M
maugein96
Guest
I was brought up in the urban area of the west of Scotland, where religious bigotry still prevails. That part of Scotland has a lot of common links with what is now called Northern Ireland, and the situation is pretty complicated to those who are unfamiliar with the area. In my own case my father's Presbyterian family fled to Ireland from Scotland in the 17th century to avoid religious persecution, but returned to Scotland in the mid 19th century when disease and famine were rife in Ulster. They came to Scotland along with many native Irish people who were Roman Catholic, but on arrival in Scotland they were all lumped together as "Irish", and were ostracised from the mainstream Scottish society. Because of that, my father's Protestant family regularly intermarried with Roman Catholics. My mother's family were native Roman Catholic Irish, so I was the product of what was regarded as a "mixed" marriage. For comparison it was like a Jew marrying a Moslem. Enough of family histories!
In Scotland the accordion tradition (away from the volatile south west), eventually concentrated on what became known as "Country Dance" music. That music comprised of what were claimed as "traditional" Scottish music tunes, and some were adapted for the accordion. Quite a few composers contributed to what became a standard Scottish accordion repertoire, and there were many influences involved from the various areas of Scotland, particularly the east coast and the rural west coast, not forgetting the Hebridean islands of the west and north west. In that respect the influence of the Gaelic speaking regions was a pretty major factor in the music which evolved, considering only about 1% of Scottish people can actually speak Gaelic.
As a child in the 50s and 60s I listened to many accordionists whose repertoire consisted chiefly of Orange (Protestant) and Hibernian (Roman Catholic) sectarian tunes. Any player who was better than average was usually snapped up by their sectarian mentors, and made to play in a marching accordion band. Yes really!! Almost every other household in the village where I lived had a budding accordionist, and they all played PA, belting out tunes that concerned Protestants slaughtering Catholics or vice versa. Most of those bigots could also turn their hand to playing Scottish Country Dance music, although I would have to stress that in most of the rest of Scotland the music was more important than religious bigotry.
My grandfather had come back from WW1 with a love of the accordion music he had heard in France and Belgium, and although he was a devout Covenanter Presbyterian he never allowed religion to stand in the way of his love of "catholic" music. We listened to Radio Lyon just about every day and I started to like French musette accordion from the mid 50s onwards.
When I eventually decided to take up playing the accordion at the age of 30 I naturally had to make a decision about what style I should play. The "religious" music was a no-no, as my respective grandparents would have had an issue with that. I therefore opted for "catholic" French musette, which did not really matter, as I had moved away from "Bigot County" to Edinburgh.
I also decided that I didn't like the very strong Scottish musette accordion tunings. In light of my eventual choice I became a musical "loner", often frightened to play in public in case I was slated for not knowing Scottish tunes. The (non-sectarian) accordion in Scotland has a passionate following, and woe betide anybody who cannot play the music of the people. I can actually play it, but my accordion "doesn't sound right" to people who stay long enough to listen.
I had actually wanted to start playing accordion a lot earlier in my life, but the sectarian stuff, and the fact that the instrument was regarded as being very old fashioned ultimately put me off. However, after I became an old man of 30 I decided that the time was ripe. Problem was I was about 20 years too late. I can play guitar without much fear as I have been playing it since I was a young teenager. By the time you reach 30 you have more hang ups than the cloakroom at the Albert Hall about your ability. In Scotland the instrument and its learning process was taken far too seriously at the time I decided to start playing. I needed to find a style of playing that would allow me to diversify from "bog standard" tunes, so I chose to play a style that none of my fellow countrymen could identify with. Did I succeed? Not really, but I'm still having a lot of fun pretending!
Well, that's my story. What's yours?
In Scotland the accordion tradition (away from the volatile south west), eventually concentrated on what became known as "Country Dance" music. That music comprised of what were claimed as "traditional" Scottish music tunes, and some were adapted for the accordion. Quite a few composers contributed to what became a standard Scottish accordion repertoire, and there were many influences involved from the various areas of Scotland, particularly the east coast and the rural west coast, not forgetting the Hebridean islands of the west and north west. In that respect the influence of the Gaelic speaking regions was a pretty major factor in the music which evolved, considering only about 1% of Scottish people can actually speak Gaelic.
As a child in the 50s and 60s I listened to many accordionists whose repertoire consisted chiefly of Orange (Protestant) and Hibernian (Roman Catholic) sectarian tunes. Any player who was better than average was usually snapped up by their sectarian mentors, and made to play in a marching accordion band. Yes really!! Almost every other household in the village where I lived had a budding accordionist, and they all played PA, belting out tunes that concerned Protestants slaughtering Catholics or vice versa. Most of those bigots could also turn their hand to playing Scottish Country Dance music, although I would have to stress that in most of the rest of Scotland the music was more important than religious bigotry.
My grandfather had come back from WW1 with a love of the accordion music he had heard in France and Belgium, and although he was a devout Covenanter Presbyterian he never allowed religion to stand in the way of his love of "catholic" music. We listened to Radio Lyon just about every day and I started to like French musette accordion from the mid 50s onwards.
When I eventually decided to take up playing the accordion at the age of 30 I naturally had to make a decision about what style I should play. The "religious" music was a no-no, as my respective grandparents would have had an issue with that. I therefore opted for "catholic" French musette, which did not really matter, as I had moved away from "Bigot County" to Edinburgh.
I also decided that I didn't like the very strong Scottish musette accordion tunings. In light of my eventual choice I became a musical "loner", often frightened to play in public in case I was slated for not knowing Scottish tunes. The (non-sectarian) accordion in Scotland has a passionate following, and woe betide anybody who cannot play the music of the people. I can actually play it, but my accordion "doesn't sound right" to people who stay long enough to listen.
I had actually wanted to start playing accordion a lot earlier in my life, but the sectarian stuff, and the fact that the instrument was regarded as being very old fashioned ultimately put me off. However, after I became an old man of 30 I decided that the time was ripe. Problem was I was about 20 years too late. I can play guitar without much fear as I have been playing it since I was a young teenager. By the time you reach 30 you have more hang ups than the cloakroom at the Albert Hall about your ability. In Scotland the instrument and its learning process was taken far too seriously at the time I decided to start playing. I needed to find a style of playing that would allow me to diversify from "bog standard" tunes, so I chose to play a style that none of my fellow countrymen could identify with. Did I succeed? Not really, but I'm still having a lot of fun pretending!
Well, that's my story. What's yours?
