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10 Jan 16 - 10:21 AM (#3764313) Subject: Origins: Hebridean Rowing Lilt From: Lighter What's the origin/ source/ story behind the "Hebridean Rowing Lilt" played by M and David Roach on their remarkable album "Maggie in the Wood"? Does it have another title? Did they find it in Kennedy-Fraser perhaps? |
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10 Jan 16 - 08:57 PM (#3764438) Subject: RE: Origins: Hebridean Rowing Lilt From: Jack Campin All I can manage to find is the beginning of the Amazon sample, which seems to be a mutated version of the Arran Boat Song. (The YouTube video is "unavailable"). Is there some good information about these people and their album? |
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11 Jan 16 - 05:10 AM (#3764497) Subject: RE: Origins: Hebridean Rowing Lilt From: FreddyHeadey " With guitar, bouzouki, bodhran, and concertina they raise a music which is both ancient as mossy stones and new as a spring day...." CDbaby shop "M Chipko Roach and David Roach have been independent artists and musicians for half a century,working in glass, clay and sound from deep in the heartland forest. I've made a life of music and art since I was a baby, my first home hootenanies with older sisters, and myself on the uke at three...." etsy shop and biog "M and David Roach are a team of collaborating artists and musicians, creating together for the last 35 years a fabric of musical art." Facebook page (I sent them a message so maybe they'll get back.) |
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11 Jan 16 - 09:39 AM (#3764551) Subject: RE: Origins: Hebridean Rowing Lilt From: Lighter > a mutated version of the Arran Boat Song It could be, Jack. It sounded vaguely familiar. Do I also hear skeletal hints of "Unfortunate Rake/ Banks of the Devon"? |
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11 Jan 16 - 10:30 AM (#3764568) Subject: RE: Origins: Hebridean Rowing Lilt From: Jack Campin Banks of the Devon is the original for the Arran Boat Song. Nothing Hebridean about it of course. |
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11 Jan 16 - 12:23 PM (#3764601) Subject: RE: Origins: Hebridean Rowing Lilt From: GUEST,crazy little woman The ABC Notation site has 9 versions of 'The Banks of the Devon'; I played them, and I don't think any of them sounds like 'The Arran Boat Song'. |
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11 Jan 16 - 02:44 PM (#3764660) Subject: RE: Origins: Hebridean Rowing Lilt From: GUEST,M Roach Hi, The short answer is, I'm sorry, we can't remember yet. We will let you know if we find the source material. The old brains are sorting through files of memories. We would have learned it from recorded material, though, in the 1980's or early 1990. We both seem to be hearing it played on uillean pipes and fiddle. In the 80's we lived in a 21 foot sailboat we built, on the Ohio River. We had a radio and picked up Fiona Ritche with Thistle and Shamrock. The little boat drifted in and out of radio reception with the wind. If the wind was down, we recorded some tunes to learn. Those old tapes are sort of a background noise in our brains, may have learned it there. Also may have altered it some between the learning and the playing; between the thinkin and the doin. Around 1990 we met Tim Britton at Kentucky Music Week. We were set up with our tipi as buckskinners, with our ocarinas and pocket pipes. Tim was playing pipes on the hill behind us. David got up and walked over there in a trance by the sound. May have learned it from Tim. After that pipes crawled into our ears, and ocarinas became a way to access pipe music. I worked on the design of the pocket pipes ocarinas until they would play those tunes, with the right intervals and harmonies. Also highland pipes are generally confined to the same 9-note range, so the tunes need not be altered to fit. We sat for hours and days at festivals playing ocarinas and hunting tunes. Some tunes go in one ear, get stuck awhile, and then come out the whistle. Some of them come out altered. |
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11 Jan 16 - 03:44 PM (#3764691) Subject: RE: Origins: Hebridean Rowing Lilt From: FreddyHeadey Thanks. |
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11 Jan 16 - 04:41 PM (#3764712) Subject: RE: Origins: Hebridean Rowing Lilt From: Lighter M Roach, thanks so much! Having listened to both, I'm now pretty sure that your "Hebridean Lilt" is indeed "The Arran Boat Song," which has been recorded a lot. Though never before on ocarina and pocket pipe! Very nice! GUEST crazy, the first example of "Devon" sounds most like the "Arran Boat." Which is not to say it sounds much like it. It's modal and "Arran" is pentatonic, for one thing. The kinship lies especially in the time and contour of the tunes. They go up and down in a very similar pattern. The resemblance of "Devon" to "The Unfortunate Rake," however, is pretty clear. |
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31 Aug 25 - 05:17 PM (#4227889) Subject: RE: Origins: Hebridean Rowing Lilt From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch Jack: Nothing Hebridean about it of course. Nor much to do with 'rowing' in general one suspects: “This paper considers a number of Hebridean rowing songs and the physical conditions which apply to them, including the type of vessel, cargo, and sea-state and how these might influence musical performance. The varied characteristics of the tunes are considered in their contexts. The paper concludes with a close study of a traditional rowing song which survives with only four couplets, and details how it might be extended to render it usable.” [Hebridean Rowing Songs, Purser, 2024] [https://doi.org/10.4000/11qj5] |
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31 Aug 25 - 07:40 PM (#4227896) Subject: RE: Origins: Hebridean Rowing Lilt From: Jack Campin The Arran Boat Song gets its title from a 19th century parlour song "Put off, put off and row with speed" about the escape of Mary Queen of Scots from Loch Leven Castle. The boat was provided by the Earl of Angus and Arran, hence it was called the Arran Boat. Loch Leven is the other side of Scotland from the island of Arran. The tune was chosen by the songwriter to be "The Banks of the Devon" which was very popular at the time and never had anything to do with boats. The present day instrumental "Arran Boat Song" is simplified a bit from the vocal form. It's in Kerr's Merry Melodies from about 1880. I played it (on an ocarina, I think) in a pub session a few hours ago. |