>
>...Bowing my head and admitting my ignorance...
>
>OK, what's a strathspey? I play a little Scots music on my harp, and I'm
>learning more, but I confess I wouldn't recognise a strathspey if it came
>up and bit me.
>
>Sue, is there one on "Hazel Grove?" Is there a "quintessential
>strathspey," that I wold instantly recognise?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Kevin
>
Hi Kevin- Okay, here is my definition of a strathspey:
A dance tune in 4/4 meter, usually written as 8 eighth notes in four
pairs of two, with occasional quarter or half notes. Of the pairs of two, one
or the other is usually given a dot to lengthen the eighth note, o
r a flag to shorten it and turn it into a sixteenth note.
Here's the tricky part: Sometimes the dotted eighth is first,
sometimes the flagged one is first. When the flagged note is first, it is the
"Scottish snap". The snaps are random, usually.
When I teach workshops, I show people how to sing the rhythm in order
to learn it more quickly: the snapped notes are a "butt'm", and the dotted
note first is a "di-dle", with emphasis on the di. Any long note is a "dee".
So a strathspey could sound like "buttm didle didle buttm buttm didle dee
dee", or "dee didle didle buttm didle didle dee dee". Or whatever. All you do
is add pitches and you have a tune. Try turning the Rights of Man into a
strathspey: just substitute buttms sometimes.
Singing the rhythms has a long history in the pipe tradition, where
pipers learned ornaments by singing them first. It works! They are called
"vocables". The pipers sing "Hutt'm", but I thought for a plucked instrument a
hard sound was more appropriate. By the way, I developed the vocables myself
based loosely on pipe ornaments, and I have vocables for most of the rhythms.
To my knowledge, there is no history of it in the harp tradition, and no one
else is teaching it this way.
It is played/danced at about 112 to the quarter note, but each
strathspey has it's own character and this varies. I have a couple that I play
as "listening tunes", too slow to dance, and more dramatic.
The Irish counterpart to the strathspey is the hornpipe, also written
in eighth notes, but with the first of the pair always dotted. (Di-dle,di-dle,
di-dle, di-dle).
So, there it is- all you ever wanted to know about strathspeys. Oh,
one more thing, you say "strathspey" with the weight on spey, not strath.
Strathspeys on "Hazel Grove:"
Murray Shoolbraid of Saltspring
(um...that's it. I'm shocked too.)
"Morning Aire:"
Haughs of Cromdale
Itchy Fingers (march/strathspey)
Fiddler Dance the Light Strathspey
Mor a Cheannaich
Trip to Ponca City
Cro Kintail, the first time through
"Grey Eyed Morn"
Banks of Spey
Gin Ye Kiss My Wife... (this is a strathspey, although I play it
in new-age style)
"Celtic Lace"
Tullochgorum
Pease Bridge
The Orange and Blue (AKA Brochan Lom)
Cheers! Sue Richards
Maggie's Music:<http://universe.digex.net/~magmusic/
Ensemble Galilei <http://www.songs.com>