of this intercultural contact: a culture graft

28. Place-names in Scottish Fiddle Collections (Gore) Ex. ‘Lord Kinnaird’; ‘The Duchess of Argyll’; ‘Castle Grant’

29. Place-names in Tune Collections 1700-1749

30. Place-names in Tune Collections 1750-1783 • Musical zone much bigger • Many areas of the Gaidhealtachd still ‘off the map’ • Ross-shire • Sutherland • The Hebrides (except Mull and Skye)

31. Importance of Place-names • Provide us with evidence of intercultural contact • Show that the Spey valley area was accessible to Anglo musical society • Shows the absence of such contact in large swathes of the Highlands • The moniker - the ‘strathspey’ swallowed up earlier airs featuring the meme

32. Summary The underlying rhythm of the strathspey is so ubiquitous in Gaelic songs connected to motion, that it must must have developed as part of that tradition Avestige of a complex of language, movement and music that once existed in Gaelic society As a ‘tune type’, it is a culture graft: a product of contact between Anglo and Gaelic society