SONGS OF THE HEBRIDES

Evening Star, Issue 20137, 30 March 1929, Page 17

SONGS OF THE HEBRIDES

THE EKD OF A GnEAT TASK Mrs Kennedy Fraser’s announcement that, with the completion of one or two numbers, she will make no further researches in the folk songs of the Hebrides, marks the end of a great labour (says ‘ The Times : ). For about a (|uarlcr of a century she has devoted herself to the task of col lectins these old melodies, , which would otherwise have been losl or survive only in fragments in the recesses of Canada and Amci ica. With wbat patience and ability the task has been accomplished the several volumes of ‘ The Songs ol the Hebrides ' published under her name, in association with Kennel Ip Manleod. are witness. The combination 01, personalities proved singularly happy in the result. To the technical knowledge- tact, and sympathy of the one was added the inspiration ol a man deep in the loro of the mother tongue and able to interpret its spirit and idiom in the language of a ooet and a scholar. Theit researches have added to the store of folk song many haunting melodies—songs of tlie spinning wheel and the oar, milking songs, and ’cradle songs, and forgotten melodies of love, captured straight from the lips of old folks and committed to paper for the first time. When the story of Mil’s, Kennedy Fraser's mission to the Isles comes to he told it will make absorbing reading, ft has been a difficult task, involving her in long and arduous journeys in sparsely populated districts. Her encounters with aged Hebrideans, whose

minds were stored with lilts which they would croon to themselves or to their children’s children, but which with tho stubborn .shyness of their race they were often lotb to impart to the oar of a stranger, would prove to bo one of the most entertaining chapters in this story, and it would show the tact and resource. Mi’s Kennedy Fraser had often to employ to coax from hesitant lips an almost forgotten croon. One of Afrs Kennedy Fraser's most interesting experiences was when a seal “sang” in reply to her crooning as she sat on the shores of the. Island of Barra. The incident, at the time, furnished ‘ Bunch ' with material, but Highlanders, and others who are familiar with the Islands, had no great difficulty in believing it. Although Airs Kennedy Fraser is completing her work of collecting Hebridean melodies, it is said that she contemplates devoting herself to a similar task in the Lowlands of Scotland. For one of her experience and talents there should still be a rich field to exploit. Though much has already been done in collect and preserve old local songs ami airs, it is well known that older people still sing songs which have been handed down from mouth to mouth during many generations, and arc worthy of more permanent record.