On club night on Monday 12 September we danced Send Her Victorious, a beautiful dance devised by Wouter Joubert of the Pretoria Branch in July 2012, in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Celebration.
As Patron of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society for more than 75 years, the Queen has many dances named in her honour, celebrating royal events, places, people, and even her love for her corgis! Scottish Country Dancers will continue to be reminded of her through these dances if in no other way.
Queen Elizabeth dancing with Sir Iain Moncrieffe at the Golden Jubilee Ball in 1973 Photo: RSCDS
For those of a certain age, Send Her Victorious is more than the name of a dance. These well-known words come from the British National Anthem, sung throughout the Commonwealth in years gone by.
Additionally, quite a few of our members are British, others have lived in the UK, and it’s surprising how many of us have been caught up in royal celebrations, parades or visits in countries across the world.
Some of our club members bring us their memories of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, sharing their varied experiences and connections in the UK, New Zealand and Australia.
My memories are of my daughter Caroline meeting the Queen in November 2008 in London.
The All Blacks were in London and there was a big event to promote the 2011 Rugby World Cup being held in New Zealand. An oversized rugby ball structure was erected near Tower Bridge and the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh attended the event, along with John Key, who had only just become New Zealand’s Prime Minister.
Of course, any event involving royalty requires a flower girl to present flowers to the queen, and my husband Kevin (who worked at MFAT at the time) was asked if Caroline would like to be flower girl.
I am not sure if father or daughter was most excited! I was unable to get the day off work (should have pulled a sickie), but Kevin and Caroline had the most wonderful day. You can see Kevin looking on proudly in the left of the wider photo .
Caroline presenting a posy to the Queen in London in 2008. Her father Kevin looks on proudly at the left. The rugby ball structure is at the back right.
When I talked to Kevin about it this week, he laughed and reminded me of the story that it was 2 degrees Celcius that day, and the All Blacks took shelter from the cold in the rugby ball before the Queen’s party arrived.
Caroline and the Queen with the Duke of Edinburgh behind at the left and Prime Minister John Key
Caroline had to stand on the spot designated to her outside for half an hour – she had to be more brave than the All Blacks.
The Queen asked Caroline what school she attended and then asked her about the school’s motto, which was on her blazer.
She then thanked her for the flowers – the organisers had been advised that the Queen only liked to receive small posies.
Australia didn’t have its own National Anthem until 1984, and I seem to remember singing God Save the Queen every day on the parade ground of my small Queensland country school as we honoured the flag before starting the school day.
Memory is an elusive thing, so it’s quite possible singing God Save the Queen has become magnified in my mind over the years, but I know we sang it often enough that I will never forget the words – at least of the first verse.
I also have another memory that I can’t quite pin down, of being crushed in the crowd in Brisbane as we all craned our necks to see the Queen drive by – likely on her 1963 tour of Australia, when I would have been six or seven. But I can’t be sure that’s a true recollection.
Rod and I spent the first six months of 2012 in Cambridge (UK), where he was a visiting fellow at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, taking part in a world-wide celebration of Alan Turing’s life and scientific impact.
I joined a number of groups as a way to meet people, and learn some new things. There was a little patchwork/quilting group that met weekly in nearby St Mark’s Church hall, so I went along.
Their group project for the term was to make a patchwork quilt as a wall hanging for local celebrations of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. We each made one small, simple square, and the teacher put the whole thing together with an image of the Queen as a centre-piece.
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Quilt in 2012, containing a small square made by Kristin. Photo: Supplied
It was a very joyful time in England, I was touched by the affection people felt for the Queen and their enthusiastic preparations for the Jubilee. I hadn’t quite realised until then how big a part bunting played in English celebrations.
Our group quilt added to the festivities at many a morning tea, as it moved around the Church parish in early June – it had been down to the wire as to whether it would be finished in time or not.
Rod and I didn’t take part in any of the public events, but we celebrated in a very Kiwi way with a leg of New Zealand lamb for dinner.
There was also a Scottish Country Dance connection. Johnsonville Club member Pat Reesby was on a trip through the UK and visited us in Cambridge. At the last minute, she cunningly created Union Jack hats from serviettes to make our Jubilee dinner more truly English.
Kristin and Rod celebrating at their Queen’s Diamond Jubilee dinner wearing Union Jack hats created by Pat Reesby. Photo: Pat Reesby.Kristin and Pat touring the old town near King’s College, Cambridge University in the lead-up to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Photo: Rod Downey
A Garden Reception and a Kōkako Poster Competition
In 1995, I was part of a project team at State Insurance working in partnership with the Department of Conservation to help save the endangered bird, the kōkako. A prime objective of our Kōkako Recovery Plan was to raise awareness of this rare bird and the conservation strategies needed to save the species from extinction.
One of our first actions was to run a poster competition in primary schools throughout New Zealand with a focus on Save the Kōkako to increase awareness of the bird. We had a huge response with 507 schools participating and an estimated 35,000 entries.
Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh were attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) in November 1995. Knowing of his interest in the environment and wildlife, we wrote to the Duke via the Department of Internal Affairs office that organised the Royal Tour, asking if he could present the poster winner’s prize at a function in Auckland on 10 November. He accepted!
Consequently, I received an invitation to a Garden Reception at Government House in Wellington on 3 November.
Leanne (who also worked on the poster competition) and I set off on a stunning Wellington day to enjoy an afternoon of fine refreshments with a chance to meet the Queen or Duke.
They appeared on the lawn in front of Government House, then went separate ways to meet as many people as possible. We were the first people the Duke spoke to. He asked why we were at the Reception and we talked about helping to save the kōkako through our recovery plan programme and how we’d see him on the 10th in Auckland at the prizegiving for the winner of a nationwide children’s poster competition. He replied “he’d look forward to seeing us there”.
Leanne and Loralee at the Garden Reception in 1995 with the Duke of Edinburgh behind them at the right
We also had a close-up view of the Queen chatting to guests in the next row to us. She was easy to spot in her trademark bright colours – this time pink!
The Queen in bright pink chatting to other guests at the Garden Reception at Government House
We reached the pinnacle of our Save the Kōkako poster competition 10 November when the Duke of Edinburgh presented the national winner with her prizes in Auckland. We decorated The National Maritime Museum on Hobson Wharf with our beautiful Kōkako Recovery Plan posters and 63 wonderful regional winning posters. The room was packed with excited regional winners and their parents.
Following his arrival and welcome from VIPs, the Duke chatted to the children and looked at their posters. One of the children was very keen to meet the Duke and he said “I was feeling so nervous I had to go off and be sick.”
In a short speech, the Duke expressed his wish that children should treasure bird species as they are, in sense, the making of New Zealand. “If you have not taken up bird watching yet, well I hope you do,” he said. The Duke then presented Melissa, a 10-year-old from Nelson with her prizes.
The Duke of Edinburgh talking to Loralee about the 1st prize (a rimu-framed Kōkako hand coloured etching by artist Mary Taylor) as he presents the artwork to Melissa.
We later received a letter from Sir Brian McGrath GCVO, a key member of Prince Philip’s Household, saying “The Duke of Edinburgh has asked me to write to thank you so much for all the support you are giving to the conservation of an endangered species in New Zealand. His Royal Highness hopes that the Kokako initiative will lead to more general appreciation of what can be done with a bit of determination.”
The only female photographer/reporter at the Queen’s visit to Taupō Swamp in Plimmerton and the Royal New Zealand Police College
In 1986 I worked as reporter/photographer for Kapi-Mana News in Porirua. The Queen visited New Zealand and had asked to see an example of the work of the QEII National Trust.
The crowd were lined up on the road verge beside the swamp, including a group of Cubs from the Plimmerton Scout Group.
I took photos of the Queen greeting people, accepting a posy from one of the cubs, and later at the Police College. But the closest I got to her was as she emerged from the shelter beside the swamp, accompanied by the Kapiti MP Margaret Shields.
Queen Elizabeth II at Taupō Swamp in 1986 with MP Margaret Shields. Photo: Pat ReesbyThe Queen chats to people in the crowd at Taupō Swamp. Photo: Pat Reesby
Looking at the photo of the photographers I think I was the only female photographer (and doubled as reporter).
Pat as the only female photographer (in the centre at the back) at the Royal New Zealand Police College. Queen Elizabeth II conferred the title ‘Royal’ on the College during her visit for the Police Centenary celebrations in 1986. Photo: Supplied
I managed to find my scrapbooks of clippings from Kapi-Mana News, published in early March 1986.
Click on the links below to see more of my photos in the clippings:
The Coronation ‘flypast’, a Sussex visit, and later Sandringham House
The Coronation in June 1953 is one of my early memories. I was aged four and in the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London, where I spent a year being treated for tuberculosis which I had caught at my nursery school. I was very excited about the Coronation because as part of the celebration there was going to be a ‘flypast’ by the Royal Air Force and I was mad about aircraft at that time.
In 1966 the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were in Sussex to mark the 900th anniversary of the invasion of England. They visited my school, Eastbourne College, as part of its centenary celebrations.
Her Majesty inspected the Combined Cadet Force, of which I was a member. This was where I learned the useful life skills of marching, saluting, rifle drill and shooting, as well as how to polish Army boots and clean a .303.
A cheerful Queen inspecting members of the Eastbourne College Combined Cadet Force in 1966. Photo: www.sussexexpress.co.uk
Although I was a cadet (it was voluntary, but you had to do it) I was not among the cadets being inspected by the Queen.
I was presented to her separately as the designer of the school’s hovercraft, which was demonstrated to the Royal party. The Duke remarked “I don’t see much future in these small hovercraft”. I have a photo of the event but cannot find it after moving house over Christmas 2021.
Robert test driving the Royally inspected hovercraft at Eastbourne College on Speech Day 1967
One of the pupils presented to the Royals was an avowed Republican, so he had one of the Royal bodyguards standing behind him at all times, just in case he might decide to attack the Queen.
Later in my early twenties, I worked for a firm of architects in Cambridge, David Roberts and Geoffrey Clarke. In the early 1970s they were commissioned to upgrade Sandringham House, the Queen’s residence in Norfolk and to replace part of the building called The Bachelors’ Wing.
I was put in charge of the alterations to the remaining buildings and spent hours wandering round the house taking measurements for drawings. The house was surprisingly un-palatial in many areas. The downstairs toilet was decorated with the original drawings of newspaper cartoons featuring the Duke of Edinburgh.
Being a rather scruffy long-haired leftie, it always amused me when the policeman on duty waved me through the palace gates in my VW Microbus.
Eventually the works were not carried out; the Royal Family did not feel it would be appropriate to do up their house while the rest of the country was on a three-day week as a response to a miners’ strike and consequent electricity rationing.
I was reflecting on our Annual Dance, and thinking how nice it was to see this year’s beginners doing so well on the dance floor.
As a club we are strongly supportive of our new dancers, and it’s very satisfying to see people who’ve joined us at beginners’ classes in February, having such a good time only six months later at our Annual Dance.
Life being what it is, only two of our beginners were able to make it to the Annual Dance, and I asked those two if they would be prepared to write something about their experience as beginning dancers.
Christine Crewdson and IanLeask kindly agreed to share their experiences, and within three days had sent me their impressions of their first six months as Scottish Country dancers.
Ian and Christine’s stories are different, but with quite a few similarities. Both turn out to have Scottish heritage, neither of them had any previous dance experience, and both of them were surprised by the mental challenges involved.
Read Ian and Christine’s first impressions of dancing below to find out what brought them to Scottish Country Dancing, what makes them keep coming, and their Scottish family connections.
Kristin Downey
Ian Leask: Improving fitness and memory
Ian Leask at the left dancing Summer Waltz Mixer with Verne (a fellow 2022 beginner) at the Johnsonville Mid-Winter Summer Social in July 2022. Photo: Loralee Hyde
Back in February 2022 I saw the Independent Herald article about the Johnsonville Club beginners’ classes and noted that the tutor was that maths professor guy who used to surf with my son Craig more than 25 years ago.
Scottish connections
My great grandfather William Leask left Orkney in the mid 1850s and went whaling and gold mining before settling on a farm in Omakau/Ophir, Central Otago. My great grandmother Ellen followed him out from Orkney several years later and they were married in New Zealand.
So, with the definite link to Scotland and a rather more tenuous link to the Johnsonville Scottish Country Dancing Club, I thought I’d go along because I had always thought Scottish dance music sounded compelling and some of it quite beautiful too.
Fitness and memory
I’d been told that this form of dancing is great to help improve one’s fitness and memory. Improved fitness I could understand but memory? It took exactly one evening to sort me out on that score and reinforce something I knew already – that my short term recall is not good and there is plenty of room for improvement there.
Beginners’ classes
Those three introductory classes were great. Rod and the other experienced members showed amazing patience and tolerance and encouraged us the whole time (and they still do). They were probably quite pleased to see some of the other starters who are pretty light on their feet, but really must have wondered about the wisdom of persisting with a leaden-footed tramper like me. But persist they did. The number of beginners dropped off over the next few months but a hard-core six or so have stayed the course so far.
Ian dancing at the Johnsonville April 2022 Tartan Night just a couple of months after Beginners’ classes. At the front is Janet (another 2022 beginner) dancing with Charles. Ian’s tie is Clan Leask, given to him by his father about 30 years ago. Photo: Robert Vale
Progress
After 6 months of attending club nights and some regional basics classes I think I’ve made some progress. The memory deficit is probably still the most frustrating bit. After a walk-through for a simple 32 bar sequence with 5 or 6 key elements and then a final (albeit high speed) briefing from Rod, you’d think a half intelligent person would be able to remember what to do and where to go. Even more so when the same sequence is then repeated 7 more times to really make it sink in!
But that works only some of the time. Often, when direct contact with my partner has been lost the hard disk gets corrupted and there’s a big blank as I’m wondering where to now? Keep a cosmic connection with your partner Rod said. But where is she? One or more steps ahead. I’ll need to take this short cut to reach the next waypoint on time. Finally, with helpful directions from the odd person on point duty and a firm nudge here and there we’ve got to the end of the 32 bars. And then it all starts over.
In strathspey time it seems to happen too quickly but in jig and reel time it really is relentless. Don’t worry my partner says at the end, it took me at least 5 years before I could relax. Jeez, that’s cheerful. At my age I’ll need to be careful or that might not happen.
Ian at the top of the set at the left, ready to tackle the jig Lonely Sunday at the Johnsonville June 2022 Tartan Night Photo: Loralee Hyde
Conclusion?
I’ve enjoyed the club evenings immensely and the Annual Dance was a great experience. Overall it has been good, if sometimes frustrating fun. But with everyone willing you to improve you couldn’t be in better company.
I’ll be back for the challenge next week!
Ian enjoying the more challenging John Markham’s Rant with Moira in the set at the rear at the Johnsonville Annual Dance in August 2022. Photo: Loralee Hyde
Ian Leask 28 August 2022
Christine Crewdson: Appreciating the laughter and encouragement
Christine Crewdson at the left dancing A Camp of Pleasure with Brenda at the Johnsonville Mid-Winter Summer Social in July 2022. Photo: Loralee Hyde
When did you start dancing with Johnsonville Scottish Country Dance Club?
In the February 2022 Beginners classes. I hadn’t done any dancing prior, so it’s been a steep learning curve.
How did you get into Scottish Country Dancing?
It’s something I’ve wanted to try for a long time but didn’t quite get round to it. I saw a poster inviting people to beginners’ sessions this year. Since I was easing out of the workforce, I decided this was the time to have a go. I thought it would be enjoyable exercise but didn’t realise the mental challenges it involves – so that’s an added bonus.
What do you most enjoy about Scottish Country Dancing?
I’m enjoying meeting new people and discovering how truly friendly and encouraging they are. Everyone I’ve met at Johnsonville Club, the Region Basics courses and from other clubs are so welcoming, patient, positive and supportive. It’s very refreshing and energising.
I’m hoping the mental and physical challenges will keep my brain functioning. In addition, Club newsletters include snippets of interesting information to encourage follow-up learning.
Tell us a bit about any Scottish connections you may have.
My paternal grandmother was Elizabeth Burnett Johnstone (daughter of Elizabeth McKenzie and Charles Johnstone). She was born at Banks, Strichen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and emigrated from Dundee to New Zealand in 1926. My father retained a strong interest in his heritage and, until he died, he always wore a tartan tam o’shanter.
Christine’s late father Tom (aka TAGS, his initials) from around 2000 in his tam o’shanter driving the steam engine at Paekakariki
My maternal grandmother was born in NZ with the maiden name McTaggart. She was an active member of the Scottish Society in Levin for many years. Mum did Highland Dancing as a girl too.
What sorts of activities have you been involved with at the club over the year?
This is my first year so mostly it’s been getting to know people and learning about the dancing community. I haven’t weaned myself off spreadsheets yet, so I’ve done a little bit with those for the Club on wet days, updating historical membership lists and cataloguing the club’s dance books.
What club activity stands out for you?
Christine enjoying Andrew’s Dance at the Johnsonville Annual Dance in August 2022, wearing her new Johnstone tartan sash brought back from Scotland by her son. Photo: Loralee Hyde
I thoroughly enjoyed the Annual Dance – it was so energetic and entertaining. On a more regular basis I appreciate the laughter and encouragement at Club nights and trying to master new dances.
Previously, I always focussed more on lyrics than music so now I’m learning to listen more carefully to the music itself.
Tell us something about your life outside of Scottish Country Dancing.
I’ve been a Systems Accountant for various Govt Depts over many years but gave that away in March this year. I’m divorced, with 2 adult children and 2 grandsons. In June 2021, my daughter and I bought a house together in Khandallah for us and her cat.
I’m still adjusting to being out of the workforce. Mostly I’m occupied with family – especially settling my mother into a rest home and trying to sell her house. I enjoy walking, yoga, reading, crosswords and pottering in the garden.
However, she wasn’t looking to come dancing, rather to offer us the donation of a kilt, in the hopes it would find a new home with someone ‘from the Scottish Country Dancing community’.
Like many of us, Jane Aim has accumulated a lot of possessions over her life, and is in the process of doing a clear-out. Amongst the many items, was her childhood kilt, made from fabric ordered from Scotland.
You might expect Jane’s kilt to be child-sized and well worn. However, she only wore it for special occasions, and it was made with lots of room to grow (as many clothes were in those days).
Jane tells us the story of her kilt:
About 70 years ago my Mother ordered two kilts. I would have been 13 or 14 and my sister eight or nine. She ordered Lindsay tartan and they were made by Mr McPhee, who was the kiltmaker of Wellington at that time.
Around 70 years old, Jane Aim’s Lindsay tartan kilt is in good condition. Photo: Kristin Downey
This kilt is special by virtue of its age, its connections to Jane’s childhood, and its historical links to her forebears in Scotland. Jane’s great-great-grandmother, Jane ‘Jean’ Lindsay, was born in Annan in Dumfriesshire, Scotland in 1816.
The kilt itself was made by N & A McPhee, Highland Outfitters of Wellington, established in 1946 and still operating today as McPhees, supplying kilts, sashes and dancing shoes to the Scottish Country Dancing community.
Adding more interest to the story, Jane is a fifth-generation kiwi, with links to longstanding New Zealand families, including the Blundells and the Seddons.
Definitely a kilt with lots of stories to tell, read on for a few in brief.
Jane ‘Jean’ Lindsay
Namesake and great-great-granddaughter Jane Aim gives us a short history:
My great great grandmother was Jane Lindsay (sometimes called Jean) who came from Annan, a market town and port in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. Jane married Thomas Seddon of St Helen’s, Lancashire and this is where they lived. They were both teachers.
Jane taught junior school at Eccleston denominational school and Thomas was headmaster of an endowed ‘free school’ and taught about 50 pupils. Later their second son, Richard John Seddon came to New Zealand, lived on the West Coast and was Premier of New Zealand from 1893 – till his death on 10th June 1906.
Jane ‘Jean’ Seddon (Lindsay) Photo: GeniRichard Seddon Photo: Wikipedia
In 1946, Neil then founded N & A McPhee, Highland Outfitters. The company has had a long connection with Scottish Country Dancing in New Zealand, with a full page ad on the back page of the first edition of The New Zealand Scottish Country Dancer magazine in 1954.
N. & A. McPhee were ‘Always at your service’ offering ‘Ladies and Gents Kilts made to measure’ from ‘a fine selection of Hand Woven Tartans in Ancient Colourings just to hand from Inverness.’ Also ‘Ladies Sashes and Dancing Pumps’.
By 1957 their ad had moved to the inside of the front cover of TheNZSC Dancer, and the company was now known as McPhee’s Highland House, stocking ‘everything required by Scottish Country Dancers’. They now also offered dance books and ‘Country Dance recordings by Jimmy Shand, Bobby MacLeod’ and many other musicians whose music the club holds in its music collection.
Jane is well embedded in the Wellington community, to which she has given great service, and for which in 2016 she was presented with the Queen’s Service Medal.
Jane Aim at her investiture on 15 April 2016 with the Governor-General Lt Gen The Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae. Photo: Government House
After two years of covid restrictions, many New Zealanders are making the most of the opportunity to explore special areas around our own country before making the big leap to travelling overseas again.
As Scottish Country Dancers, we are always made welcome at other clubs across New Zealand on our travels – it’s a great chance to catch-up with old friends and make new. For the experiences some Johnsonville members have enjoyed in the past, see Rod and Kristin dancing in Hawke’s Bay and Pat Reesby in Whangarei
During a tour around the south of the South Island at the beginning of April, I was fortunate to stay in Dunedin on a Monday night, which is when Ceilidh Club dances at St Johns Church Hall in Roslyn.
It was wonderful to catch-up and dance with Xiaowen Yu, one of the tutors at the club. Formerly from Wellington, she is now living in Dunedin and working at the University of Otago with funding from the Neurological Foundation
This was the first time the club had gathered to dance since February. A rotation of people take the dancing at Ceilidh Club. On this evening Janet Favel, a former President of the New Zealand RSCDS Branch, and Anne Watkins, a club member, shared teaching the programme of relatively well-known and easier dances including Maxwell’s Rant, The Minister on the Loch and The Mad Hatter, a dance devised by Wellingtonian Iain Boyd.
Dancing at Ceilidh Club: Janet Favel is at the left and Xiaowen second from the right. Photo: Loralee Hyde
With the Omicron covid variant doing the rounds, I hadn’t danced since the Wellington 2021 Hogmanay. This was a lovely relaxing evening of fun and friendship…and helpful for recovering some of my mental fitness for dancing!
Thanks so much to Ceilidh Club for your welcome and for the opportunity to get to know you.
Xiaowen and Loralee
Next time you’re travelling to a different part of New Zealand, take a look at the NZ Branch club directory to see what club is dancing near you and pack your shoes! As Xiaowen says: “It’s lovely to slot right in wherever you go”.
Aileen’s musical life in Scotland started as a child in a family of musicians, surrounded by music, so I asked her if she could write something for us talking about the relationship between Scottish and Irish music. She was kind enough to agree.
As Aileen says, “This is a quick primer through numerous subjects really. Each paragraph is a subject in itself.”
I found her article really interesting, especially thinking about how music for Scottish Country Dancing fits into the wider picture of Celtic music. There are lots of musical treats in store in Aileen’s article, just click on the links to enjoy some fantastic Celtic music performances.
There has been cross pollination of music between Scottish and Irish way back through the mists of time. The Celts are a musical tribe. What you find depends a lot on which slice of history you look at.
There is a notion that local music reflects the cadence of local language. Scottish and Irish Gaels are cousins – both Scottish and Irish gaelic is mutually understood and is phonetically very similar (although spelled differently). The root of much traditional music is traced back to gaelic songs – rhythmic working to ballads, eg waulking songs for stretching tweed fabric. The oldest form of Celtic music is ceol mor Highland piping – and links to the classical music of Northern India (which is where the Celts originally came from).
Engraving of Scotswomen singing while waulking cloth, c. 1770 Image: Wikipedia
Scots and Irish both share some very difficult history. Highland villages were displaced for sheep grazing during the Clearances. Irish suffered famine and crop failure. Both led to forced emigration in desperate circumstances from their homelands to New England and east coast settlements. Such heartbreak leads to stirring and emotional tunes – some beautiful, others chilling, eg Sorais Slan le Fionnairidh (Leaving Fuinary) and Carrickfergus.
People have tried to generalise about the recognisable features between Irish/Scottish. You hear that Scottish music has stronger rhythms and Irish music is more flowing and ‘diddly’. I find that the background of the player is every bit as important – accent, emphasis and phrasing. There are huge regional variations in Scotland and Ireland – more so than the Irish/Scottish divide. In Scotland there is the West Highland tradition, steeped in pipe tunes, (eg Aonghas Grant), strong rhythmic fiddle playing style in NE (Strathspey territory), (eg Paul Anderson playing tunes you’ll recognise!), lowland music geared to community – quite mixed, often with Presbyterian hymn chord sequences as its base.
You can play any tune in any ‘dialect’ you want to. Donegal has strong Scottish links and have tunes called ‘Highlands’ which turn out to be strathspeys (eg Mairead Ni Mhaonaidh). Glasgow is a home from home for Irish and any session there will have a strong representation of Irish tunes (eg an Irish pub session). What is true is that Scottish traditional music has some unique forms eg the Strathspey (12 different types identified), pibroch pipe music (stirring stuff) (eg Lament for Donald of Laggan), retreat marches (3 beats to the bar) (here at Dufftown Highland Games), and a wide range of other marches not found elsewhere. Irish hornpipes have wide appeal, but are not unique.
The Scottish Country Dancing music you hear played is a distinct genre which is shoe-horned into the requirements of this branch of dancing. Only 3 tempi (reels, jigs, strathspeys) played in a very prescribed style – particular speed, emphasis on first beat of the bar, steady and continuous. Music is not normally formulaic like this and you might be surprised to hear how some of these tunes are traditionally played! You will not hear much difference between Scottish and Irish jigs when played for Scottish Country Dancing, as I will be strictly bounded by that dance prescriptive form.
Here’s a close to authentic version of The Parting Glass played in a pub. It is a very old song linked to a very old tradition of having a farewell drink together at the end of a convivial evening. Called Stirrup Cup in England, Deoch an Doruis (drink at the door) in Gaelic. (Listen to a 1912 recording by Harry Lauder.) This tradition still continues to a degree, but has been severely hampered by tough drink/drive laws! The tune is Scottish, first version noted in 1605 – so it well precedes the Burns and Gow era. It was collected and committed to paper in the 1780s. Most people think it is Irish, and this happens a lot, but I’m sure cuts both ways.
Scottish silver stirrup cups, Hallmarked Edinburgh, 1917 Image: WikipediaParting Glass, British, Burslem, Staffordshire, Stirrup cup, Ceramics-Pottery, c. 1780 Image: copyright Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
One tune can travel far, gathering lots of different names as it goes – some might have 15. A tune is a living entity and depends on the player to bring out what they feel the music is saying – this obviously varies – a lot! It can develop arms, legs and twists as it goes. It also depends on the instrument. Drone reed instruments tune to the Pythagorean scale (just, true frequencies) and play only in that key. Other instruments tune mostly to Equal Temperament scale (developed by Bach) which compromises notes so that any key is playable by the instrument. However, it means different keys have a different mood/feel and this feature can be emphasized when you are composing a tune. Bright and happy – go for G or A. Sad and emotional G minor and D minor does it for me.
