Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?

Subject: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl
Date: 26 Dec 99 - 11:21 PM

...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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl
Date: 26 Dec 99 - 11:26 PM

...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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 27 Dec 99 - 12:11 AM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl
Date: 27 Dec 99 - 12:20 AM

...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????

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 27 Dec 99 - 12:30 AM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl
Date: 27 Dec 99 - 12:34 AM

...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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl
Date: 27 Dec 99 - 12:49 AM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Willie-O
Date: 27 Dec 99 - 12:19 PM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: wildlone
Date: 27 Dec 99 - 05:37 PM

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"

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl
Date: 27 Dec 99 - 09:41 PM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: RiGGy
Date: 27 Dec 99 - 11:38 PM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 28 Dec 99 - 12:04 AM

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".

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: martin smith
Date: 28 Dec 99 - 06:35 AM

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.

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Celtic-End Singer
Date: 28 Dec 99 - 09:47 PM

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.

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: TamthebamfraeScotland
Date: 09 Oct 00 - 04:10 PM

Hello there,

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

I also sing it as well.

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Lady McMoo
Date: 09 Oct 00 - 04:14 PM

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

mcmoo

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: harpgirl
Date: 09 Oct 00 - 07:46 PM

...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?

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Barry T
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 01:42 AM

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.

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Seasaidh
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 07:35 PM

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...

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 08:36 PM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 09:01 PM

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.

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 09:36 PM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Reiver 2
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 11:18 PM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: mooman
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 05:02 AM

Yep!

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

Peace

moo

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

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.

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Lighter
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 01:14 PM

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.

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 01:32 PM

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"

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 12:12 AM

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-----

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 07:45 AM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 07:57 AM

G'aun yersel', Ella.

Gie it laldy ...

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 08:43 AM

Thank e kindet!

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

E

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 07:37 PM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Snuffy
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 07:46 PM

Gie it laldy ...

Gi' it some 'umpty ...

Gi' it some welly ...

Do not hold back ...

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

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...

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 12:27 PM

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

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

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.

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 07 Oct 04 - 01:13 AM

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

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

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.

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 08 Oct 04 - 12:42 PM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 09 Oct 04 - 03:52 AM

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----

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

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

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?

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

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 :^)

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 04:50 AM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tam the man
Date: 31 Mar 05 - 01:16 PM

I play it in the key of (F)

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 31 Mar 05 - 07:38 PM

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

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

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?

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: goodbar
Date: 31 Mar 05 - 09:38 PM

i dig it.

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Scotus
Date: 31 Mar 05 - 10:48 PM

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

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

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.

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,aiberdonian
Date: 01 Apr 05 - 07:57 AM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Scotus
Date: 01 Apr 05 - 09:21 AM

That's not Kenny Hadden is it?

Jack beck

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Boab
Date: 02 Apr 05 - 02:16 AM

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.]

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: BanjoRay
Date: 02 Apr 05 - 10:42 AM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: Big Tim
Date: 03 Apr 05 - 06:07 AM

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

Subject: RE: Killiecrankie:Anyone play it?
From: GUEST,Steven
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 12:52 PM

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

Thanks alot.