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Subject: "Fulling" songs? From: Animaterra Date: 30 Apr 98 - 09:12 PM I'm looking for any songs that were sung while wool was being felted. Strongly rhythmic, these were sung by the workers (usually women?) who scrubbed the wool during the felting process. |
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Subject: RE: From: Bruce O. Date: 30 Apr 98 - 09:25 PM 'Fulling' as I understand it was when the work was done by machine, and 'wauking' by hand. I can't remember the URL, but go to my website and near the bottom is a click to Craig Cockburn's in Scotland. You'll have to look around to find 'Songs' and his references to collections of wauking songs. He seems to be the internet's expert on these songs. www.erols.com/olsonw |
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Subject: RE: Fulling From: animaterra Date: 01 May 98 - 07:28 PM Thanks, Bruce! I used to have a cd of waulking songs, as I recall now. None seemed particularly singable by kids. |
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Subject: RE: From: Ted from Australia Date: 01 May 98 - 10:39 PM I have stuck away somewhere in the back of my mind a celtic somg which was sung by Paul Lawler (ex Darwin now Sydney)As I recall it was supposed to be sung whilst doing something digusting with wool which involved urine (although none of this is actually mentioned in the words of the song) whilst wating for the clan chieftan to come back from a sea raid. It's a really powerfull song "Kismulls Galley" (dont trust the spelling) I'll try and dig up some more if you'r interested. Regards Ted |
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Subject: RE: fulling From: Animaterra Date: 02 May 98 - 10:21 AM Yes, Ted, I've heard of such a disgusting process! I'd love to find the song if you can dig it up! A |
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Subject: RE: From: Bruce O. Date: 03 May 98 - 09:53 PM My understanding is the the urine was required for the wauking. (Almost, if not all, of the songs are Scots Gaelic, and there seem to never have been any in Ireland.) [This subject on the Scots music thread about 2 months ago] |
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Subject: RE: From: Barry Finn Date: 03 May 98 - 10:25 PM Bruce, not sure but I thought, both the task & music of this got brought over to the Canadian Maritimes. Any one got more on tthat. Thanks Barry |
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Subject: RE: Waulking From: Cliff McGann Date: 03 May 98 - 10:50 PM The process of 'waulking'was common in both Ireland and Scotland as well as in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, almost all of eastern Nova Scotia and the Codroy Valley of Newfoundland. While I am not as familair with Scotland's milling tradition in Cape Breton milling frolics are still common but are usually symbolic only-as mechanical methods of fulling the cloth have taken over. Waulking was actually the final part of a process whereby the tweed was 'fulled'. In Scotland it was done predominantly by women while in Canada both men and women would be part of the process. I think this was likelly due to the harsh winters in Canada which didn't allow men to work as fisherman or farmers year round. The songs were referred to in Gaelic as Orain Luaidh and stale urine (maistir in gaelic) was used as it possesed amonia which would soften the cloth. Orain Luaidh are one of the more common types of gaelic folk songs partially because milling frolics could last quite some time and songs were continually sung. Oxford University Press published 3 volumes entitled Hebridian Folk Songs which is an in depth examination into waulking songs and although hard to find are a good study of the genre. As they are a common song in the gaelic song world you will find that most Gaelic recordings have at least one milling song. Mary Jane Lamond, a fine Gaelic singer from Nova Scotia has a couple on her CD Bho Thir Nan Craobh which you can get from B&R Heritage Enterprises @ www.capebretonet.com/Music/BRHeritage/. To my knowledge the only modern recording featuring all Waulking Songs is the CD by the Scottish group Bannal on Greentrax records. If anyone is interested in othe Gaelic recordings I can suggest some. I'll check this thread again in a day or two. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: KISHMUL'S GALLEY^^ From: Ted from Australia Date: 04 May 98 - 09:05 AM G'Day Animaterra, This is as much of Kishmul's Galley as I can remember. I have done a bit of searching and found that The Corries do a version of it on their album titled Kishmul's Galley (funny that). I can vaguely remember hearing it and it was pretty close to the version I first heard Paul Lawler do about 25 years ago. I will post this version in the words wanted thread that I started on May 1 in the hope that it will jog someone's memory. Regards Ted KISHMUL'S GALLEY
High upon the barenock heeya
(Missing line or 2)
Then at last 'gainst wind and tide
There's red wine Repeat V1 |
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Subject: RE: From: Bruce O. Date: 04 May 98 - 11:17 AM In an article, 'The Sea-divided Gaels', Alan Bruford in the first article in 'E/igse Cheol Ti/re', I, 1972-3, notes that "Callino" was used for a wauking song in the Hebrides (for English use of the tune see my broadside ballad index). He notes other wauking song tunes that may be Irish in origin. It's difficult to see where he drops specifically wauking songs in comparing Scots and Irish Gaelic songs, but I think it's the case that there aren't any known Irish songs that are specifically noted to be wauking songs. However, I don't really know precisely how one identifies a song as a wauking song, and little about Irish Gaelic and less of Scots Gaelic. So whether there are Irish wauking songs or not probably depend on one's choice of a definition; one that I don't know.
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Subject: RE: "fulling " songs From: Animaterra Date: 04 May 98 - 09:27 PM Wow, thanks, everyone, especially Bruce, Ted and Cliff! I'll be felting with elementary school kids in a few weeks and was asked to provide some songs. I feel highly educated now, tho' I'll probably stick to songs we already know (Sail Away Ladies, Cumberland Gap- good-n-rhythmic). Maybe that's how some of the wauking songs developed in the first place? |
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Subject: RE:"Fulling" songs? From: Cuilionn Date: 07 May 98 - 07:21 PM Those who are a bit confused about how songs "qualify" to enter the waulking-song repetoire may be helped by the following explanation: Waulking is an exhausting and lengthy process of beating heavy, wet, stinking cloth against hard wood to soften and tighten it. Naturally, songs with a good rhythm were used to make the work more bearable and keep up the waulkers' stamina. Some songs in the repetoire (sp?) are several centuries old, and some are composed on the spot as people add in humorous local commentary. Because it is considered terrible luck to sing the same song twice over a piece of cloth as it is waulked, songs from a wide range of traditions have been drawn in. Ancient bardic poems may be sung in the same set with a song teasing Mary about her foppish current sweetheart with the badly-made shoes. Waulking songs have kept alive the music of other traditional rhythmic work as those types of work have died out. Basically, any song that keeps the right rhythm can become a waulking song! A h-uile beannachd leibh, --Cuilionn By the way, an excellent waulking song for kids is "Birlinn Ghoraidh Chrobhain" or "The Galley of Godred Crovan." A friend of mine recalls learning it in her primary school in Scotland. |
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Subject: RE: Wauking songs From: Muriel Date: 07 May 98 - 11:04 PM I remember reading somewhere (back of a record jacket, I think -- don't remember the name) that wauking songs were used also as a timing device. A person experienced in the wauking process would have a pretty good idea how long it took to sing a song, and also how much longer the fabric was going to require. Stale urine (ammonia) was also used as a mordant to make natural dyes more colour-fast. I wonder if there is a connection. |
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Subject: RE: "Fulling" songs? From: Cuilionn Date: 08 May 98 - 12:42 PM We've been doing tweed-waulking at the Seattle Folklife Festival, local highland games, and just for own good fun, since a lot of the Scots Gaidhlig learners here happen to be weavers. You're quite right, Muriel, about the timing. We always start with very slow songs, trading off on who leads, with everyone at the table joining in lustily on the refrains. We sing in three-song sets, with the master-weaver checking the width of the cloth after every third. We all shout, in Gaidhlig, "is it ready yet?" and she makes a big show of telling us it isn't, and "oh, what misfortune, I guess we'll just have to sing some more!" The songs gradually speed up, and along about the fifth to the seventh set the cloth gets tight enough. Then we finish up with a very rapid "clapping song" to get the kinks out of our muscles and the big wet wooly bits off our fingers. The one we usually sing is a teasing song about "who will go with me on the Irish boat?". We throw in names of the laddies we'd like to be stuck in a boat with, ending with great good energy and cheer. It is traditional, afterwards, to rinse the tweed in the nearest "burn" or stream, at which time it must be blessed. The Carmina Gaedelica has, I'm sure, some examples of these blessings. A h-uile beannachd leibh, --Cuilionn |
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Subject: RE: From: Bruce O. Date: 11 May 98 - 08:49 PM Waulking songs (Scots Gaelic with translation), mostly from the Isle of Skye are divided into types in JFSS #16, 1911. Slow; Moderate; Wringing the Cloth; Improvisory; Reaping or Waulking; Rowing or Waulking. 37 total songs (plus others in Scots Gaelic) |
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Subject: Waulking From: Bill D Date: 11 May 98 - 10:36 PM there were a couple other threads on this earlier...you can do a 'forum search' on 'waulking'..or just go and here there are some links and even pictures noted |
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Subject: RE: Fulling songs From: GUEST,Philippa Date: 11 Dec 03 - 05:19 PM I noticed the references above to Kishmul's Galley (Beinn a' Cheathaich). See this thread for more on that song |
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Subject: RE: Fulling songs From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch Date: 29 Apr 19 - 10:23 PM Bumping for: Subject: RE: Should women sing chanties Derrick: "Women did use songs or chants when doing certain work,such as waulking," Gibb: "But waulking songs aren't chanties. It's an unrelated genre...." &c &c. If there was a better thread for this - Mudelf do your thing: See Orain Luaidh upthread: “There is a species of poetry peculiar to the Gael called Iurram and Orain Luathaidh. The music of the Iurram has always that mixture of grandeur and melancholy that never fails to gain its end. They are sung on board of ships and buirlings* by the sailors, when they row or work, to deceive the time. The subject is generally the life and actions of some chief or relation. The language is such as to express the sentiments and actions described; the music, expression, and the strokes of the oars, coinciding in such exact time, both the sailor and passenger forget their hardships and fatigue, even in the most inclement seasons. The Oran luathaidh, with the same view, is sung when they work on shore, and derives its name from luthadh, milling or fulling….” [Shaw, W., An analysis of the Galic Language, 2nd ed., [Edinburgh: R. Jamieson, 1778, pp. 136-37)] *boats IURRAM. aim, s.m. (Ir. id.) An oar-song; a boat song; tedious rhyme; a song sung during any kind of work, by way of lightening its burden; a fidgetting. Iurram a dh?isgeas an spiorad, a spirit-stirring boat-song.—Macfar. Iurram, fidgetting.—Shaw. The iurram, or boat-song, seems to have been intended to regulate the strokes of the oars; so also, in ancient times, stat margine puppis Qui voce alternos nautarum temperet ictus, Et remis dictet sonitum pariterque relatis, Ad numerum plaudat resonantia caerula tonsis. IURRAMACH, a. Like an oar-song. [A Gaelic Dictionary, 1825] Iurram. A Gaelic word signifying a boat song, intended to regulate the stroke of the oars. Also, a song sung during any kind of work. [A Naval Encyclopædia, 1884] On the Gullah side of the pond it's mostly "mouth singing." No real lyrics to speak of. Women & men are all good. There was some stuff on youtube. Still looking. |
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Subject: RE: Fulling songs From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch Date: 29 Apr 19 - 10:34 PM Modern take: Carolina Chocolate Drops LIVE "Mouth Music" |
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Subject: RE: Fulling songs From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch Date: 30 Apr 19 - 04:05 AM Eeram, iorram, irom, jorram, jurram? Y'all worse than Creole. “Joram, a boat song; a rowing song, in which the singers keep time with their voices to the motion of the oars; from the modern Gaelic iorram. This word is often erroneously used in the phrase "push about the jorum," as if jorum signified a bowl of liquor which had to be passed round the table. An instance of this mistake occurs in Burns :— And here's to them that, like oursel', Can push about the jorum; And here's to them that wish us weel— May a' that's guid watch o'er 'em. —Oh May, thy Morn. The ancient and correct Gaelic for a boat song is oran iomraidh or iomramh; from oran, a song ; iom, many, and ramh, an oar, of which iorram, or the song of many oars, is a corruption. The connection between iorram, a boat song, and jorum, a drinking vessel, is probably due to the circumstance that the chorus of the boat song was often sung by the guests at a convivial party, when the bottle or bowl was put in circulation.” [A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch, 1888] |
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