SPECIAL ARTICLE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20098, 29 November 1930, Page 13

SPECIAL ARTICLE.

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jeatb of mak,o:!Y FRASER. ton the «*»•> pr JESS Dufj.] , ItB * for writing this article is IfJia.Bl and US ccn-eni. f' ,C „ WeUncsday, in annouacng 0 , Mariory Kennedy Fraser, a Hibernian 1 A further 1 !was the receipt frcm a fnenu morning this tribute nrtf e: viSJOM KENNEDY FRASER. who knew We »>-»> rfl fallen down, youi ups are (iirawn with venturing alar, j*'. % epcak no moro; your B pattered rain, nor milking wheelin; on lone ro.k*; fe tfl ', of you hear not anyth .ng, !«! k® ' lo | a of earth, though they are .!«' you hoar not oven eea ■ IJ : *r» thrrdroua song of home to wel"a* y° u -

* * * j,[ore we wonder too much at the exig.tr«ngene»s of the music of the S» ve must bear in m R j tie Gaelic character and its marked M(tm i difference from the AngloL. Tie one, rational and temperate, fat lands in a moderate climate; other, hypnotised by superstition, in,]* the cold north and wrests from ikrren toil and a cruel sea the meagre 'f be can get. If the Lowlander 2 give his life for n dogma the Slander would give his for a dream, urifu into its music, this gives an l H chiWe melancholy, an almost Mental fatalism and a spirit wildly .'(mental. F° r once > we BLe s 'L,j 0 ! the Celt is no unsubstantiated Brth , "Nothing." says Eenan "can jjjl ti o delicious sadness or the Leitit melodies-" . Tie first collection of the vocal airs jjj e Highlands was published towards (kendo?the 18th century by the Rev. Fitritk Macdonald, of Kilmore, Argyll, irain, in 1816, the Highland Society, ifel attaches great importance to its iigen and its bards, sent Alexander Cwpbell to the Isles to collect the People's Airs and Lyrics. In this the irelr "Horo Mhairi-dhu" first ap pared with Christopher North's now Still-known version ''Turn ye to Me." Eulv in oar own century Helen Hope tirfc'eanxe to light with an admirable coljettioa of Scottish songs, both Highland ltd Lowland, introduced with a scholarly ind able preface, the settings and pianofsrte accompaniments throngSout showing a high degree of musical fitness. But thero is nothing in this field to Mpare with the work of Marjory Kent»dy FraseT and Kenneth Macleod (the lot supplying the notation, the second is text) who between them have •ought before the public a marvellous illection of the old Gaelic tones. In tries accordance rritb tradition th * meat modes in which these songs ware fas conceived have been left intact, title result that the vigour and b(kA character of the old tunes are lapw vcd. Bi;ikt yon will, and -argue as you is mnsic which has all the wilt{rorpriso and freshness. In the pffi music gallery, at last we find «Wite» abraptly differentiated, with uhoira ancestor end no known isoimt. It may tell of a primitive people, but with so mush poetry and ugie ia'ffte telling that listening we toH be wild always and never wish to ta tie safe indoor ways again. ■to gather her arterial, it was n"eesbit for Mtrjory Kennedy Fraser, her- *» t tree-bora Gael, to visit remote, fa-beaten islands, always difficult of mesi, (Ossetimes dangerous—in bierlc M«talet» by thair very isolation unwtisi from the world, where the old jnp new preserved in their strangeiJjirared modes and passed on by ear fan the. months of reapers, spinners, ad Mew of "the misty Isles" to tlr's iiterpriiiag collector (whose work by j* Wy i» not nearly well eno-g'i nraa to her own countrymen). ■rekps the best of the folk-songs, Weertaialy the sprightlicst, are *ith labour—the row'ng, m'lk"Si thmaiag, and spinning songs. These w tie songs marked by the liveliest do brisk that they seem to jpaotis® the singers themselves. Marf? Kennedy Fraser r.ma ks that no- * "ho has not witnessed suc-li a tin realise what an intoxicating ftr strong rhythm can exercise on ' Wtie tetapcrament. the Gaelic festivals, the company a kind of circle, reaching their S, K handlterclrefs to each other, M tney jmg, they sway their bodies i W T *° >ide: this, in a modified >sSv • ave m y :;e 'f witnessed in ;««i u New Zealand. Thera are alno r,,.™ 1 , 0 Brace notes introduced—as ii t'.. , an ® strathspeys—arranged ® mv (^e -nil «., c ' lur n has immortalised) fte'elK usually known, but «ia ,i. aeie tnnes h-ve little affinity Wm . mn -'i or an d m'n r 1 w this which makes them *t mj, 5 even unacceptable to ituli ' E . et » * Je a "ci~nt pentii) ft. R. B ., SUrv^ es on 'y in the mu ;ie Eipti'ri a » d Irish Celts. H- 'on f 6 " Ottsieal t thlDl " that no 80; ls i" ehiuvi, . tem reramont, nourished ttosiMli j D t ' ie Gaelic song 3 eon'i ' '''"fed on art lines r , £ d th , e works of tU ' cncl ' composer in 4,0t ' 0 0I ; uns ympntheLic. . n " tural that th e rhythm i ."Bid: tw . BJOu have an unwonted > ftW of Why the b!ir ' inp-rVi b ""pipes is apt to tiiae.«;~ 4 s ® a3S enach oars, tm es can som?times be " e Pinns anu Hu sianf" 4 ®. but ® m! l lo y the five-beat Mioj : ." the Highland mMf; 7 ( U%.V°? even l>eat t : me, and Sv <» Vth So:! K. which ba: >»re e i h thr - cs - "The labourS* H » cat 3 c^ r - v folk S^»eU«, C 3 Cf labour . s" qU V :t - v ' t = nd: «T to 1 £^Ctt^ c r e ;" cs - • • thv ° u \ 'cpeat tii n ~ ® in " 8 crir , and end T thro'^"iT 68 ' Trhirl 'ng cwr t,'" 1 natij. 1 th ® brain " HQ Y * hc H ' b: !dc ; over»nj J* e snm ' wf rc " >c ated: this i '*®d «how s h 8 mo ~ l si " u i f ie"nt tji v v .? how con -.tantly h • '<« 6llt Hehru . e " eaa tm "n.l %'h t i H - Wordsworth, the H r n aj) 1 l to note thn* W fc^ r e,a ® y-r, ■■> V it Co--}*) i. 61 - " ® Tir^ d bv si i::inr -®- ? n<l a ■ #le « harmonies. While

tlioy never depart from tradition, they p.eseut the Celtic tunes as they wu.e neve.- before presented—in all their strong heroic and austere beauty, eacA tong seeming to shimmer in its own atmosphere, luminous, you might almost say, with its own inner light. One thing forced u;>on our notice is the cons.ant obsession with the sea. .'S/cn with our Viking heritage, the sea does not imp rmeat;- and salt our being ai it doea the Celt. There is hardly o.ie of he.' songs which is not clamorous w.th the beat and swirl of the storm v.*a\ es, or subdued with the whisper of the tid3 at its lowest ebb. Ev cry oceuii mood is caught in them. Sea-sorrow and soa-rapture, the sea that gives but more the sea that takes. The nrmes of soma of the sea-songa may su -ge. t d'mly (as a shell does t ie cc.an) their changing ocean-moods: Th 1 Merma.d's Croon, The Water-kelpie's Song. Sea Tangle, The Ship at Sea, Sea Sorr; w. How fierce is the shrill whistling of th'! winds and waves in ihe Black Lojrgm. The Soa Reiver's Son-x; what mystery in the Soalwoman's Croon. "Cold thy bed to-night," said a. womr.n once to the spirit of her drowned hiubnnd. "It ia no'ther hot n~r cold." was tht, repiy, '' but just as one might be if as he wished lie got." "If not cold, lonely at any rate," suggested the woman. "I have the best heroes of Lachlami beside me, the best bards o* Erin, and the best story-te 1 rs of Alba, and what re do not know ourselves the seal and swan tell up." It is hard to believe that anyth ng so unfamiliar, ro almost supernatural in effect as The Scalwoman's Sea-.iov could be composed within our Brit'sh Isles. A Finnish rune is not more a) en than this! The eneigy of the nation which expresses itself so nmp'y in the nat onnl .irncrs finds its way evm to the cradle song.-*, which have in them, too, a breatn of the bracing north, an accnt of the heroic. Though the prevailing kev is tingr yness of th? northern skies, sen ■ of the songs have the crispness and airine.-p of the lighter mood, while 'i few a-t even vividly spirited and hum orous. "In Hame Oor Bottichan," the curirusly exciting clash ard dissonance ol' the opening chords prepare the mind for a most pungent and biting humour. And whrl more r'isn n)id s'irig'itiv than the Song of the Cockle-gjathe era? But all in all, most of the Heb id an song-, are heavy and mournful wt'i "the memeric rhythm of lapping water,"' Only Syngc in his "Kirle s to the Sea" catches the same mood.