Odd interview on Radio Scotland's "Pipeline" piping programme last night. It was an archival one with D.R. MacLennan, half-brother of the more famous George S., most of whose tunes I have in ABC on my website.

One of G.S.'s best-known tunes is the 3/4 march "The Kilworth Hills", maybe the first tune he wrote, c.1899. D.R. said it wasn't entirely original: as a child G.S. had seen the Russian Fleet visiting Leith (this would have been c.1890) and the basis of it was a Russian folk tune. He said the same tune had been adopted for a song popular in Australia, and sang a wordless phrase of what I think was "The Carnival is Over", which I didn't think was particularly Australian at all (though Nick Cave and Bad Seeds have done it); it does sound like the first strain of "The Kilworth Hills", though.

Clues anybody? What was the Russian tune? Who wrote "The Carnival is Over", when, and did they in fact get it from this Russian song?

My G.S. MacLennan file, with "The Kilworth Hills": http://www.campin.me.uk/Music/McLennan.abc