THE SUNDAY CORRESPONDENTS

Gaelic Frug

Having started off my contributions to TVV 7 weeks ago on safe ground with New Order, I’ve decided to throw a bomb into the mix early doors. I'm guessing that the genre of Scots Gaelic singing hasn't been covered too extensively on TVV to date.

No….. please don’t switch off yet!

I hope you will allow me to attempt to broaden TVV’s horizons. Before I start though, I feel I must begin with a disclaimer. When it comes to Gaelic music, I’d have to say I'm no expert, but I know what I like.

From what I've heard over the years, I would place a lot of Gaelic music into four main categories:

1. Waulking Songs
2. Puirt-a-beul
3. Religion
4. Ballads

You can’t beat a bit of crude categorisation to pretend you’ve got a handle on something.
The tracks I’ve picked to accompany this narrative, all happen to be by female singers. This is probably no coincidence – I find that the male voice sounds quite dour in Scots Gaelic, while female voices seem to soar by comparison.

Now, if I can offer one bit of advice before you listen to any of the following tracks... Please, please, please play them as loud as you can. It’s all about allowing the power of the voices to overwhelm you. Anything else and it'll just be background music. And we'll all have wasted our time won't we!

OK, so, here we go.

The first 2 categories have historically served a functional purpose.

1. Waulking the tweed

A practice which is estimated to have died out in the 1950s, waulking the cloth is a technique for softening newly woven tweed. Women would sit around a table and work the cloth by banging it on the table, repeatedly, and in time. Their singing was used to keep the rhythm, often speeding up as the cloth softened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waulking_song

Here's a clip of this form of singing in its original form:



Here’s something similar, but given a bit of a contemporary upgrade.

mp3 : Maggie MacInnes - Disathuirne a Ghabh Mi Mulad (On Saturday I Was Struck With Sadness)

2. Puirt-a-beul

Sometimes just known as "puirt", it translates as “mouth music”.

The origin of this form is straightforward. What happens when you have a party (or ceilidh), but no instruments to accompany the dancing? Well, then you need some songs with which to keep time. As with waulking songs, there occasionally wouldn’t be proper lyrics, but nonsense words which fitted the rhythm. Ironically, the following track which demonstrates this technique, is accompanied.

The track is composed of three parts, gradually increasing in speed as the song progresses.

There are times during the final, fastest part where I just can’t work out where she takes a breath.

mp3 : Julie Fowlis - Puirt

3. Religion

Gaelic psalm singing is the tradition here.

Taking place in the kirk (or church), it would be in the form of call and response - the minister or precentor calls the line to be sung while the congregation repeat it back. The congregation will often sing in harmony and the vocal effect produced can often be quite haunting. My offering here isn't from that particular tradition, but I just had to pick this track for this category.

mp3 : Mairi MacInnes with the Glasgow Gaelic Choir - Is Gaidheal Mi (This Feeling Inside)

4. Ballads

And finally, a category with an enormous depth of resource.

Scots Gaelic ballads needn’t necessarily be sad songs, but I haven’t found many happy ones yet! I’ll keep you posted on that.

In fact, there are so many stories of unrequited love in gaelic music, that it’s actually surprising that there has been enough procreation to continue the tradition.

The story behind this final track surrounds the execution of the Clan Chief MacGregor of Glenstrae in 1570, when his widow composed and sang this lullaby lament to her child.

I don’t understand a word of it, but the harmonies melt me every single time.

mp3 : Mackenzie & William Jackson - Ba Mo Leanabh (O My Baby)

In summary then, I recognise that this genre won’t be for everyone, but I’m confident that the eclecticism of the regular readers of this blog, means that one or two of you will take something from it.

And if that’s the case, then that’s good enough for me.

The Sense Collective, Sunday 7th March 2010