Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland

Subject: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 04:23 AM

I am assisting a project re the Scots In Canada, and looking for songs and tunes with a specific relevance in lyric or title to the history etc of connections between the two countries and peoples. I have a good supply of books on the subject and have found plenty listings of general recordings of Scots material by Canadian artists. There are plenty of Canadian song lyrics in the DT, and I've worked through some of them. I have a couple of books of Canadian folk songs.
I know about: The Canadian Boat Song, The Scarborough Settler's Lament, Farewell to Nova Scotia [it is based on a Tannahill song], and I also know about several Gaelic songs - Anne Lorne Gillies's magnificent big book of Gaelic songs has them.
What other songs can people suggest, please?
I've not found any tune titles yet.
All help appreciated.
Ewan

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 07:04 AM

Hi Ewan,

Have you checked any collections of Cape Breton Gaelic songs? It's not an area I'm too well resourced in, but here's a couple I now about.

Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia. Helen Creighton and Calum MacLeod, eds. National Museum of Canada Bulletin No 198. Anthropological Series No 66. 1964. (Don't be fooled by the Bulletin bit. It's a 308 page book.)

Songs Remembered in Exile; Traditional Gaelic Songs from Nova Scotia recorded in Cape Breton and Antigonish County in 1937. With an account of the causes of Hebridean emigration 1790-1835. John L Campbell, ed. Aberdeen UP. 1990. ISBN 008 037977.

Also, there's sound recordings of course. Not many, but several of the Folkways LPs of Canadian field recordings include Galic songs. See especially Songs from Cape Breton Island. Folkways. FE 4450, which has a song called Moladh Na Lanndaidh (In Praise of Islay).
And of course there is that magnificent pair of LPs which Topic issued in the 1970s; Music of Cape Breton Vols 1 & 2. 12TS 353/4.        
If I can come up with anything more specific I'll let you know.

Cheers,

Fred McCormick.

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 09:45 AM

Cape Breton and eastern Nova Scotia became home for much of the emigration from the Highlands and Hebrides but their music and song was Gaelic, not Scots. (as a language)
There's been several collections and studies made of these Gaelic songs, the most recent being Anne Landin's Guthan Priseil. (Precious Voices) An earlier one would be Fad Air Falbh As Innse Gall (Beyond The Hebrides) by Donald A. Fergusson.
The MacEdward Leach collection is on line here:
MacEdward Leach
If you explore this site you may find something of help as well:
Cape Breton Ceilidh
Mudcatter George Seto has a great collection on his website as well. He may pick up on this thread.

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 10:06 AM

There's an article by Margaret Bennett of Edinburgh University's School of Scottish Studies entitled 'Musical Traditions of the Scots in Newfoundland.' It can be found in The London Journal of Canadian Studies', Vol.9, 1993. It can be found on-line - put London Journal of Canadian Studies into Google, click on Vol 18 (the Trudeau edition) and then on Vol 9, Atlantic Canada.

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 11:12 AM

W£hat about the Canadian piping tradition, bands like the 78th Fraser Highlanders?

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 11:22 AM

While I am not a scholar, there is Barry Taylor's Great Canadian Tunebook. He's also got many others, accessed by the drop-down menu on his Main Page.

There's also Shores of Sutherland.

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: Gutcher
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 12:34 PM

Hello Ewan,
   Maggie McKay of the S.S.S. & I spoke on the phone early last
   summer.One of the songs I sing interested her, she herself being
   Canadian.This was "Allan McPherson"
   As an exercise in the use of my new toy I sent her an e-mail
   with the words late last year.This is a fairly modern song as
   it mentions the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway
   [ anything less than 150yrs is modern to me]               
   If we meet up some of these days I will give you the tune [sung]
   Joe.





                                                                  was

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 12:36 PM

And I thought this thread was only for people with names beginning with Mc....

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 01:14 PM

Thanks for all these, I had some of them already but not all.
There of course several hundreds of Canadian tunes and songs listed on net sites I've already found, I'm hoping for some or any with a direct stated reference in lyric or tune title to Scots / Scotland. I have Margaret Bennett's book, The Last Stronghold, about her collecting in Newfoundland, has some songs. And there are so many more Newfie songs in English!
Songs Remembered in Exile excludes 'local songs', it reports on what songs were brought over.
Ewan

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 01:20 PM

Well, Terry, I just didn't think McLaFrance worked very well.:-)

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 01:24 PM

Sounds rather nice to me......

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 01:31 PM

Ta, the Crawford/Sutherland/Fountain/Ewing ancestors would like it. Or, maybe I'll just be "McKat."

Sorry for the thread drift, Ewan.:-)

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: Cuilionn
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 06:56 PM

Are you familiar with the work of Michael Newton? He has written a book and produced a related CD about the experience of (primarily Gaelic-speaking) Scots in North America. The book is called, "We're Indians Sure Enough: The Legacy of the Scottish Highlanders in the United States" (ISBN 0-9713858-0-7) but it does have some Canadian material in it, and he includes the lyrics of many Gaelic songs with accompanying translations.

I do not know how the book and CD have been received by native speakers--I'm merely a learner of the language myself--but they both contain a wealth of information about Scottish immigrants and their efforts to express. describe, and opine on their experiences in lyrical forms.

You may also find it worthwhile to contact the Maine Folklife Center about their archives. Maine was part of the corridor travelled--often on foot--by Scottish immigrants in Canada who sought work in "the Boston States" and they left many cultural traces in the state as they traversed between employment and home. I believe the Folklife Center has quite a bit of material that relates to this history as well as many items that were collected in the Maritimes.

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 07:22 PM

Dr. Michael Newton is a professor in the Celtic Studies Dept. of St.FX University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia. His latest book is Warrior Of The Word and is also on Highland emigration and culture, but I have not yet read it.

Dr. Newton

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 04:59 AM

Cuillion and Sandy, Katlaughing and Fred and Terry, thanks for these references, most are new to me, and I'm chasing each one up.
Jack, your point about piping and the military is a central one, has to feature.
Gutcher, I need to talk to Maggie, who is a pal, she did work re Tiree emigrants to Canada.
Re Macs, when I do song and story visits with very small kids a Highland cow sometimes comes into a song, and he says 'Macmoo!'
In Gaelic he might perhaps says 'Mooach!'
Ewan

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: GUEST,999
Date: 09 Jan 10 - 01:48 AM

Ewan: ask the question also at

GEST songs of newfoundland and Labrador

Google that and in the lower left-botton there is a CONTACT link.

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: Jim McLean
Date: 09 Jan 10 - 04:38 AM

Katlaughing, I wrote Shores of Sutherland in Scotland about the Highland Clearances in Scotland. Thanks for mentioning it but I think it's too contemporary for Ewan's work. Cheers.

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 09 Jan 10 - 04:55 AM

Ewan - do you know of Michael Vance of St Mary's University in Halifax NS? He specialises in Scots emigration to Canada. Another academic that you might already be aware of is Marjory Harper at Aberdeen University. Again, the Scots in Canada is her specialism. A third is Lucille Campey who is not attached to any university but is very active in the British Association for Canadian Studies. She's published a number of books on Scottish emigrants.

I gave a paper a few years ago in Ottawa entitled 'They took their music with them - the survival of English, Scots and Irish folk songs in eastern Canada.' I'll try and dig it out and if there's anything useful in it, I'll get back to you.

Subject: RE: Songs and tunes search Canada / Scotland
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 10 Jan 10 - 09:26 AM

Jim, I'm looking for contemporary too - may even have to ask for new ones to plug gaps!
Terry and 999, thanks for these contacts, follwing them up / passing them on.
Ewan