Music as a Research Tool

By Jody Allen On Feb 20 2012, 9:31 am

As authors when we research we often look to books, archival records and first hand reports on a particular subject and historical period to fill in the historical gaps. But one area we rarely look to for information is the music or songs of the period.  We know that music is for much more than just entertainment; historically songs/ballads often were a way an illiterate culture passed on the history of their culture from one generation to another. Songs developed for various reasons. In Scotland it was as a way to make work easier to endure, a way to address the issues of revolution and political strife and reflect the history of a culture or historical. All three are ways to understand the lives of our characters and the historical period in which they lived, and it can help one with the language of a period if not a place as well.  The following are examples from Scotland but if one looks to other locations in which our books are set one will probably find other examples as well. 

Examples of working type songs are those Waulking songs of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. These songs were traditionally sung by Scottish women as they waulked the cloth. To waulk the cloth the women would work together in a circle or line as they passed the cloth from person to person with a purpose to eliminate the oils, dirt and impurities from the cloth and creating a thicker piece of cloth usually wool. To make the work from being boring the women would sing usually start at a slow pace to and as the worked continued and the wool softened the pace would increase. The wool was waulked by feet or by hands. Some suggest that the word waulking is a corruption of the word walk and was a non-Gaelic speaker who coined it and that waulking is actually a Scots (not Gaelic word) however I don’t believe this as the word is not part of the Scots national library’s dictionary.  Others suggest the term may have come from a location in Lancaster, England where the men would walk the wool to make it fuller. However, it is in Scotland where the songs become part of the culture of the people.

 Just like with rowing where you have a coxswain to set the pace, you have a single woman (at least in Scotland) who sings the verse and the other women either repeat it or create vocables that complement the pace. It is considered unlucky for a song to be repeated in a single waulking session so there were many such songs. These songs could be traditional songs passed from mother to daughter but they also could improvise by adding the latest gossip of the community. Waulking is a Scottish Gaelic term but this kind of working was done in other locations such as Wales in which the fulling or tucking the cloth was called “pandy”.  During the mass migration of Scots from the Highlands and Islands they brought the method to Canada where the tradition continues by both men and women as a cultural tradition.  Some examples:

Waulking songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14XyL_sK8-A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2v2BjNBH7w

Another culture that provides one the history of a people is that of the Border ballads developed over the period of the Border Reivers and came to the head during the period from about 1500 to 1603, which was the height of the Border Reiver period. The Border Reivers were those riding families who lived along the Anglo-Scottish Borders who because of the scorched earth policy of either a Scots or English army lived a life of desperation. The music or ballads such as that of Kinmont Willie Armstrong would tell the deeds of these men and when they were forced out of the Borders after 1603 they took their music not only to Ulster, Ireland but also the Appalachian mountains of the United States. The following are examples of the Border Music of Scotland as it migrated to the new world.

Lads of Alnwick (using the Northumberland pipes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiuMwskhsGk&feature=related

Twa Corbies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc4wVtY3-iQ&feature=related

Broom of Cowdenknowes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYV1JykYyWE&feature=related

The Black Douglas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffo9_hrZcME

Annie Laurie (song in the Appalachian Mountains but from Scotland) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHfE8VpQj70

Scottish Border ballad tradition in America 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vft4WClr9Vo

 The Scottish music tradition is probably the most notable in the political songs with those of the Jacobite period surviving still today and is popular with the diaspora crowd at Highland Games across North America. These songs, often the poems of Robert Burns that have been put to music tell the story of not only the cause of the Jacobites but also of the destruction as a nation and being sold out by the very people, the Scottish parliament. The song that tells the story best is A PARCEL OF ROGUES written in 1791 by Burns to decry the treachery of the Scottish nobles in 1707 during the Act of Union when they were bought and sold for English gold.  The lyrics are in Scots of Burns:  

Fareweel to a’ our Scottish fame,


Fareweel our ancient glory;


Fareweel ev’n to the Scottish name,


Sae fam’d in martial story.


Now Sark rins over Solway sands,


An’ Tweed rins to the ocean,


To mark where England’s province stands-


Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

What force or guile could not subdue,


Thro’ many warlike ages,


Is wrought now by a coward few,
 

For hireling traitor’s wages.


The English steel we could disdain,


Secure in valour’s station;


But English gold has been our bane-


Such a parcel of rogues in a nation

O would, ere I had seen the day


That Treason thus could sell us,


My auld grey head had lien in clay,


Wi’ Bruce and loyal Wallace!


But pith and power, till my last hour,


I’ll mak this declaration;


We’re bought and sold for English gold-


Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

This is the best version sung by Alistair Macdonald http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyj6c5VPLHQ There were songs or ballads in support of the Jacobite cause such as CHARLIE IS MY DARLING, an early patriotic version attributed to James Hogg and Lady Nairne (Caroline Olphant) with the most common version written by Robert Burns in 1794. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5fijjUbTTw

Though many of Burns songs or songs with his poetry were pro Jacobites, he lived soon after the last Jacobite uprising in 1746 and saw the effects it had not only on the people of the Highlands but also all of Scotland. Though he supported the French Revolution, he wasn’t in favor of the Jacobite uprisings.  YE JACOBITES BY NAME original version was much more historical in its approach speaking to the Papacy, and from the English Whig point of view. The original lyrics are found here: http://chivalry.com/cantaria/lyrics/jacobites.html

 Burn’s version is the most the most famous one with these lyrics in the Scots of the period;  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEDy3vEX8Ms&feature=related

 Ye Jacobites by name, lend an ear, lend an ear! 
Ye Jacobites by name, lend an ear, 
Ye Jacobites by name, 
Your fautes I will proclaim, 
Your doctrines I maun blame – you shall hear, you shall hear! 
Your doctrines I maun blame – you shall hear!

What is right, and what is wrong, by the law, by the law? 
What is right, and what is wrong, by the law? 
What is right, and what is wrong? 
A short sword and a long, 
A weak arm and a strong, for to draw, for to draw! 
A weak arm and a strong, for to draw!

Chorus…

What makes heroic strife, famed afar, famed afar? 
What makes heroic strife famed afar? 
What makes heroic strife? 
To whet th’ assassin’s knife, 
Or hunt a Parent’s life, wi bluidy war, wi bluidy war! 
Or hunt a Parent’s life, wi bluidy war!

Chorus…

Then let your schemes alone, in the State, in the State! 
Then let your schemes alone, in the State! 
Then let your schemes alone, 
Adore the rising sun, 
And leave a man alone, to his fate, to his fate! 
And leave a man alone, to his fate!

Chorus…

Ye Jacobites by name, lend an ear, lend an ear! 


Ye Jacobites by name, lend an ear…

The Burns version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17kjn_nc8Oo 

 Links to Scottish Music:

History:

http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/teach/music/home.html

http://www.standingstones.com/scotfolk.html

http://www.standingstones.com/scotem.html

http://www.visitscotland.com/guide/scotland-factfile/arts-culture/music/traditional/

http://scottishmusichallsociety.webs.com/historyofthesociety.htm

The Music:

http://www.musicinscotland.com/acatalog/Scottish_Music_Guide.html

http://www.whitestick.co.uk/midi.html

http://www.contemplator.com/scotland/

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/scotlandssongs/about/songs/jacobitesongs/index.asp

10 Responses to “Music as a Research Tool”

1. Cathy S. says:

   February 20, 2012 at 1:05 pm

   Thanks, Jody, for such an interesting post! I plan to check out your links. I have a small Scottish music library of my own and love the ballads. I’m a fan of Alistair MacDonald and Moira Kerr.
2. Blythe Gifford says:

   February 20, 2012 at 1:48 pm

   When I start a new project, one of the first things on my list is to collect a “soundtrack.” Currently working on a Border Reivers trilogy and the album “Fyre and Sworde” was ever at my side. Music is so non-verbal, so subconsious, that I think it must really help channel how people felt at a particular moment in history.
3. Ally Broadfield says:

   February 20, 2012 at 2:21 pm

   This is a wonderful research tool. I write in Imperial Russia, but since my language skills are limited, I have to look up about half of everything I translate. It is also difficult because the communists worked so hard to wipe out the culture after the revolution. I do have a collection of folk songs and thankfully most of the folk and fairy tales survived.
4. Angelyn says:

   February 20, 2012 at 4:03 pm

   The section on the Border reiver music is especially fascinating. Thanks for a great post!
5. Terry Irene Blain says:

   February 21, 2012 at 5:12 pm

   Since I write historical western I listen to a lot of westen movie theme music. For Kentucky Green I listened to the music from the Last of the Mohicans as the novel is set in close to the same time period and the hero dresses the same. For my novel Colorado Silver, Colorado Gold, sent in Durango in 1889, I found a CD called Durango Saloon — too cool!

   Oh, and when I was in Glen Coe, I bought several CDs and a song book just in case I write that Scottish novel that rolling around in my head.

   And totally off topic, several years ago when the US Men’s National Soccer team played against Scotland, after the US National Anthem, for Scotland, the singer sang The Flowers of Scotlan — can’t wait to see what they sing on the 26th of May when the US plays Scotland again.
6. Jody says:

   February 21, 2012 at 10:21 pm

   Terry they will probably sing FLOWER OF SCOTLAND as that is the national anthem at all Scottish soccer and rugby matches. Much more modern and was written within the last half of last century by one of the men (Williamson) of the singing group the Cories. I love the whole Scottish Tartan Army movement for their soccer team, one of these days I would love to go to a game ar Murray field. Check this out in Paris in 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HlHLDVl0pg&feature=related
7. Jody says:

   February 21, 2012 at 10:25 pm

   Cathy you will like the Parcel of Rogues which is done by MacDonald. I like you have a Scottish and Irish music collection. Though I love to listen to it when I am on the exercise machines, great for pacing myself. I think if was using music for writing I would have to do only instrumentals, I am so susceptable to things without really knowing I am doing it.
8. Jody says:

   February 21, 2012 at 10:27 pm

   Blythe one of my favorite muscians for the Borders is Emily Smith who comes from the area around Dumfries in what would be the western March. I love her music, and the old Border Ballads put to music, Hogg and Burns were good at that. When is your first book due out in your new trilogy?
9. Jody says:

   February 21, 2012 at 10:30 pm

   Ally I bet you find really interesting music, if only for atmosphere in when writing. As it many authors have used fairy tales and even some folk tales of the British Isles, but few if any have attempted to use those of Eastern Europe. Seems that it’s rich history would be a wonderful new niche for authors looking for something original.
10. Jody says:

    February 21, 2012 at 10:34 pm

    Angelyn, the Borders are rich in ballads that speak to the daring do of the Border Reivers. I know that there was one tale on Muckle Mouth Meg that author Amanda Scott used as an outline for one of her books which was wonderful. There are more and with more people iike Blythe and others getting their Border stories published maybe they won’t need to use tartan on the cover to sell them, Border Stories standing alone without the icon Scottish highland symbol. And no the Borderers NEVER wore tartans. There were no family Tartans, that is all a modern affectation. I hope to be teaching my Borders Class later this year if any one is interested.