30 November is Saint Andrew’s Day, It is the national day of Scotland.
It is celebrated in Scotland itself and in many places across the world where Scotland’s sons and daughters have made lives and communities and where people who love and honor Scotland live..Alexandria, Virginia in the United States and Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, Canada, are but two.
Saint Andrew’s Day celebrations, as with ways other holidays are marked in these times, may look a bit different now than in years past
There are always things that change. There are things that stay the same.
Wherever and however Saint Andrew’s Day is celebrated, music is one of those things which holds both constancy and change within it.
So do the varied stories of how Saint Andrew became Scotland’s saint. There are at least two ideas, both of which may be true. Follow that link to learn a bit about those stories.
With constancy and change mind, here are ideas for music of Scotland that you may not have heard from artists you may or may not know.
Give a listen, though, and you will have the chance to learn more about Scotland past and present.
What you learn will help you celebrate Saint Andrew’s Day.
With the level of talent in the band as well as their varied backgrounds and interests, one may fairly call Mànran a supergroup of Scottish artists. The sound they create in joining those talents is the marker. While drawing Scotland’s traditional sounds and stories, they are always moving tradition in new directions. As witness, for example, their take on Ailean, with lyrics in Gaelic from the tradition (a story of a woman grieving loved ones lost at sea) set to a melody by contemporary artist Mischa MacPherson.
Mànran comprises Gary Innes on accordion, Mark Scobbie on drums, Aidan Moodie on guitar and backing vocals, Ewen Henderson on Highland bagpipes, fiddle, piano, synths, and backing vocals, Ross Saunders on bass guitar, Ryan Murphy on uillean pipes, whistles, and flute,and Kim Carnie on vocals. You will find Ailean along with tunes both lively and reflective and more song in Gaelic and in English on their album Ùrar.
You met Ewen Henderson above, as a member of Mànran. He comes from Lochaber in the Western Highlands. The time he’s pent time in bands and in composing music for film and other commissions meant it took him a while to make a solo album. That project also did not go quite the way he thought it would.
That plays into Ewen’s choice of title: Steall, which means torrent in Gaelic.
“The plan was to created a carefully created series of vignettes reflecting the many interests and journeys up until now,” he says, but when he started planning, his intention was “overwhelmed by a cascade of memories, impulse, and ideas.“ An album that is at times lively and at times reflective, drawing on tradition and including original work, is the result.
There are hornpipes, quiet airs, waltzes, song, and a conclusion with a tune Henderson wrote as a surprise for his wife for their wedding. It’s a lovely tune, but as you will learn in the sleeve notes, the surprise too did not quite come about as he’d planned.
Siblings Joy and Andrew Dunlop. grew up in Argyll in Scotland’s west. They both chose to follow music, heading in different directions.
Joy chose to pursue traditional Gaelic song and dance and Andrew to follow classical music. They have each won top awards and forged high level professional careers on their respective paths.
They decided to challenge themselves as they made their first album together. They have called it Dithis/Duo.
“Despite Andrew and I having performed together for many years and having an extensive back catalogue, we actually chose to arrange and record repertoire that were new to us as a duo,” Joy said.
“Some were songs that I’d known for years and always wanted to record,” she continued,”others were totally new to me but instantly caught my attention.” Dithis is filled with songs with good stories in both word and melody, with Andrew’s piano adding layers to the stories Joy tells through the lyrics. There are songs in English, Scots, and Gaelic.
Lauren MacColl speaks eloquently through her fiddle. She is also a gifted composer. For her album Landskein, though, MacColl chose to immerse herself in tunes from the past. Her past, in a way.
MacColl is from the northern Highlands; so are the tunes she’s chosen.
“The melodies on this recording are all old. Some I’ve carried with me for some time, and others I unearthed especially for this recording,” she writes. James Ross adds piano to four of the eleven tracks; otherwise it’s MacColl and her fiddle. Listen well: through her playing you can hear the landscape of this part of the Highlands, and hints of the stories it holds.
Scotland’s music has endless variations. Should you be finding it intriguing, I often write about the work of Scottish artists here at Perceptive Travel and elsewhere.
At Saint Andrew’s Day and beyond you may care to look at
Seven ways to explore Scotland through music, here at Perceptive Travel
A Cape Breton and New England take on Scotland’s traditions from the Katie McNally Trio, at Music Road
Music for Autumn’s landscapes,. part of the ongoing Music for Shifting Times series I write at Wandering Educators, in which I often include the work of musicians from Scotland
However you choose to mark Saint Andrew’s Day, the work of these musicians will offer you many paths to explore and enjoy.
Photograph of Joy and Andrew Dunlop by Kris Kesiak; photograph from Loch Linne in Lochaber by David Dixon; photograph of Lauren MacColl by Kerry Dexter.
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