On the opening page
of this beautifully produced volume
is a Gaelic quotation:
Riaghladh goirid
air an or, ach riaghladh fada air an
oran
(Shared gold goes not far, but a shared
song lasts a long time)
(Carmina Gadelica vol.5 p.62)
These lines enshrine
the very spirit of this exciting book.
It is an anthology – a very personal
anthology from an artist whose whole
life has been spent in the spiritual
land where these songs were born. It
is a collection in word and song that
springs from these pages as a vital
living thing – by no means the relics
of a dead and departed culture as some
might have us believe has been the lot
of the Gael
What is a Gael? Sorley
MacLean’s reply "One who has the
language" is the very essence -
and there is that subtle inference in
the title of this book. It contains
a panorama in song - of an ever wider
panorama - not of Gaelic songs of Scotland
but of the songs of Gaelic Scotland
(1) which in breadth, poetic beauty
and variety would suggest an indigenous
people, living life to the full yet
untrammelled by the electronic gadgetry
of today. There is humour, there is
sorrow, there is love – and there is
conflict. There is also a not unexpected
‘earthy’ quality which might even today
raise an eyebrow – caithris na h-oidche
pp.475-9!
Gaelic song, refusing
to be entombed in dusty volumes on darkened
shelves, lives happily within this volume
which is a joy both to read and to sing.
Despite the erudition of its compiler
this is no stuffy academic treatise:
its purpose, serious enough, discharged
with wide-ranging scholarship, yet leavened
with Anne Lorne Gillies’s vibrant personality
that blows through these pages like
the westering wind over the sands and
shores (‘Traighean’) of the isles of
the West.
It has been done before.
In her exhaustive bibliography of around
175 items, there are at least a dozen
major collections. But there is not
one remotely like this!
If one were to ask
the man-in-the-street to mention Gaelic
songs only the names of Marjorie Kennedy
Fraser and Hugh Roberton might be mentioned
– together with the ‘Eriskay Love Lilt’,
perhaps the Isle of Mull – and more
likely ‘The Road to the Isles’ (sic)
or even ‘Campbeltown Loch’!
But here she has selected
real treasure! Many will find old favourites
as well as never before published songs
and tales – all set in a chronology
of musical (vocal) expression dating
back to the 17th Century
- a historical commentary that provides
a convincing perspective – and all in
a text enlivened by the warm and enthusiastic
personality of one who has known her
subject and its material since childhood.
After a very informative
preface and general introduction the
songs, with commentary and translation
are divided into sections exemplifying
the life of the Gaelic peoples – ‘Songs
of the Sea’ – ‘Songs of Clan and Conflict’
– ‘of Land and Exile’ - Songs of Love
- ‘of courtship and conviviality’ –
that we may read and sing with equal
delight, the whole run through with
a Celtic undercurrent.
The melodies are followed
by the poems – in Gaelic and then in
the compiler’s own translation. "I
have tried" she writes "...
to translate the Gaelic verse in a way
which will help to unlock its meaning
to non-Gaelic speaking readers without
sacrificing every last ounce of poetic
style and linguistic nuance. And so
wherever possible I have made each line
of Gaelic correspond with the same line
in English, and chosen word–for-word
translations of the Gaelic even when
this sounds a little bit stilted, rather
than attempt[ting to poeticise the English.
But there is simply no substitute for
the original." (xvii)
Gaelic song is an oral
tradition – and the inflexions in the
melodic line are often varied by individual
performers and also varied to suit the
subject of the particular verse. In
performance she follows the golden rule
of all Gaelic singing - that is ‘that
the singer should sing the words as
nearly as possible to the way they would
be spoken’ (and the true Gael speaks
always with a lovely musical lilt to
the voice!)
Gaelic song is an oral
tradition and the melody was generally
unaccompanied. (In her many recordings
Anne has shown great discernment in
the provision of accompaniment – usually
restricted to clarsach, pipe and fiddle.
Nonetheless instrumentation and simple
harmony has marked many of the numerous
recordings which she instances in her
discography.
Inevitably she takes
issue with Kennedy Fraser – not so much
in the settings themselves which, cloaking
the attractive tunes in what was basically
a very simple harmony and instrumentation,
so delighted the Victorian drawing rooms;
but in the violence done to the original
melody, smoothing out the decorative
embellishments and Celtic ornamentation.
(2) A comparison with the popular ‘Eriskay
Love Lilt’ of Kennedy Fraser, and the
original ‘Gradh geal mo chridh’ makes
this abundantly clear.
Altogether this is
a book from which Gael and non-Gael
alike will derive lasting pleasure.
It is a hefty volume, but substantially
and beautifully bound in dark buckram.
It is good to see the title upright
on the spine, for I abhor the gymnastics
necessary to find titles on bookshelves
that inevitably face the wrong way!
The dust cover too is an attractive
and appropriate photograph of a lone
shieling at Auchindrain in Argyll.
I hear that this book
has been awarded the Ratcliff prize
for valuable contributions to folk material.
Colin Scott-Sutherland
NOTES
- In the Declaration of Arbroath and
the later Treaty of Northampton it
is enshrined that the King is thought
of as the King of Scots (i.e. of a
people) not King of Scotland (as an
overlord of land).
- Arnold Bax once commented that folk
song has been ‘tamed by the professors’
