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Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?

26 Dec 99 - 11:21 PM (#154400)
Subject: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl

...I found the lyrics to this tune in the database and it is an unfamiliar(to me) but interesting fiddle tune I intend to learn...collected in Mississippi by AP Hudson...anyone play it?...harpgirl


26 Dec 99 - 11:26 PM (#154403)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl

...Hi Alison, If you see this would you play it on the whistle for me and send it via MediaRing? It is in JC's ABC tunefinder...I'll send you a ton of key lime jello powder if you do...pretty please with sugar on it??? harpgirl


27 Dec 99 - 12:11 AM (#154413)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: DonMeixner

Hi Harpgirl,

I've know this song vocally for 30 years. Its done on a number of Corries and Corrie Folk Trio recordings. Great song.

Don


27 Dec 99 - 12:20 AM (#154416)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl

...Hi Don...have to look up a Corries CD...do you have MediaRing? and if so could you sing it and send it to me please please????


27 Dec 99 - 12:30 AM (#154417)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Jon Freeman

Harpgirl, JC's tune finder should also yield a midi that I'd guess you already have the software to play straight of and a gif for you to print if you read music.

In addition to having friends that will help you by playing or singing a song to you, I would suggest that having software that can play ABC and software that can play Midi (and preferably edit, print etc.) is well worth looking for.

Jon


27 Dec 99 - 12:34 AM (#154418)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl

...thank you for the advice, Jon...I have printed the tune as a GIF and I have listened to it and I am working on it now..it reminds me a bit of "Dribble of Brandy" in it's shape...harpgirl


27 Dec 99 - 12:49 AM (#154421)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl

oopps, scratch that, Jon. It doesn't really sound like "Dribbles of Brandy" and the midi tune on JC's tunefinder is a bit different than the midi on the DT. But I am slogging through it anyway...on the autoharp, of course!...harpgirl


27 Dec 99 - 12:19 PM (#154497)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Willie-O

Is this the same medium tempo march Killiecrankie which is
in Robin Williamson's "Pennywhistle Book"
on Ken Perlmans CD "Celtic Music on the 5-string banjo".

Bill C


27 Dec 99 - 05:37 PM (#154624)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: wildlone

Reading this reminds me of a time in my dim and distant past when the Army of Parliment section of the Sealed Knot marched from Dunkeld to Killiecrankie,"its only twenty miles and all uphill"


27 Dec 99 - 09:41 PM (#154671)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl

...a march..of course...now I can get it right...thanks fellas...harpgirl


27 Dec 99 - 11:38 PM (#154716)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: RiGGy

I believe it's in O'Neill's as " Planxty Davis "


28 Dec 99 - 12:04 AM (#154719)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Bruce O.

O'Neill's #1561, "Planxty Davis" = "Killikrankie". It's in 'The Scots Musical Museum', #292, for the song commencing "Where hae ye been sae braw lad". It's a lot older than that, since it appeared in the Atkinson MS in 1694. The variants of that tune are crossed referenced to the Atkinson MS #, 138, in the Irish tune index on my website [and in the new demonstration code index IRCODEA.TXT that you need the computer program there to use effectively.] There is at least one other tune of the same title; look for "New Killikrankie" or "Haughs of Cromdale".


28 Dec 99 - 06:35 AM (#154755)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: martin smith

its strange to see folk writing about this song as a historical relic!we sing it on most friday nights at the crown hotel at castle douglas,galloway.


28 Dec 99 - 09:47 PM (#155015)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Celtic-End Singer

A little historical perspective for tyhose of you who are interested:

In 1689 King James VII was in deep trouble in England, where his policies of religious toleration were invoking suspicion over his Catholicism. With much of the country ranged against him, he fled in 1689. The English parliament then asked his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange, to rule jointly. The Scottish parliament, The Estates, followed suit on condition that the Episcopal form of church government insisted upon by his father Charles II should be dropped and Scotland again became officially Presbyterian. James VII, now in exile was the last of the Stewarts and he had plenty of supporters who wanted the parliament to return to the throne. Those who supported the new cause of James found a new name applied to them- Jacobites. An attempt by John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, to raise an army in support of James in the Highlands led to an uprising which Government troops were sent to quell. The two sides clashed in the Pass of Killiecrankie. James' supporters probably came off better, but Dundee was killed in the battle and his campaign then quickly fizzled out. The '89 Jacobite rebellion was over.


09 Oct 00 - 04:10 PM (#314903)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: TamthebamfraeScotland

Hello there,

I'm in a little folk group called Rumplefyke, And we play Killiecrankie.

I also sing it as well.


09 Oct 00 - 04:14 PM (#314911)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Lady McMoo

Yes I play it also (in C). Excellent tune.

mcmoo


09 Oct 00 - 07:46 PM (#315120)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl

...maybe someone will sing and play it in Hearme sometime. Hammie, how about you? and welcome to the forum!!!!! Or Don??? Bruce you don't sing do you?


10 Oct 00 - 01:42 AM (#315299)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Barry T

Here is my midi of Killiecrankie in an ersatz pipes and drums style. This corresponds to the setting of the tune commonly played on the pipes, but you other folks will have to tell us if it's close to the folk song melody itself.


02 Oct 04 - 07:35 PM (#1287081)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Seasaidh

Killiecrankie was originally a pipe tune, with words added later by Walter Scott and Robert Burns (If my memory doesn't fail me... I don't have my books at hand to double check that)

It's still used more commonly as a pipe tune rather than a song... I think it's a rather strange and difficult melody to sing the words to...


02 Oct 04 - 08:36 PM (#1287118)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tannywheeler

2 cents worth from this side "the pond":
Ask kytrad about that title. May not be the same tune, but Jean Ritchie and the Ritchie Family of Kentucky have recorded a song and tune with that title.

Seems some of the mountain communities, settled by British Isles immigrants, had rules about DANCING. It seemed to encourage too much -- um, inappropriate(?) physical intimacy -- between boys and girls. These folks developed a practice of "play-party games" instead. The games were mixed gender and involved partners holding each other and making motions with their arms and moving around a room in circles, squares, and other figures. Big diff. Words to part of the chorus of the song I'm remembering under your title go something like:
    "Killiecrankie is my song;
    Sing and play it all day long."
And "From my elbow to my knee --
    Now we'll wind the grapevine tree."
Last line referring to arm motions aforementioned.   Tw


02 Oct 04 - 09:01 PM (#1287136)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: dick greenhaus

Tannywheeler-
The objection many church groups had was to the playing of instruments. Play parties feature unaccompanied singing while dancing. Some of them involved physical contact, like swinging and promenading.


02 Oct 04 - 09:36 PM (#1287155)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tannywheeler

Mr. G, dear, this may be a case of both of us being right part of the time.   Tw


02 Oct 04 - 11:18 PM (#1287205)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Reiver 2

We (The Reivers) used to play it when we were active. It was one of my very favorite songs. We learned it from a very early Corries recording when they were "The Corrie Folk Trio with Paddy Bell" and the recording was called "In Retrospect." The historical background given by Celtic-End singer is essentially correct, if somewhat abbreviated. Do learn it, harpgirl, it's a great song! I'm sure you can get hold of a recording of it somewhere.

I've also heard it sung in person (at my request!) by Alex Beaton, a Glaswegian transplanted to California and have it on one of his CDs. (Some of you in the UK may remember Alex as a member of the Cumberland Three which, I believe was a popular singing group over there in the 1960s.) He founded Glenfinnan Music, Ltd. and has prouced abput 20 CDs. Killiecrankie is on a CD entitled "I Have Seen the Highlands." Go to his website, http://www.alexbeaton.com/a.html .
Hope this helps.

Reiver 2


03 Oct 04 - 05:02 AM (#1287272)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: mooman

Yep!

A fine tune (and not played enough!) and I have arrangements on mandolin/octave mandolin and guitar!

Peace

moo


03 Oct 04 - 07:29 AM (#1287317)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,John from Tarneybackle

Yep,

We play it at most of our gigs and recorded it on our first album - "Tullibardine".

I liked the historical -perpective given earlier. As an addition to it, this first Jacobite uprising was quelled in August 1689 when a band of covenanter volunteers (The Cameronians) stopped the rebels in Dunkeld. The fighting was hand to hand, lasted days and caused huge destruction of the town of Dunkeld.


03 Oct 04 - 01:14 PM (#1287493)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Lighter

Uillean piper Finbar Furey played it about 35 years ago on his first or second album under the title "Roy's Hands." It's available on CD. Check Amazon.com.


03 Oct 04 - 01:32 PM (#1287501)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Murray MacLeod

Many of the more laterally thinking practitioners of Scottish Traditional music would contend that the way in which this song is normally sung is totally at odds with the lyrics.

The song is after all a lament, and to sing it as an up-tempo march, complete with threshing guitar strums, is grotesque, to say the least.

I suggest a listen to the debut CD by Chantan, (Elspeth Cowie, Corinna Hewitt and Christine Kydd) where they give the poem a suitably haunting rendition, to the tune which is better known as the melody of the Burns song "The Lea Rig"


04 Oct 04 - 12:12 AM (#1287961)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Boab

Jeeze, Murray! Cannae wait till I descend on the next band practice session armed with the NEW knowledge of "Killiecrankie' to the tune of "the Lea rig"! I am burdened with a pair of [talented] vixens who use the up=tempo Killiecrankie as a "punishment" if they suspect me of leg-pulling or covert impudence. They have assumed control of the programming, y'see, and they know that "Killiecrankie" half-murders me singin' wi' a 120-bass squeezebox hung around my neck. But, ah! ---the "Lea Rig"---there's a wee surprise coming this Thursday-----


04 Oct 04 - 07:45 AM (#1288144)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Ella who is Sooze

yes we play it, great song great with bodhran and guitar and two voices doing a bit of harmonies. Listen to the Corries.

Fab

Ella


04 Oct 04 - 07:57 AM (#1288155)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Murray MacLeod

G'aun yersel', Ella.

Gie it laldy ...


04 Oct 04 - 08:43 AM (#1288195)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Ella who is Sooze

Thank e kindet!

and always plenty of laldy (I've no heard that word for ages, it's a lovely term)

E


04 Oct 04 - 07:37 PM (#1288656)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tannywheeler

What do it mean??? Please share knowledge with us pore uneddikaydid provincials over the water. Tw


04 Oct 04 - 07:46 PM (#1288665)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Snuffy

Gie it laldy ...

Gi' it some 'umpty ...

Gi' it some welly ...

Do not hold back ...


05 Oct 04 - 03:20 AM (#1288882)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Ella who is Sooze

really really go bananas, go wild and wallop in to the tune/song and have a bloomin good time whilst you are at it.

making a right knees up of it,

having a hoot and putting all the effort in to it and then some...

E...


05 Oct 04 - 12:27 PM (#1289332)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tannywheeler

Aha!!!!! No holds barred; Tear into it; Go all out; with the added suggestion that it's a pure-dee pleasure to do so. Gotcha.

I love the study of foreign languages. Thanks for the lesson.   Tw


06 Oct 04 - 05:26 AM (#1290006)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tam the Bam (Nutter)

Hello My name is Tom Hamilton, and I sing Killiecrnakie, and I have also been there. For the past 3 months I was singing it plus other songs, until it I got fed up with the song. I like it.


07 Oct 04 - 01:13 AM (#1290945)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tannywheeler

I'm back in class, teachers. Where? It's a real place? I'm gonna guess Scotland. How close am I?   Tw


07 Oct 04 - 07:54 AM (#1291153)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,John from Tarneybackle

Killiecrankie is in Highland Perthshire, Scotland.

It is a beautiful glen and well worth a visit for the historic visitor centre and a look at the wildlife.


08 Oct 04 - 12:42 PM (#1292413)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tannywheeler

Geography, math, music, history, comparative religion, philosophy, spelling, foreign languages, humor as an approach to life -- God, I love this school. Have we got a song? What would you call the degree? Great scholarships program. Thanks.   Tw


09 Oct 04 - 03:52 AM (#1292952)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Boab

Hey Tam frae Saltcoats---did ye dae the soldier's leap o'er the Garry when ye were there? Maybe that was the soldier who was lamenting in the song----


09 Oct 04 - 08:34 AM (#1293062)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Lighter at work


09 Oct 04 - 08:38 AM (#1293066)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Lighter at work

Some years back while motoring down the Interstate I heard the radio play either a Christmas carol or a Christmas-related melody that was whose tune was "Killiecrankie." Does anybody know what this was called and where I can find it?


09 Oct 04 - 11:34 AM (#1293165)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: denise:^)

The Berea College Country Dance group (I should go & look up what they're called) does 'Killiecrankie,' in the style of Jean Ritchie (as mentioned in a post above), along with the playparty dance.

Fun to watch!

(BTW, they *are* the Berea College Country Dancers --
http://www.berea.edu/peha/dance/ )

denise :^)


10 Oct 04 - 04:50 AM (#1293660)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Big Al Whittle

Catch me carting cucumbers to Killiekrankie
(elocution exercise from an old grammar book)


31 Mar 05 - 01:16 PM (#1448075)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tam the man

I play it in the key of (F)


31 Mar 05 - 07:38 PM (#1448449)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tattie Bogle

Hardly a session where it disnae get played.
Long jumpers apply here; see above re soldiers' leap!
Best line = "I even fought my auntie-o"
TB


31 Mar 05 - 08:43 PM (#1448505)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Paranoid Android

Mid 60's in Dublin, Mary McGannon sang this song regularly. She was from Northern Ireland or Scotland, a brill folk singer. Anybody know where she is now?


31 Mar 05 - 09:38 PM (#1448534)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: goodbar

i dig it.


31 Mar 05 - 10:48 PM (#1448562)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Scotus

There may be a bit of confusion (he say) here. There are two quite different Killiecrankie tunes. One is the well known up-tempo march with words, as sung by the Corries and many others. The other is a lovely slow air as played on the Archie Fisher/Barbara Dickson album from the late 60s 'The Fate o' Charlie' and on a Nic Jones album who's title escapes me for the moment (senility approaches). I'm afraid I have always much preferred the slow air!

Jack beck


01 Apr 05 - 04:50 AM (#1448714)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman

Don't know the Corries' version but I assume it must be related/identical to the song I collected in the 50s from Ben C. Moomaw in Roanoke VA and have since filled out with additional lyrics from Scots sources. At the time I'd only heard the playparty version referred to above (as sung by Jean Ritchie from her family's big stock of songs), so this, to me as a Yank, was a surprise. It was the only Scots song sung by Mr. Moomaw, who sang exclusively songs collected in Virginia. His source may be in Arthur Kyle Davis's books, which I haven't seen.

Mr. Moomaw sang just this to me, to a rousing tune and yes, I still sing/play it.

KILLIECRANKIE

Aa fecht on land an' aa fecht on sea,
An' tae hame I focht my auntie O,
I seen the deil and Dundee
On the braes o' Killiecrankie O.

An had ye been whaur I hae been
Ye wouldnae be sae daunty O,
An had ye seen wha I hae seen
On the braes o' Killiecrankie O.

The standard multiverse text can be found in many British places, but rarely in the US. I thocht this was kin' o' a catch meself.


01 Apr 05 - 07:57 AM (#1448884)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,aiberdonian

Jack Beck is absolutely correct[ How are you, Jack ? - long time no see ]. There's the song [ie - with words ] "Killiecrankie", made famous by the "Corries" I would suggest, and regularly murdered in pubs far and wide by people who look like they came off the front of a shortbread tin. Fair enough if you like that sort of thing.
But the air "Killiecrankie" is a different beast altogether. I think it was originally a harp/clarsach piece, and Alison Kinnaird has a particularly fine version recorded featuring Cathal McConnell on whistle. The sleeve notes [ sorry - can't remember which CD it's on ] have full information on the tune's origins, and I think it is the predecessor of the Irish version "Planxty Davies", which was indeed recorded by Nic Jones and Finbar Furey [ "Roy's Hands" - mentioned above - is a completely different tune ]. I too prefer the harp piece.
Kenny


01 Apr 05 - 09:21 AM (#1448996)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Scotus

That's not Kenny Hadden is it?

Jack beck


02 Apr 05 - 02:16 AM (#1449799)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Boab

Robert Burns noted an aside by this song "the verses are mine, but the chorus is very old...".[ I'm not quite sure in memory if he meant all verses, or some designated.]


02 Apr 05 - 10:42 AM (#1450024)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: BanjoRay

In January,I was driving the American old time band Tom, Brad and Alice to gigs around the UK, when Tom Sauber asked me if we'd be going anywhere near Killiekrankie, so I took them there from Glasgow and showed them the leap. Tom told me the reasion he'd wanted to go was that years ago he'd learned a hoedown tune from an old South Texas fiddler that was called Killemakrankie (or maybe kill 'em a cranky). Tom's tune bore no relation at all to the Scottish march tune, but was a fine reel. Anyone know anything?
Ray


03 Apr 05 - 06:07 AM (#1450694)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Big Tim

The late Stuart Adamson of "Big Country" did a great rock version!


29 Jun 06 - 12:52 PM (#1772100)
Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Steven

Could anyone tell me the chords for Killcrakie, The Corries version. I cant find them anywhere.

Thanks alot.