The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173463   Message #4206326
Posted By: DaveRo
31-Jul-24 - 07:56 AM
Thread Name: Ashokan Farewell - A Scottish Lament (??)
Subject: RE: Ashokan Farewell - [NOT] A Scottish Lament
GUEST,patriot wrote: I'm not sure if DaveRo's quote is from her interview with Laura K or on the performance in question.
It's from a transcript of "Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg" broadcast somewhere on the BBC on 21st July 2O24. She discusses arts funding in general, the Edinburgh Festival in particular, and seems to end with her playing this piece. Reading it again, I don't think that when she said "[it] pays homage to the Scottish mythology and the Scottish sound" that she was referring to Jay Jungar's intention - the tune's origins are well known and I sure she knows them - so much as the way she interprets it.

I don't know on what BBC program the OP heard the remark about it being traditional. Since the Kuenssberg interview was recent I thought it was possible that the performance was the same.

Benedetti has appeared on the Transatlantic Sessions and there a video of her and Aly Bain discussing their music, if you want to find out more.

Looking though some of the links prepended to this this thread, this morning, I came upon this quote, attributed to Jungar:
Ashokan Farewell is written in the style of a Scottish lament or Irish
Air. I sometimes introduce it as, "a Scottish lament written by a
Jewish guy from the Bronx." (I lived in the Bronx untiI the age of 16.)
From this post.