A Short History of Scottish Country Dancing

[OuijaBoard]

"The Scots are very close to their roots and rarely travel abroad."
??

I see he was in good company:

List of people who have declined a British honour - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Ha! This recalls John Lennon's letter to the Queen when sending back his MBE--even at his most sententious, with Lennon a good quip was never absent!

]]]"I am returning my MBE as a protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts. With love. John Lennon of Bag."[[[

Of course, he later wrote to them asking if it could be re-conferred to help him with his threatened deportation from the US.


Sorry for the thread drift.

 

[boxplayer4000]

OuijaBoard: In your posted video ‘Hamish Henderson’s Refusal and Clansmen Medley’ I am perhaps missing a point but don’t see the video’s connection to its title.
The dance, for four couples, is one I can’t identify but it is a medley of 64 bars strathspey and 64 bars reel.
The tunes are all by the Scottish fiddler, J. Scott Skinner ie. The Laird o’Drumblair, MacKenzie Hay, McKenzie Fraser and The Bungalow. I think the band playing on the video may be led by David South. The music is excellent and the tempo never varies.
Thanks to ‘Walker’ for opening up this thread. The music has been with me for ever and later when I was allowed into the local church hall to play my accordion for the dance instruction group there in the 70s. They didn’t chuck me out so that was some encouragement!

 

[OuijaBoard]

OuijaBoard: In your posted video ‘Hamish Henderson’s Refusal and Clansmen Medley’ I am perhaps missing a point but don’t see the video’s connection to its title.
The dance, for four couples, is one I can’t identify but it is a medley of 64 bars strathspey and 64 bars reel.
The tunes are all by the Scottish fiddler, J. Scott Skinner ie. The Laird o’Drumblair, MacKenzie Hay, McKenzie Fraser and The Bungalow. I think the band playing on the video may be led by David South. The music is excellent and the tempo never varies.
Thanks to ‘Walker’ for opening up this thread. The music has been with me for ever and later when I was allowed into the local church hall to play my accordion for the dance instruction group there in the 70s. They didn’t chuck me out so that was some encouragement!

Hi--Yes, I'm well aware that the YT video's title is inaccurate as to the audio it contains, and I noted this in the post. Some of what I wrote ended up kind of closely spaced between the video clips, perhaps you missed it.

The visual post of the dance is there because this thread is about SCD. As I wrote, I came across that clip, because its YT title lists a tune title I was searching for, only to find that despite the YT title, the tune is nowhere on the audio of the SCD dance clip. But as this happened to take place during this thread discussion about SCD, I posted the dance clip.

Next, in a digressive FYI having nothing to do with SCD, I posted clip #2, which DOES contain the tune. YT links seem to post here more closely spaced than I expect them to, and my explanation of this is kind of pressed in between video #1 and video #2.

Digressing further, I then posted clip #3, about the tune's eponymous namesake. If neither the tune itself nor the biographical material about Mr. Henderson float your boat, the scroll function is an option I'm sure we all enjoy having at our fingertips.


I haven't the faintest clue why the visual SCD dance clip is titled "Hamish Henderson's Refusal," especially since the audio that's there is basically "Greatest Hits" of the Scottish traditional dance repertoire while HH'sR is a relatively contemporary, composition. Not unheard-of, but lesser-known. However, anomalies of this type are not unheard-of for addicts of tchunes when on research missions, though it is kind of funny that this clip was at the top of the keyword-search results. The clip of the tune being played by its actual composer was lower down in the search results, weirdly enough.

 

[boxplayer4000]

OuijaBoard: Thanks for your explanations. Hamish Henderson is known more as a poet in Scotland than an influence on music I think.

A much bigger influence was the music of the 'The John Ellis Dance Band' here demonstrating their clean, tight, very Scottish sound.

07 HighSchottEllis.wav

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P.S. The music sounds like a highland bagpipe tune which I can't identify and hope that any bagpipers out there can name it.

 

[OuijaBoard]

OuijaBoard: Thanks for your explanations. Hamish Henderson is known more as a poet in Scotland than an influence on music I think.

A much bigger influence was the music of the 'The John Ellis Dance Band' here demonstrating their clean, tight, very Scottish sound.

07 HighSchottEllis.wav

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

P.S. The music sounds like a highland bagpipe tune which I can't identify and hope that any bagpipers out there can name it.

Ha, I wasn't describing HH as an influence on music, and I don't think music was why the tune composer named the tune in his honor. The composer was homaging HH's activism. My posts about HH were simply an irresistible (to me) digression into one of Scottish culture and history's fascinating byways that by kismet took me to a SCD clip.

After decades playing Irish trad and hopefully learning about associated history and culture (still ongoing), I began playing with a Scottish traditional group a couple years before the pandemic, and am having a blast learning about another wonderful musical and cultural tradition. The folks in my group were playing "HH's Refusal" at a session recently, in a set that apparently they performed about ten years ago. I loved the tunes and did not have recording tech with me, so set out to find examples to ear-learn, and while I was at it read up on HH for the fun of learning about HH and his "refusal." To me all this is part of the endless fascination of folk and traditional music.

 

[Walker]

John Ellis and his Highland Country Band were pure class. That recording is so refined, it has elegance and precision in abundance. Of course, the band was led on fiddle by John Ellis, with Douglas Muir on accordion and Irene Dear on harmony accordion, both playing Ranco Antonio Supervox models.

@boxplayer4000 I don't know the name of the 2/4 pipe march, but it's superbly played by the band. If I'm not mistaken the tune was recorded on the album Thistle & The Shamrock released 1999 with that very tune on the track titled simply as Highland Schottische, in reference to the dance it was played for. It's a fantastic tune and I'd like to find the music for it.

Incidentally, there was a music book entitled Scottish Accordion by Douglas Muir, published 1985 by the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Stirling. It's one of the very best publications written for the traditional accordion with superbly arranged stradella bass lines that were subtle, substantial and carefully crafted at the same time, all in the idiom of the classic Scottish dance accordion. If anyone wants to study the Scottish style accordion and be challenged and strengthened, they they could do a lot worse than to obtain a copy of this work.

Another tune from John Ellis' band...

​

 

[JEBrown]

This is the kind of music I play 90% of the time. The dancing is wonderful, as you can teach it to a beginner in 5 minutes, but even very experienced dances love to keep dancing. It's fantastic to see a hundred people all dancing a reel or a jig together, and the dancers love it, they never want us to stop!

 

[boxplayer4000]

JE: Seems like you have a wee bit of Scotland over there. I couldn't agree more that there's not much to beat playing to a hall of enthusiastic, energetic dancers.

 

[OuijaBoard]

Scottish ceilidh dancing teachable to beginners in five minutes? I see it, have seen the drafting of newbies into the circle and into the fun on Cape Breton. Scottish Country Dancing proper in five minutes? . . . Not so much. Not saying a year or anything like that, but picking that up is a bit different thing from regular ceilidh.

 

[boxplayer4000]

OuijaBoard: There's a vast range of competence required ranging from the simplest ceilidh dance (such as a 'Gay Gordons') to the most complicated Scottish Country Dance which requires much more practice in the steps and sequences. I think the point JE is making that it is actually quite possible to get an entire amateur 'dancing' within a couple of minutes at an 'entry level'. The sense of achievement shown by those who complete their first Scottish dance is a sight to behold; a bit like passing their driving test I think.

 

[boxplayer4000]

Continuing the ’Scottish’ theme I listened to the CD of Alexander Lindsay today called 'Fields of Home' and was impressed with his interpretation of the quintessentially Scottish format of the March, Strathspey and Reel Medley. This has been explained before on this site but briefly it is a medley of tunes, often played in competition situations, to show the players technical skills, not least in a clean change from one tempo to another.
The march is the traditional ‘MacPherson’s Blade’ by J.S.Skinner; the strathspey ’The Marquis of Huntley’s Farewell’ by William Marshall and the reel is the modern ’The Cape Breton Visit to Shetland’ by Willie Hunter.’

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[McSqueeze]

Great playing from Alexander Lindsay on a British Chromatic. Thanks for posting.

 

[JerryPH]

Goood playing and good sounding accordion!

 

[boxplayer4000]

I believe that particular Guerrini accordion was a 'special' aimed at another professional player and specially tuned to try and enter the BCCsharp market here in Scotland which was dominated by the Shand Morinos.

 

[boxplayer4000]

Highland Schottische
In this thread on the 9th. January I offered a recording of ’The John Ellis Highland Country Band’ as a good example of Scottish dance music.
The recording consists of one untitled tune and despite asking for assistance of the community in this site in naming the tune and passing it around in the bagpiping community I have had no success in getting information about it.
I appreciate that such a tune appeals to quite a limited audience range but where I live it still has great appeal.

I’ve persevered with the tune, slowing it down to hear it better etc., and the recording below and the music reflects to some extent what I feel John Ellis is playing.

HighSchottEllisGordon.m4a

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[David Higson]

I have happy memories of my granny going to her "class" at the local Caledonian society. She continued Scottish country dancing until her mid 80's, when she stopped because "it was getting a bit quick for her." The society granted her "Life Membership" at a dinner that we all attended which was followed by a fun evening of dancing and music.

 

[OuijaBoard]

The Scottish traditional society I play with just did our annual concert, this year a sold-out event with guest luminaries Alisdair Fraser (fiddle) and Natalie Haas (cello). It was a roaring success, and working up this season's program added a good couple dozen or more new tunes to my trad repertoire and memory banks.

 

[murathan]

My first tune was Davy Davy Knick Knack about a year ago on this genre. Now playing Atholl Highlanders and Scotland the brave too. About 50 and going on.

 

[boxplayer4000]

murathan:
It 'tickles my fancy', sitting here in Scotland that, somebody is playing these tunes, so far away and not a place with any obvious Scottish connections. Well done!
Most music, videos etc. are on line these days but if you have any difficulty sourcing material I would be glad to help, if I can.

 

[murathan]

murathan:
It 'tickles my fancy', sitting here in Scotland that, somebody is playing these tunes, so far away and not a place with any obvious Scottish connections. Well done!
Most music, videos etc. are on line these days but if you have any difficulty sourcing material I would be glad to help, if I can.

Thanks I was always interested in Folk music before accordion but my piano was weak and couldnt do much in bassoon as I thought it was not suit to folk music. You know bassoon, clarinet, flute, these are ensemble instruments, need a partner, people solved this with backtracks in these days. With the accordion and internet, I found a place to use my interest. I've started with Russian folk (populars) maybe same as much of people. What I hesitated first is this genre is mostly played on melodeon (button systems) and violin and so fast in many videos, I thought it may not suit for piano accordion as well. Has a special ornamentation style too. After some experimentation and Lester Bailey, Anahata's videos, I got into these and I like them very much. Many people see these as too similar music, hard to grasp. They were always there as free sheet music in some ways but not get much interest because of these reasons. I have no connection with Scottish or Russian or Polish people except music