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This is the story of a musical migration | 0:00:02 | 0:00:05 | |
unfolded over many generations and many journeys... | 0:00:05 | 0:00:08 | |
..of songs and tunes that left Scotland... | 0:00:13 | 0:00:16 | |
# And it's heather on the moor. # | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
..to become a vital part of the traditional music of Ireland. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:22 | |
For over 40 years, music has taken me all over the world. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:28 | |
And this series is going to take me from Scotland | 0:00:28 | 0:00:30 | |
to Northern Ireland and beyond. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
I'm going to follow in the footsteps of pioneers that took their music | 0:00:35 | 0:00:39 | |
to America's furthest frontiers. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:41 | |
Wish me luck. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:45 | |
I'll explore how it mixed and mingled with different traditions | 0:00:47 | 0:00:51 | |
and new rhythms. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:52 | |
THEY SING | 0:00:54 | 0:00:57 | |
I'll share songs and tunes with some new friends | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
and some old friends, too. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:02 | |
# So if you're travelling in the north country fair... # | 0:01:02 | 0:01:08 | |
And I'll explore the legacy of those wanderers and wayfarers | 0:01:08 | 0:01:12 | |
who left Scotland and Ulster for a new life in a new world. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:16 | |
They would leave their mark on religion, politics, | 0:01:18 | 0:01:22 | |
education and on a new nation's democracy, | 0:01:22 | 0:01:26 | |
but I'm here to trace and to celebrate their influence | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
on what I would consider to be one of America's greatest gifts | 0:01:29 | 0:01:32 | |
to the world - the music. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:33 | |
CHOIR HARMONISES | 0:01:36 | 0:01:41 | |
CHOIR SINGS | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
Shape note singing - a uniquely American tradition. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
And this song has been at the heart of America's story | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
for more than 200 years. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:03 | |
Born out of folk tradition, | 0:02:08 | 0:02:10 | |
it became a hymn about life's journey. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:12 | |
In a nation built by strangers, | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
this song captured the spirit of a restless people. | 0:02:16 | 0:02:18 | |
# I am a poor wayfaring stranger | 0:02:18 | 0:02:23 | |
# While journeying through this world of woe | 0:02:23 | 0:02:28 | |
# Yet there's no sickness, toil nor danger | 0:02:28 | 0:02:33 | |
# In that bright land to which I go... # | 0:02:33 | 0:02:37 | |
Poor wayfaring stranger, | 0:02:37 | 0:02:39 | |
he's somebody who's unknown, because he's left his family, | 0:02:39 | 0:02:43 | |
he's left all of the people | 0:02:43 | 0:02:45 | |
that he's known behind him and he's in a strange and foreign land. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:49 | |
We're the culture of the train, we're the culture of the plane, | 0:02:51 | 0:02:55 | |
we're the culture of the automobile. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:57 | |
Migration is fixed into our national consciousness. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:01 | |
# I know dark clouds will gather over me... # | 0:03:01 | 0:03:06 | |
Wayfaring Stranger is one of those songs | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
about travel and longing and death. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:13 | |
# Yet beautiful fields lie just before me... # | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
We're all looking in the same direction and the longing you | 0:03:16 | 0:03:21 | |
feel for those who have gone before | 0:03:21 | 0:03:23 | |
and that deep desire to connect with them, | 0:03:23 | 0:03:26 | |
that's a universal feeling, that's the power of that song. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
Wayfaring Stranger certainly is a hymn about travelling through life. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:39 | |
Music is a journey itself and the act of music happens through time. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:46 | |
It's something rooted in our past and our history, | 0:03:46 | 0:03:50 | |
but it's also something translatable to anybody anywhere. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:55 | |
It is part of this epic migration to the New World and all the cultures | 0:03:58 | 0:04:03 | |
that came and mixed and mingled when they got there. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
If you were to look for just one song that captured up the feel | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
of some of that, I think Wayfaring Stranger would be a good candidate. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
# I'm only going over home. # | 0:04:14 | 0:04:21 | |
Loved by generations of singers, | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
Wayfaring Stranger is an American anthem. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
But like a river, every song has its source. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
Its melody is thought to flow from this 17th-century Scottish ballad. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
This tale from the Scottish Borders tells of the doomed love between a | 0:04:46 | 0:04:49 | |
poor plough boy and a noble lady. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:51 | |
When he is ambushed by her family, | 0:04:53 | 0:04:55 | |
he fights for his life on the banks of the River Yarrow. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
# He says, "There's nine o' you, but one o' me | 0:04:58 | 0:05:04 | |
# It's a most unequal marrow | 0:05:04 | 0:05:09 | |
# But I'll fight ye a' noo one by one | 0:05:09 | 0:05:14 | |
# On the Dowie Dens o' Yarrow | 0:05:14 | 0:05:20 | |
# And so she's run ower yon high, high hill | 0:05:20 | 0:05:26 | |
# And doon by the den sae narrow | 0:05:26 | 0:05:31 | |
# And it's there she spied her dear lover John | 0:05:31 | 0:05:38 | |
# Lyin' pale and deid on Yarrow. # | 0:05:38 | 0:05:45 | |
Rooted in Scotland's past, | 0:05:45 | 0:05:46 | |
this melody travelled to a new world. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
Like the people who carried it with them, it was changed along the way. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:55 | |
# I am a poor wayfaring stranger | 0:05:55 | 0:06:01 | |
# Travelling through this world alone | 0:06:01 | 0:06:07 | |
# There is no sickness, toil or danger | 0:06:07 | 0:06:14 | |
# In that fair land to which I go | 0:06:14 | 0:06:20 | |
# I'm going home to see my Mother | 0:06:20 | 0:06:26 | |
# I'm going home no more to roam | 0:06:26 | 0:06:34 | |
# I'm just going over Jordan | 0:06:34 | 0:06:40 | |
# I'm just going over home | 0:06:40 | 0:06:46 | |
# I know dark clouds will gather 'round me | 0:06:49 | 0:06:55 | |
# I know my way is rough and steep | 0:06:55 | 0:07:01 | |
# But golden fields lie just before me | 0:07:01 | 0:07:08 | |
# Where the redeemed shall ever sleep | 0:07:08 | 0:07:14 | |
# I'm going home to see my mother | 0:07:14 | 0:07:21 | |
# I'm going home no more to roam | 0:07:21 | 0:07:28 | |
# I'm just going over Jordan | 0:07:28 | 0:07:34 | |
# I'm just going over home | 0:07:34 | 0:07:41 | |
# I'm just going over home | 0:07:41 | 0:07:47 | |
# I'm just going over home. # | 0:07:47 | 0:08:01 | |
A new home and a brighter future was what many thousands of Scottish | 0:08:01 | 0:08:05 | |
and English settlers hoped to find | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
in the northern part of Ireland in the 17th century. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:09 | |
The city of Londonderry was once at the heart of a plantation | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
initiated by King James I, | 0:08:17 | 0:08:19 | |
an ambitious scheme to colonise | 0:08:19 | 0:08:21 | |
and tame Ireland's most rebellious Gaelic province. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
For huge numbers of lowland Scots, Ulster became the promised land, | 0:08:28 | 0:08:32 | |
a chance to escape poverty at home. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
It was one of the largest European migrations of the period | 0:08:35 | 0:08:38 | |
and it would profoundly change the character of life here. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
'Along with their families and their hopes and dreams, | 0:08:44 | 0:08:46 | |
'they brought their dissenting faith and their culture.' | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
They carried songs and tunes with them, | 0:08:50 | 0:08:51 | |
sometimes that was the only bit of home they had to hang onto. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
And soon these songs and tunes would be reshaped | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
to fit into their new surroundings. | 0:08:57 | 0:08:58 | |
Just like the settlers themselves, | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
as they put down roots, they became the Ulster Scots, | 0:09:02 | 0:09:06 | |
a hybrid people who can claim both | 0:09:06 | 0:09:09 | |
'a Scottish and an Irish identity. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:10 | |
'They held tight to their traditions, | 0:09:10 | 0:09:12 | |
'but natives and newcomers mixed and mingled, and so did their music.' | 0:09:12 | 0:09:16 | |
THEY PLAY CELTIC MUSIC | 0:09:20 | 0:09:24 | |
THEY PLAY CELTIC MUSIC | 0:09:25 | 0:09:29 | |
DRUMMING | 0:09:30 | 0:09:33 | |
CHEERFUL CELTIC MUSIC PLAYS | 0:09:35 | 0:09:39 | |
It's clear that those that settled in Ulster from Scotland would have | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
brought elements of their culture with them, | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
whether songs and ballads, | 0:09:48 | 0:09:50 | |
bagpipe, later fiddle tunes | 0:09:50 | 0:09:52 | |
or metrical psalms. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
Where people settled in communities with those of similar cultural | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
backgrounds, this would help to preserve their music | 0:09:57 | 0:10:00 | |
in the new environment. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:01 | |
At the same time, they would also come into contact with people from | 0:10:01 | 0:10:05 | |
different traditions, at fairs and markets, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:07 | |
and tunes would start to leach across the community. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:10 | |
THEY PLAY CELTIC MUSIC | 0:10:10 | 0:10:13 | |
This has always been a place were different traditions have collided | 0:10:17 | 0:10:21 | |
and connected too. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:22 | |
For shamrock, rose and thistle all played their part | 0:10:22 | 0:10:26 | |
in the creation of our unique musical heritage. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:29 | |
# I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight | 0:10:31 | 0:10:33 | |
# Get teenage kicks right through the night | 0:10:33 | 0:10:37 | |
# All right! # | 0:10:37 | 0:10:38 | |
At the closest point, there are just 12 miles between | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
Scotland and Ulster. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:46 | |
We've always been part of one another's story. | 0:10:46 | 0:10:49 | |
We're looking at 8,000 years of comings and goings | 0:10:50 | 0:10:53 | |
between Ireland and Scotland across that narrow stretch of water | 0:10:53 | 0:10:58 | |
and the bringing of traditions, | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
bringing of language, ideas, songs, music, | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
fish, whatever it was they were trading back and forth. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
It was one big cultural domain, really. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:11 | |
Saints and sinners, scholars and sailors, singers and musicians too. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
Who knows how many songs and tunes | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
came with them across the narrow sea? | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
And nothing was as easy carried as a ballad - | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
folk songs in English and Scots that were as adaptable as the people that | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
carried them from one country to another. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
GUITAR PLAYS | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
One song that travelled from Scotland to Ulster and on to America | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
tells of a charmer whose music steals the heart of a lady. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:42 | |
Known as The Raggle Taggle Gypsy in Ireland, | 0:11:45 | 0:11:47 | |
by 1750 he had made it to America and changed his name. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:53 | |
# Black Jack David come around through the woods | 0:11:53 | 0:11:57 | |
# Singing so loud and merry | 0:11:57 | 0:12:00 | |
# His voice kept a-ringing through the green, green trees | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
# He spied a fair-haired maiden... # | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
Rockabilly star Warren Smith, | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
the Carter family, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, too, | 0:12:09 | 0:12:14 | |
were just a few of the singers that gypsy beguiled... | 0:12:14 | 0:12:18 | |
# How old are you, my pretty little miss | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
# How old are you, my honey? # | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
..but his story began in Scotland. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
# I'll be 16 come Sunday | 0:12:27 | 0:12:31 | |
# Be 16 come Sunday. # | 0:12:31 | 0:12:35 | |
It goes all the way back to a 17th-century scandal | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
when the wife of an Ayrshire lord | 0:12:38 | 0:12:40 | |
ran away with the king of the gypsies - Johnny Faa. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:48 | |
# Three gypsies cam' tae oor ha door An' O but they sang bonnie | 0:12:56 | 0:13:01 | |
# And they sang sae sweet and sae complete | 0:13:01 | 0:13:06 | |
# That they stole the heart o' a lady | 0:13:06 | 0:13:11 | |
# And she cam trippin' doon the stair | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
# Her maidens twa before her, O | 0:13:16 | 0:13:19 | |
# But when they saw her weel-faured face | 0:13:19 | 0:13:23 | |
# And they cast their spells a' aboot her | 0:13:23 | 0:13:27 | |
# And she's kicked aff her high-heeled shoe | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
# Made of Spanish leather, O | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
# And while she's with young Johnny Faa... # | 0:13:36 | 0:13:40 | |
UNCLEAR LYRICS | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
Archie, that's one of the most enduring songs | 0:13:54 | 0:13:56 | |
in the tradition, isn't it? | 0:13:56 | 0:13:58 | |
The Three Gypsies. | 0:13:58 | 0:13:59 | |
Yeah, there are so many sub themes in it | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
that I think it's attractive both to male and female singers. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:05 | |
Karine, one of the things I love about this song is the fact that the | 0:14:05 | 0:14:07 | |
woman appears to get away with it scot-free. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
Yeah, she's quite a feisty character in that verse and in the verses that | 0:14:10 | 0:14:14 | |
are similar to Archie's one. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
And it must've been really | 0:14:16 | 0:14:17 | |
appealing, you know, | 0:14:17 | 0:14:18 | |
you think late 1600s, 1700s, | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
you're a woman, you don't have very many choices, | 0:14:20 | 0:14:22 | |
you're not going any place, you're stuck. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
And the whole mystique of a song like that, | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
the idea that you could up and escape and be free and, you know, | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
and fall in love and go and do whatever you wanted. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
In every version, they either | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
whistle or sing - | 0:14:35 | 0:14:36 | |
or do both, in fact. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:38 | |
And that's the glamourie, | 0:14:38 | 0:14:39 | |
that's the thing that supposedly enchants the woman. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:42 | |
You know about that, Phil, don't you? | 0:14:42 | 0:14:45 | |
Oh, I'm casting my spell from the minute I get up in the morning. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
The song itself is a bit of a traveller, isn't it? | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
Yes, songs and music migrate with people | 0:14:52 | 0:14:54 | |
and this one hopscotched across to Ulster | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
and ended up in Appalachia, Appalachia probably because that's | 0:14:57 | 0:15:00 | |
where a lot of the Scottish and Irish immigrants went | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
and was transmitted there. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
And then came back into the mainstream of American folk music. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:08 | |
Yeah, I think it's really important to remember that at the time | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
the song was, you know, first came to life, | 0:15:11 | 0:15:12 | |
people weren't learning it from books, they were learning it | 0:15:12 | 0:15:16 | |
one-to-one and passing it that way and it mutated as | 0:15:16 | 0:15:18 | |
it went, cos it moved slowly. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:20 | |
When it transfers to America, of course, they didn't have earls. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:24 | |
They probably had gypsies, they must have had. | 0:15:24 | 0:15:26 | |
And Woody Guthrie starts his version by... | 0:15:26 | 0:15:30 | |
# Late last night the boss came home, askin' for his lady | 0:15:30 | 0:15:35 | |
# And the only answer he received, "She's gone with the Gypsy Davey." | 0:15:38 | 0:15:43 | |
# "Gone with the Gypsy Dave." | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
When it reaches America and the religious climate at the time | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
is quite restrictive, it changes from the woman's point of view | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
as well, so that it's not a happy ending at all. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
She ends her life in poverty, she's abandoned by the gypsy. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:58 | |
He takes off with someone else, | 0:15:58 | 0:15:59 | |
so it becomes much more of a moral parable and a warning to women, | 0:15:59 | 0:16:04 | |
not to even think about it. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
Can you give us a wee bit of that version? | 0:16:07 | 0:16:09 | |
Yeah, I'll give you the wee end bit. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:10 | |
So she's already run away at this point | 0:16:10 | 0:16:12 | |
and her husband is trying to win her back, | 0:16:12 | 0:16:14 | |
but she's not having any of it. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:15 | |
Sounds like a plan to me. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:17 | |
-OK? -Yeah. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
# Come home, come home with me, my dear | 0:16:27 | 0:16:31 | |
# Come home and be my lover | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
# I'll furnish you with a room so neat | 0:16:35 | 0:16:40 | |
# With silken bed and covers | 0:16:40 | 0:16:44 | |
# I won't go home with you, dear sir | 0:16:44 | 0:16:48 | |
# Nor will I be your lover | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
# I do not care for your room so neat | 0:16:52 | 0:16:57 | |
# For your silken bed and your covers | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
# Oh, I will leave my house and land | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
# And I will leave my baby | 0:17:04 | 0:17:08 | |
# I'm a-goin' to roam the world around | 0:17:08 | 0:17:13 | |
# And be a gypsy's lady | 0:17:13 | 0:17:17 | |
# Oh, soon this lady changed her mind | 0:17:33 | 0:17:39 | |
# Her clothes grew old and faded | 0:17:39 | 0:17:44 | |
# Her hose and shoe fell off her feet and left them bare and naked. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:52 | |
# Just what befell this lady then | 0:17:52 | 0:17:57 | |
# I think it worth relating | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
# Her gypsy found another lass | 0:18:00 | 0:18:06 | |
# And left her heart a-breaking. # | 0:18:06 | 0:18:12 | |
In all the many versions of this song, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
it's music that gives the wanderer his seductive power. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
CELTIC FOLK SONG PLAYS | 0:18:23 | 0:18:28 | |
Folk songs like these never belonged to just one social class. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
They were composed by all sorts of people. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
We know of one 16th century nobleman, | 0:18:41 | 0:18:44 | |
a songwriter who liked to wander the streets | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
disguised as a humble musician. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
SONG CONTINUES | 0:18:48 | 0:18:52 | |
Like the gypsy, he was a charmer too | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
who fathered several illegitimate children. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:02 | |
He called himself the Goodman of Ballengeich. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
But his poor clothes concealed his true identity. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:11 | |
Built on a great crag of volcanic rock, | 0:19:15 | 0:19:17 | |
Stirling Castle is one of the splendid palaces | 0:19:17 | 0:19:20 | |
of the Stuart kings. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:21 | |
And here is that notorious songwriter, | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
the Goodman of Ballengeich himself. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:29 | |
He was in fact King James V of Scotland. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:33 | |
The Stuarts loved their music and King James was no different. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:46 | |
By all accounts, he wasn't much of a singer, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
but he was a fine lute player | 0:19:49 | 0:19:50 | |
and he brought in the latest instruments from Europe, | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
along with musicians to play them. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:56 | |
He was a Renaissance man. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:03 | |
He was a man that saw Scotland as a real part of | 0:20:03 | 0:20:05 | |
that great European cultural movement. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
Just imagine - in the early 16th century, | 0:20:08 | 0:20:11 | |
these halls would've been just buzzing with music. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:13 | |
Now, there's a gig for you. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:15 | |
But this wasn't the only music at court. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
The Chapel Royal echoed to some of the finest church music in Europe, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:29 | |
also commissioned by the Stuart kings. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:31 | |
CHORAL CHANTING | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
These angelic harmonies were designed | 0:20:43 | 0:20:45 | |
to lift your thoughts to heaven. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:46 | |
But sophisticated religious music like this | 0:20:47 | 0:20:49 | |
was very much the preserve of the church. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
The Catholic Mass was sung in Latin by an elite group of canons | 0:20:51 | 0:20:55 | |
and choirboys, whilst the congregation sat as spectators. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
There would soon be no place for this beautiful music. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:08 | |
When religious conflict in Europe created a new religious movement, | 0:21:09 | 0:21:13 | |
passionate reformers renounced the Pope's authority | 0:21:13 | 0:21:16 | |
and Scotland became a Protestant country. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:18 | |
The pomp and ceremony of the Catholic Church was condemned. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
Its rituals, arts and its ornate music | 0:21:23 | 0:21:26 | |
were seen as a barrier between man and God that had to be cast aside. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:30 | |
Scotland's reformers were determined - | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
the Lord's people would now sing for themselves. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
# I to the hills will lift my eyes | 0:21:45 | 0:21:50 | |
# From whence doth come my aid | 0:21:50 | 0:21:57 | |
# My safety cometh from the Lord | 0:21:57 | 0:22:04 | |
# Who heaven and earth have made... # | 0:22:04 | 0:22:10 | |
It was a musical revolution, | 0:22:12 | 0:22:14 | |
sacred music sung by the congregation | 0:22:14 | 0:22:16 | |
in words that everybody could understand. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:19 | |
# Slumber that he keeps... # | 0:22:19 | 0:22:24 | |
French theologian John Calvin, whose teachings became | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
the cornerstone of Scottish Presbyterianism, | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
believed that worship should be based solely on the Bible. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
He found what he needed to sing God's praise in the old Testament... | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
# The Lord thee keeps, the Lord thy shade | 0:22:38 | 0:22:46 | |
# On thy right hand doth stay... # | 0:22:46 | 0:22:47 | |
..in the psalms, said to have been given | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
to King David by the holy spirit. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
# The moon by night thee shall not smite | 0:22:52 | 0:23:00 | |
# Nor yet the sun by day. # | 0:23:00 | 0:23:05 | |
For Calvin, this book was an anatomy of all parts of the soul. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:12 | |
It's a psalter, or a praise book, | 0:23:12 | 0:23:13 | |
with the psalms of David set out in simple rhyme and metre. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:16 | |
Like the songs from oral tradition, | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
the psalms expressed a range of human emotion. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
Joy, sadness, love and hope - | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
here was something that ordinary people could relate to. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
These are really poems that were meant to be sung, | 0:23:30 | 0:23:32 | |
either in church or family worship, | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
and each one had its own tune. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:37 | |
HE HUMS THE TUNE | 0:23:37 | 0:23:39 | |
These tunes were easy to remember. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:45 | |
They all shared the same strict metre, | 0:23:45 | 0:23:47 | |
something which people found instantly accessible. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
It was a rhythm borrowed from their own ballad tradition. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:54 | |
Calvin was fed up of all the ornateness in the medieval church. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:02 | |
He wants to make it as easy as possible, | 0:24:04 | 0:24:05 | |
make it in a language that people will understand | 0:24:05 | 0:24:08 | |
and give them a tune that's fairly simple. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:10 | |
I'm sure some people must have missed the old Latin choir, | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
but do you think there was a sense of excitement and energy | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
-about this new form of worship? -Oh, without a doubt. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:18 | |
I mean, this is... It's really hard to convey | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
the excitement that must have been there, | 0:24:21 | 0:24:24 | |
because for the first time the congregation's being asked to sing. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:29 | |
It's in their own speech, it's in Scots or it's in English, | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
it's not Latin. You understand what you're singing about | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
and there is no greater joy, surely, then being part of | 0:24:36 | 0:24:40 | |
the congregation of all believers. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:42 | |
The people come to the foreground for the first time | 0:24:42 | 0:24:45 | |
in Scottish history at the Reformation | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
and nothing proves it better than the singing of the psalms. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
# As far as east is distant from | 0:24:57 | 0:25:04 | |
# The west, so far hath he... # | 0:25:04 | 0:25:09 | |
In Ulster, too, the metrical psalms and the familiar tunes | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
that went with them became a unifying force. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
# Thus removed | 0:25:15 | 0:25:20 | |
# That they no more will be. # | 0:25:20 | 0:25:28 | |
Many of the Lowland Scots who first settled here | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
had no great interest in religion at all, but over time, | 0:25:32 | 0:25:36 | |
the Presbyterian Church became a focal point for these Ulster Scots. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:41 | |
Singing the metrical psalms together became a part of who they were, | 0:25:41 | 0:25:45 | |
and it also put music and communal singing at the heart of life. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:49 | |
I was brought up singing the psalms and one of the lovely things | 0:25:51 | 0:25:54 | |
is actually that even though Pete and I grew up in different families, | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
we grew up singing the same songs. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
So that when we now have our own children, | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
it's really lovely to sing the same things to my children | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
as my mum and dad sang with me. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:09 | |
In life there are things which you struggle with, | 0:26:19 | 0:26:21 | |
battles that you have to fight, | 0:26:21 | 0:26:23 | |
and that's when I guess I turn more to the psalms for comfort, | 0:26:23 | 0:26:27 | |
for encouragement, for strength. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:29 | |
# As like the flower of the field... # | 0:26:29 | 0:26:36 | |
I think singing with emotion is important. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
There are times when you're holding back tears, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
there are times when there are tears, | 0:26:42 | 0:26:44 | |
and yet we are able to keep singing through it. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
These are the words that have been given to us to sing, | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
and we are offering it to God, emotions and all. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:01 | |
# Oh my God | 0:27:01 | 0:27:03 | |
# Oh my God | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
# I trust in you | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
# I trust in you | 0:27:07 | 0:27:09 | |
# Let me not be ashamed | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
# Let not my enemies triumph over me. # | 0:27:11 | 0:27:16 | |
These little books that date from the 18th and 19th centuries | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
are the work of many hands, men and women, old and young, | 0:27:28 | 0:27:32 | |
each page as individual as the person who crafted it. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
# Ah, fah, me, lah, so | 0:27:38 | 0:27:41 | |
# Fah, so, lah. # | 0:27:41 | 0:27:43 | |
These books are copies of psalms, | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
and they could have been used for singing practice | 0:27:46 | 0:27:49 | |
at singing schools. | 0:27:49 | 0:27:51 | |
And they are rather beautiful, some of them. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
That's obviously taken a lot of care, | 0:27:54 | 0:27:56 | |
a lot of attention, and for a people who are not | 0:27:56 | 0:28:00 | |
normally associated with, | 0:28:00 | 0:28:02 | |
maybe even suspicious of a lot of visual work, | 0:28:02 | 0:28:06 | |
there's an awful lot of effort and art has gone into that. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:09 | |
-It is rather nice. -You can really see the personality, | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
or the hand of the person that created them. | 0:28:12 | 0:28:15 | |
It goes beyond the music. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:17 | |
It goes just beyond the psalms - | 0:28:18 | 0:28:19 | |
this is part of the warp and weft of their community. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:24 | |
But there is also an attempt to try and maybe have fun with it as well, | 0:28:24 | 0:28:28 | |
or to maybe not use sacred words all the time in it, | 0:28:28 | 0:28:32 | |
and there are examples of people making up doggerel verse | 0:28:32 | 0:28:35 | |
and popular verse to try and learn these tunes, you know, | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
silly little rhymes which were often based on individuals | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
or particular points in the local geography. | 0:28:41 | 0:28:45 | |
Have you any examples of that? | 0:28:45 | 0:28:47 | |
Funnily enough, there's one with an ill-tempered teacher. | 0:28:47 | 0:28:51 | |
When Satan in the days of old, the herd of swine destroy, | 0:28:51 | 0:28:55 | |
He left one surly boar behind, McKinley, you're the boy. | 0:28:55 | 0:28:58 | |
It's interesting about the juxtaposition between | 0:28:59 | 0:29:02 | |
what you might call the sacred and the secular. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:05 | |
I think there have always been two kind of parallel and sometimes | 0:29:05 | 0:29:08 | |
competing strands within Ulster-Scots, | 0:29:08 | 0:29:11 | |
particularly Presbyterianism. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:13 | |
There is a strand that can be bawdy and slightly scabrous, | 0:29:13 | 0:29:17 | |
and then there's a rather more puritanical strand. | 0:29:17 | 0:29:20 | |
The psalms talk about the community of people | 0:29:20 | 0:29:23 | |
and they're associated with the Old Testament and God's people, | 0:29:23 | 0:29:26 | |
and there is a very strong sense in which Presbyterians | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
see themselves in that context. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:31 | |
So singing these psalms of God's people in the Old Testament | 0:29:31 | 0:29:34 | |
is actually a very important part of their communal identity. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:37 | |
I think it would be a mistake to picture these people as spending | 0:29:37 | 0:29:42 | |
all their lives singing psalms, | 0:29:42 | 0:29:44 | |
with those kind of dour Presbyterian faces that are thought appropriate | 0:29:44 | 0:29:49 | |
for the worship of God. | 0:29:49 | 0:29:51 | |
They weren't much more rounded than that, | 0:29:51 | 0:29:53 | |
but there was a lot of stuff going on outside, | 0:29:53 | 0:29:55 | |
both musically and socially, | 0:29:55 | 0:29:58 | |
that mightn't just easily sit with singing psalms. | 0:29:58 | 0:30:03 | |
# When going to church last Sunday | 0:30:03 | 0:30:07 | |
# My love, she passed me by | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
# And I knew her mind was altered | 0:30:11 | 0:30:15 | |
# By the rolling of her eye | 0:30:15 | 0:30:20 | |
# I knew her mind was altered | 0:30:20 | 0:30:24 | |
# To a land of a high degree | 0:30:24 | 0:30:28 | |
# Oh, Molly, lovely Molly | 0:30:28 | 0:30:32 | |
# Your looks, they have wounded me. # | 0:30:32 | 0:30:36 | |
Passion, tragedy, love. | 0:30:37 | 0:30:41 | |
# All in the merry month of May... # | 0:30:42 | 0:30:45 | |
Whether the kirk approved or not, people sang about these things too. | 0:30:45 | 0:30:49 | |
# When green leaves, they was springing | 0:30:49 | 0:30:52 | |
# This young man on his death-bed lay | 0:30:54 | 0:31:00 | |
# For the love of Barbara Allen. # | 0:31:00 | 0:31:04 | |
Along with metrical psalms, | 0:31:08 | 0:31:09 | |
the Scots also brought a great ballad tradition to Ulster. | 0:31:09 | 0:31:12 | |
Folk songs in English and Scots that could be bawdy, comic, tragic, | 0:31:12 | 0:31:16 | |
satirical and political. | 0:31:16 | 0:31:18 | |
Songs that helped them remember where they came from, | 0:31:18 | 0:31:21 | |
and make sense of where they were. | 0:31:21 | 0:31:24 | |
What were ballads about? | 0:31:24 | 0:31:26 | |
They were about everything, | 0:31:26 | 0:31:27 | |
they were about all human experience. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:29 | |
Love, loss, human dramas, passions. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:33 | |
People would sing about things that happened in their communities, | 0:31:33 | 0:31:37 | |
things that had happened in their communities before living memory. | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
The printed ballad first appeared in Ireland as early as 1626. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:46 | |
From the 17th century onwards, | 0:31:50 | 0:31:52 | |
thousands of songs were printed and sold all over the country. | 0:31:52 | 0:31:54 | |
But in Ulster, to cater to local taste, | 0:31:54 | 0:31:57 | |
printers favoured Scottish and English material. | 0:31:57 | 0:31:59 | |
Printed in the year 1814. | 0:32:00 | 0:32:02 | |
Sadly, very few have survived. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:05 | |
These are a precious remnant from the early 19th century, | 0:32:05 | 0:32:09 | |
an echo of a once-vibrant trade in popular music. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:12 | |
There's a hole in the ballot - | 0:32:15 | 0:32:17 | |
an old Ulster expression to cover the moment | 0:32:17 | 0:32:19 | |
where you can't for the life of you | 0:32:19 | 0:32:21 | |
remember what you're supposed to say next. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:23 | |
That's an occurrence I'm well familiar with. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:25 | |
The ballot of course was the ballad sheet, | 0:32:25 | 0:32:28 | |
the piece of paper that the song was printed on. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:30 | |
And if you were to pick it up, fold it up, stick it in your pocket, | 0:32:30 | 0:32:33 | |
the chances are that you might weaken the paper | 0:32:33 | 0:32:35 | |
and maybe lose a line and a bit of the song, | 0:32:35 | 0:32:37 | |
thus making a hole in the ballot. | 0:32:37 | 0:32:39 | |
Found hidden in a linen chest in 1922, | 0:32:41 | 0:32:44 | |
this rarely-seen collection was gathered by a single family, | 0:32:44 | 0:32:47 | |
the Clelands, Presbyterian farmers from County Down. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:51 | |
They wouldn't have been wealthy, | 0:32:51 | 0:32:53 | |
but someone thought these songs worth buying and keeping safe. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:56 | |
It was most likely the person who controlled the family purse strings | 0:32:58 | 0:33:00 | |
or brought their goods to market. But whoever it was that bought them, | 0:33:00 | 0:33:04 | |
there was at least one singer in that house, | 0:33:04 | 0:33:05 | |
and it was a singer with a very impressive repertoire. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:08 | |
Within this family and their community, | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
music, sacred and secular, was part of life. | 0:33:12 | 0:33:14 | |
# Oh, the hens are in the byre and the cows are on the grass | 0:33:16 | 0:33:19 | |
# And a man without a woman is no better than an ass | 0:33:19 | 0:33:22 | |
# The water likes the ducks and the ducks like the drake | 0:33:22 | 0:33:24 | |
# Oh, Judy Flanagan, I'd die for your sake... # | 0:33:24 | 0:33:28 | |
The pop music of the day, songs and ballads always attracted | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
the wrath of the Presbyterian church. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:33 | |
As far back as 1718, | 0:33:35 | 0:33:37 | |
dire warnings were issued to Belfast printers responsible for what | 0:33:37 | 0:33:41 | |
church records described as obscene ballads. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:44 | |
100 years later, despite the best efforts of the Godly, | 0:33:49 | 0:33:52 | |
the ballad trade was still going strong. | 0:33:52 | 0:33:54 | |
The Belfast Newsletter complained that crowds who had gathered | 0:33:54 | 0:33:58 | |
to listen to the ballad singers | 0:33:58 | 0:33:59 | |
were blocking up both ends of Bridge Street, just behind me here. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:02 | |
These wandering singers were distributors, | 0:34:03 | 0:34:06 | |
sales people and performers. | 0:34:06 | 0:34:07 | |
They would pick up their song sheets from the printers, | 0:34:07 | 0:34:09 | |
then they would walk the streets, singing, | 0:34:09 | 0:34:11 | |
with their song sheets draped over their arm, | 0:34:11 | 0:34:13 | |
ready to pass on to the next customer. | 0:34:13 | 0:34:15 | |
At street corners, at fairs or markets, | 0:34:16 | 0:34:19 | |
wherever people came together, the ballad singer was there. | 0:34:19 | 0:34:22 | |
A wanderer with a song to sell. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:26 | |
# Black is the colour | 0:34:28 | 0:34:31 | |
# Of my true love's hair | 0:34:31 | 0:34:34 | |
# Her lips are like | 0:34:36 | 0:34:40 | |
# Some roses fair... # | 0:34:40 | 0:34:42 | |
Often viewed as no better than beggars and thieves, | 0:34:42 | 0:34:45 | |
history has largely forgotten them. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:46 | |
But these itinerant singers were unlikely guardians | 0:34:49 | 0:34:52 | |
of our shared musical culture. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:54 | |
We know about one Scottish singer who worked the Donegal market town | 0:35:00 | 0:35:03 | |
of Letterkenny at the end of the 18th century. | 0:35:03 | 0:35:05 | |
She was known as a beauty and a fine singer, | 0:35:08 | 0:35:11 | |
and her life played out like one of the tragic love songs | 0:35:11 | 0:35:14 | |
she sang so well. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:16 | |
She was another respectable lady who fell for a gypsy's charms. | 0:35:16 | 0:35:20 | |
By the time she got to Letterkenny she had already done time | 0:35:20 | 0:35:23 | |
as a thief and as a prostitute. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:25 | |
But the songs she sang and shared | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
would become part of Scotland and Ulster song traditions. | 0:35:27 | 0:35:30 | |
Her name was Jean Glover. | 0:35:33 | 0:35:35 | |
# Coming through the Craigs of Kyle | 0:35:38 | 0:35:42 | |
# Among the bonnie blooming heather | 0:35:42 | 0:35:46 | |
# There I met a bonnie wee lassie | 0:35:46 | 0:35:50 | |
# Keeping all her yowes together | 0:35:50 | 0:35:55 | |
# O'er the moor, among the heather | 0:35:55 | 0:35:59 | |
# O'er the moor among the heather | 0:35:59 | 0:36:03 | |
# There I met a bonnie wee lassie | 0:36:03 | 0:36:07 | |
# Keeping all her yowes together. # | 0:36:07 | 0:36:12 | |
That's lovely, such a bonnie song. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:14 | |
Jean Glover was born in Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, | 0:36:14 | 0:36:17 | |
and she was an itinerant and travelling performer, | 0:36:17 | 0:36:20 | |
travelled with a sleight of hand blaggard, apparently. | 0:36:20 | 0:36:23 | |
-Met a few of them! -Yes! | 0:36:23 | 0:36:25 | |
She's somebody that seems to have performed in a number | 0:36:25 | 0:36:27 | |
of different locations and could very much hold an audience, | 0:36:27 | 0:36:32 | |
but she ended her life in Donegal, actually, in Letterkenny, | 0:36:32 | 0:36:37 | |
because one of the accounts we have talks about someone, a soldier, | 0:36:37 | 0:36:42 | |
in fact, hearing Jean sing a song in Letterkenny | 0:36:42 | 0:36:46 | |
and she dies soon after. | 0:36:46 | 0:36:47 | |
The song Jean Glover sang in Letterkenny is still alive and well. | 0:36:59 | 0:37:02 | |
It found a new rhythm and a new flavour in Ulster, | 0:37:09 | 0:37:12 | |
where it's been handed down through three centuries | 0:37:12 | 0:37:15 | |
from one great singer to another. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:17 | |
# As I roved out of a bright May morning | 0:37:19 | 0:37:22 | |
# Calm and clear was the weather | 0:37:22 | 0:37:26 | |
# I chanced to roam some miles from home | 0:37:27 | 0:37:29 | |
# Among the beautiful blooming heather | 0:37:29 | 0:37:32 | |
# And it's heather on the moor, over the heather | 0:37:32 | 0:37:35 | |
# Over the moor and among the heather | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
# And I chanced to roam some miles from home | 0:37:38 | 0:37:41 | |
# Among the beautiful blooming heather | 0:37:41 | 0:37:44 | |
# And it's heather on the moor... # | 0:37:44 | 0:37:46 | |
Heather On The Moor is a perfect pop song. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:48 | |
It's just six little verses, each advances the story a little bit, | 0:37:50 | 0:37:56 | |
and the chorus comes again and again and again, | 0:37:56 | 0:37:58 | |
and you're driven mad by the time the song's over | 0:37:58 | 0:38:00 | |
and you can't stop singing it, you know? | 0:38:00 | 0:38:02 | |
# And it's heather on the moor | 0:38:02 | 0:38:04 | |
# Where are you going to, my pretty fair maid? | 0:38:07 | 0:38:10 | |
# By hill or dale, come tell me whether | 0:38:10 | 0:38:15 | |
# Right modestly she answered me | 0:38:15 | 0:38:18 | |
# To the feeding of my lambs together... # | 0:38:18 | 0:38:21 | |
When you were growing up in Ulster, | 0:38:21 | 0:38:23 | |
were you aware of the connection | 0:38:23 | 0:38:25 | |
between Scotland and Ireland, musically? | 0:38:25 | 0:38:27 | |
Of course you were. I mean, it's largely the one thing. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:32 | |
There just happens to be a sea in the middle of it, you know? | 0:38:32 | 0:38:36 | |
You heard Scottish music all the time. | 0:38:37 | 0:38:39 | |
Those songs to me were my songs as much as Scottish songs, you know, | 0:38:40 | 0:38:44 | |
they were the songs that I grew up with. | 0:38:44 | 0:38:46 | |
It's been there so long as an instinctive way of communicating. | 0:38:51 | 0:38:56 | |
Before anything, I am sure people were singing | 0:38:56 | 0:38:59 | |
about what was happening. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:02 | |
# Well, we both shook hands and down we sat | 0:39:02 | 0:39:05 | |
# For it being the finest day in summer | 0:39:05 | 0:39:08 | |
# And we sat till the red setting beams of the sun | 0:39:10 | 0:39:13 | |
# Came a-sparkling down among the heather | 0:39:13 | 0:39:16 | |
# And it's heather on the moor, over the heather... # | 0:39:16 | 0:39:18 | |
The songs are really well written. | 0:39:18 | 0:39:20 | |
They tell about the deepest things that human beings feel. | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
If the song is really a strong song, | 0:39:27 | 0:39:29 | |
people will adapt it to suit the place they're in. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
# Up she rose and away she goes | 0:39:32 | 0:39:35 | |
# And her place and name I know not either | 0:39:35 | 0:39:40 | |
# But if I was king I'd make her queen | 0:39:40 | 0:39:43 | |
# The lass I met among the heather | 0:39:43 | 0:39:46 | |
# And it's heather on the moor, over the heather | 0:39:46 | 0:39:49 | |
# Over the moor and among the heather | 0:39:49 | 0:39:51 | |
# But if I was king I'd make her queen | 0:39:51 | 0:39:54 | |
# The lass I met among the heather | 0:39:54 | 0:39:57 | |
# And it's heather on the moor. # | 0:39:57 | 0:39:59 | |
Many who heard Jean Glover sing never knew her name. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:22 | |
There's no picture of her here among the great and the good | 0:40:25 | 0:40:28 | |
at Scotland's National Portrait Gallery, | 0:40:28 | 0:40:30 | |
but the reason we know her story is down to the man | 0:40:30 | 0:40:33 | |
to whom she gave her songs, | 0:40:33 | 0:40:35 | |
the collector and songwriter who was also Scotland's finest poet. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:39 | |
Robert Burns. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:42 | |
I think it's fair to say that we all feel a little bit like he's ours. | 0:40:42 | 0:40:45 | |
He speaks for us of love and loss, joy and sorrow. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:49 | |
Whenever we can't find the words to say, it's him we turn to. | 0:40:49 | 0:40:52 | |
He found his inspiration in the great cargo of songs | 0:40:53 | 0:40:55 | |
that he collected from his own people. | 0:40:55 | 0:40:57 | |
But he also reminds me of every great singer I've ever worked with. | 0:40:59 | 0:41:03 | |
He was able to shape the material to suit himself. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:06 | |
Burns was very much the eager collector. | 0:41:14 | 0:41:18 | |
He would find scraps of ballads, he would try to preserve them | 0:41:18 | 0:41:21 | |
by expanding them into more complete verses. | 0:41:21 | 0:41:24 | |
He would attach them to tunes he thought they worked quite well with | 0:41:24 | 0:41:27 | |
and he really was a very creative collector. | 0:41:27 | 0:41:31 | |
We have a tremendous tradition of song collecting in Scotland. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:42 | |
He wouldn't have been the first, | 0:41:43 | 0:41:44 | |
but he was definitely one of the most important. | 0:41:44 | 0:41:47 | |
Scotland's rich oral tradition inspired Robert Burns | 0:41:52 | 0:41:55 | |
and provided the raw material for songs | 0:41:55 | 0:41:57 | |
that are still sung the world over. | 0:41:57 | 0:42:00 | |
In his own lifetime he was as loved and lauded as any modern rock star, | 0:42:02 | 0:42:07 | |
and not just in Scotland. | 0:42:07 | 0:42:08 | |
This is Belfast, where granite and sandstone from Ayrshire, | 0:42:13 | 0:42:17 | |
Dumfries and Giffnock define the grandest buildings | 0:42:17 | 0:42:19 | |
in the city centre. | 0:42:19 | 0:42:21 | |
They're a reminder of the industrial and cultural connections | 0:42:22 | 0:42:25 | |
that once made this shipbuilding city part of a Scottish world. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:29 | |
Here at the Linen Hall Library is one of the largest collections | 0:42:31 | 0:42:34 | |
of the poems and songs of Robert Burns outside of Scotland. | 0:42:34 | 0:42:37 | |
Burns was taken to Belfast, indeed the north of Ireland, very quickly. | 0:42:39 | 0:42:43 | |
Practically as soon as Burns' work was published in Scotland | 0:42:43 | 0:42:47 | |
it was published in Belfast, | 0:42:47 | 0:42:48 | |
it was pirated and brought out here and a number of his poems | 0:42:48 | 0:42:52 | |
were reproduced in local newspapers. | 0:42:52 | 0:42:55 | |
Was it important for the people of Scottish lineage | 0:42:55 | 0:42:57 | |
to have Robert Burns as a reminder of their Scottish roots? | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
I think this is one of the reasons that Burns becomes so popular here. | 0:43:00 | 0:43:04 | |
Burns gives them a sense of confidence | 0:43:04 | 0:43:07 | |
and an awareness of their culture. | 0:43:07 | 0:43:10 | |
There is a sense of being a hyphenated person | 0:43:10 | 0:43:12 | |
if you are an Ulster Scot. You are aware of your Scottishness | 0:43:12 | 0:43:16 | |
and you are aware of your Irishness, and even if we see the hyphen | 0:43:16 | 0:43:20 | |
as a kind of metaphor which enables these two cultures to meet, | 0:43:20 | 0:43:24 | |
just as they speak and revere Burns, | 0:43:24 | 0:43:28 | |
they're also aware that they are part and parcel of an Irish world. | 0:43:28 | 0:43:32 | |
The music of Ulster reflects a place | 0:43:37 | 0:43:38 | |
where cultures have always mixed and mingled. | 0:43:38 | 0:43:41 | |
Over time, as Scottish ballads and verse forms | 0:43:45 | 0:43:47 | |
connected with the ancient music of Gaelic Ireland, | 0:43:47 | 0:43:50 | |
songs in English borrowed Irish tunes. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:53 | |
Three strands came together to create a unique song tradition. | 0:43:53 | 0:43:56 | |
It's as vibrant as ever | 0:43:57 | 0:43:59 | |
in the hands of a new generation of musicians. | 0:43:59 | 0:44:02 | |
# Courting is a pleasure | 0:44:02 | 0:44:06 | |
# Between my love and I | 0:44:06 | 0:44:09 | |
# And it's down in yonder valley | 0:44:09 | 0:44:14 | |
# I will meet her by and by | 0:44:14 | 0:44:18 | |
# It's down in yonder valley | 0:44:18 | 0:44:22 | |
# She is my heart's delight | 0:44:22 | 0:44:26 | |
# And it's with you, lovely Molly | 0:44:26 | 0:44:31 | |
# I will stay till the broad daylight | 0:44:31 | 0:44:34 | |
# Going to church on Sunday | 0:44:38 | 0:44:41 | |
# My love, she passed me by | 0:44:41 | 0:44:44 | |
# And I knew her mind was altered | 0:44:46 | 0:44:49 | |
# By the roving of her eye | 0:44:49 | 0:44:53 | |
# I knew her mind was altered | 0:44:54 | 0:44:58 | |
# By a lad of high degree | 0:44:58 | 0:45:02 | |
# Oh Molly, lovely Molly | 0:45:02 | 0:45:06 | |
# Your looks have wounded me... # | 0:45:06 | 0:45:10 | |
Courting is a Pleasure, Charming Molly, | 0:45:10 | 0:45:13 | |
Black-Eyed Mary, Farewell Ballymoney - | 0:45:13 | 0:45:17 | |
this northern song has many names | 0:45:17 | 0:45:18 | |
and its many versions are widely travelled. | 0:45:18 | 0:45:21 | |
The melody is thought to be an Irish take on a Scottish tune | 0:45:28 | 0:45:31 | |
with roots in the 17th century. | 0:45:31 | 0:45:33 | |
Like so many others, this song too would travel on to America, | 0:45:34 | 0:45:38 | |
where Charming Molly became Loving Hannah. | 0:45:38 | 0:45:42 | |
# Oh, never court a wee girl | 0:45:42 | 0:45:46 | |
# With a dark and a roving eye | 0:45:46 | 0:45:51 | |
# Just kiss her and embrace her | 0:45:51 | 0:45:54 | |
# Never tell her the reason why | 0:45:54 | 0:45:58 | |
# Just her and embrace her | 0:45:58 | 0:46:03 | |
# Till you cause her heart to yield | 0:46:03 | 0:46:07 | |
# For a faint-hearted soldier | 0:46:07 | 0:46:11 | |
# Never gained a battlefield | 0:46:11 | 0:46:15 | |
# Oh, farewell, Ballymoney | 0:46:15 | 0:46:19 | |
# And to County Antrim too | 0:46:19 | 0:46:23 | |
# Likewise, farewell dear Molly | 0:46:23 | 0:46:28 | |
# I will bear you a fonder due | 0:46:28 | 0:46:32 | |
# America is far away | 0:46:32 | 0:46:37 | |
# Across the ocean blue | 0:46:37 | 0:46:40 | |
# And I'm bound for there, dear Molly | 0:46:40 | 0:46:45 | |
# And again I'll ne'er see you. # | 0:46:45 | 0:46:48 | |
Songs like this one moved freely | 0:46:55 | 0:46:57 | |
between Ulster's different communities, | 0:46:57 | 0:46:59 | |
but instrumental music, the tunes that people love to dance to, | 0:46:59 | 0:47:02 | |
were also important. | 0:47:02 | 0:47:04 | |
In the 1830s, as part of the great mapping of the British Isles, | 0:47:09 | 0:47:12 | |
the Ordnance Survey published a set of memoirs | 0:47:12 | 0:47:15 | |
which examined Ulster society. | 0:47:15 | 0:47:17 | |
These were observations of life in rural communities, | 0:47:17 | 0:47:20 | |
and among the descendants of the Scots settlers who came here | 0:47:20 | 0:47:23 | |
in the 17th century, what they found was music, dancing and fiddles. | 0:47:23 | 0:47:28 | |
FIDDLER PLAYS | 0:47:28 | 0:47:30 | |
They noted that dancing to the fiddle was the favourite amusement, | 0:47:35 | 0:47:39 | |
but that the people had no other music | 0:47:39 | 0:47:41 | |
than what one scornful surveyor dismissed as | 0:47:41 | 0:47:43 | |
the "common airs" of the country. | 0:47:43 | 0:47:45 | |
Check this out from the surveyor of Ballymartin Parish. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:50 | |
He writes, "Their dialect, idioms, | 0:47:51 | 0:47:54 | |
"customs and manners are purely Scottish and by no means pleasing." | 0:47:54 | 0:47:59 | |
Well, to each his ain, but it's a safe bet | 0:48:00 | 0:48:02 | |
that among those "common airs" of the country | 0:48:02 | 0:48:05 | |
there would be some common airs from Scotland. | 0:48:05 | 0:48:08 | |
At farms and forges, from the big house to the smallest cottage, | 0:48:15 | 0:48:19 | |
at every social occasion the fiddle was there. | 0:48:19 | 0:48:21 | |
And in all the counties of Ulster, | 0:48:24 | 0:48:25 | |
Scottish tunes became part of the fabric of life. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:28 | |
A handloom weaver, like his father before him, | 0:48:39 | 0:48:41 | |
John Simpson was just a boy when the Ordnance Survey men | 0:48:41 | 0:48:44 | |
were at work in County Down. | 0:48:44 | 0:48:46 | |
He was a fiddler, too, with a great store of tunes. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:49 | |
But his legacy might have been forgotten | 0:48:53 | 0:48:55 | |
were it not for musician and collector Nigel Boullier. | 0:48:55 | 0:48:58 | |
Gathering 500 tunes and the stories of over 300 fiddlers in County Down, | 0:48:58 | 0:49:02 | |
he was able to trace an unbroken line of music | 0:49:02 | 0:49:05 | |
that stretched from the 1830s to his own lifetime. | 0:49:05 | 0:49:09 | |
To my mind that's what traditional music is, | 0:49:09 | 0:49:11 | |
it's been handed down from one generation to another. | 0:49:11 | 0:49:14 | |
When I look back at the 300-odd fiddle players | 0:49:14 | 0:49:16 | |
that I was gathering information on, | 0:49:16 | 0:49:18 | |
the biggest percentage were actually farmers and farm labourers. | 0:49:18 | 0:49:21 | |
A large number were weavers, stonemasons, various trades. | 0:49:21 | 0:49:25 | |
The majority were Protestant because it just matches the population. | 0:49:26 | 0:49:29 | |
There's a network of Orange halls around a lot of County Down | 0:49:32 | 0:49:36 | |
and they had a very strong social side of dancing. | 0:49:36 | 0:49:39 | |
They were doing dancing classes during the week | 0:49:39 | 0:49:42 | |
and then the weekly dance would be on the Friday night. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:44 | |
It was quite simple in the hall, | 0:49:44 | 0:49:45 | |
you just locked the door and danced all night. | 0:49:45 | 0:49:48 | |
The fiddlers were largely working men, | 0:49:52 | 0:49:54 | |
but their music gave them status. | 0:49:54 | 0:49:56 | |
They moved freely from farmhouse ceilidhs | 0:49:57 | 0:49:59 | |
to Orange halls and parish dances. | 0:49:59 | 0:50:02 | |
The Irish and Scottish tunes they played were common threads | 0:50:02 | 0:50:05 | |
connecting different communities and traditions. | 0:50:05 | 0:50:07 | |
Among these young fiddlers in County Antrim, they still are. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:19 | |
We play the music of our area and always have done. | 0:50:26 | 0:50:29 | |
The Antrim style is quite... | 0:50:34 | 0:50:36 | |
-Open. -Open, and it's not ornamented that much. | 0:50:36 | 0:50:39 | |
It's quite like the West Coast of Scotland. | 0:50:39 | 0:50:41 | |
They play it like they speak. | 0:50:56 | 0:50:57 | |
It's quite clipped, quite strong. | 0:50:59 | 0:51:01 | |
Musical dialect is very important. | 0:51:07 | 0:51:09 | |
I think it is, I think it's an identity, | 0:51:09 | 0:51:12 | |
and playing it with our own indigenous dialect | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
is very important to keeping it alive. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:18 | |
Here at Queen's University in Belfast there is a rare treasure | 0:51:41 | 0:51:44 | |
dating back to the early 18th century, | 0:51:44 | 0:51:47 | |
proof of the growing popularity of the fiddle in Ireland. | 0:51:47 | 0:51:49 | |
Printed by Dublin fiddle makers John and William Neal, | 0:51:52 | 0:51:55 | |
this is the only surviving copy of the first-ever collection | 0:51:55 | 0:51:58 | |
of Irish traditional music. | 0:51:58 | 0:52:00 | |
Here's another book that the Neals printed in 1724, | 0:52:02 | 0:52:06 | |
a full two years before anything of the sort would appear in Scotland. | 0:52:06 | 0:52:10 | |
Most of them are song tunes, but check this out. | 0:52:10 | 0:52:14 | |
HE HUMS THE TUNE | 0:52:14 | 0:52:16 | |
It's amazing. I know this tune as Jenny Dang The Weaver. | 0:52:21 | 0:52:24 | |
It's a reel, and the reel was Scotland's gift to Ireland, | 0:52:24 | 0:52:27 | |
and it's still the dancer's favourite. | 0:52:27 | 0:52:30 | |
We tend to forget that a lot of the reels came from Scotland. | 0:52:41 | 0:52:45 | |
It is just that they've gone into the tradition | 0:52:45 | 0:52:48 | |
and people forget where they've come from. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:50 | |
The Scottish influence on fiddle music here in Donegal | 0:52:56 | 0:52:59 | |
and all the Northern counties is very, very strong, | 0:52:59 | 0:53:02 | |
especially in the Boyne. | 0:53:02 | 0:53:03 | |
You can hear it in the repertoire and in the style. | 0:53:04 | 0:53:08 | |
The Irish borrowed from everywhere. We borrowed the reel, | 0:53:17 | 0:53:21 | |
we borrowed the hornpipe from England, | 0:53:21 | 0:53:24 | |
we borrowed the jig, the giga from Italy, | 0:53:24 | 0:53:28 | |
but apparently the only native rhythm we have is the slip jig. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:32 | |
But what we did with those was we took it and we digested it | 0:53:33 | 0:53:38 | |
and made it our own. | 0:53:38 | 0:53:39 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:53:52 | 0:53:55 | |
Playing music is a wee bit like travelling in time. | 0:54:01 | 0:54:03 | |
It evokes emotions, wakens memories. | 0:54:07 | 0:54:09 | |
But it also connects us to people and communities | 0:54:15 | 0:54:18 | |
who played and shared the music in another time, another place. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:22 | |
That's as true today as it must have been for those first Scots | 0:54:26 | 0:54:30 | |
who settled in Ireland so long ago. | 0:54:30 | 0:54:32 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:54:35 | 0:54:37 | |
Thank you very much, thank you. | 0:54:39 | 0:54:41 | |
Thanks, folks, see you next time. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:43 | |
Their ballads, psalms and tunes changed Ulster's musical story, | 0:54:47 | 0:54:52 | |
just like living in Ireland | 0:54:52 | 0:54:54 | |
transformed and enriched the Scottish traditions. | 0:54:54 | 0:54:56 | |
That same process of cultural fusion and musical exchange | 0:54:56 | 0:55:00 | |
would happen all over again with another great wave of migration | 0:55:00 | 0:55:03 | |
in the 18th century. | 0:55:03 | 0:55:05 | |
BELL TOLLS | 0:55:07 | 0:55:10 | |
The port city of Londonderry became one of the major points of departure | 0:55:16 | 0:55:21 | |
where up to a quarter of a million Ulster Scots left for America. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:24 | |
Some were driven by poverty, | 0:55:30 | 0:55:32 | |
others wanted land or religious freedom, | 0:55:32 | 0:55:34 | |
but whatever their reasons, when they boarded that ship, | 0:55:34 | 0:55:38 | |
they brought a precious cargo of music with them. | 0:55:38 | 0:55:40 | |
This old Scots song of parting found a new tune in 18th-century Ulster | 0:55:42 | 0:55:48 | |
when it became an emigrant's farewell. | 0:55:48 | 0:55:50 | |
# An evening sun goes down west | 0:55:53 | 0:55:59 | |
# The birds sit nodding in the trees | 0:55:59 | 0:56:04 | |
# All nature now prepares to rest | 0:56:06 | 0:56:11 | |
# But there's no rest prepared for me | 0:56:12 | 0:56:18 | |
# Good nicht and joy | 0:56:19 | 0:56:22 | |
# Good nicht and joy | 0:56:22 | 0:56:25 | |
# Good nicht and joy be wi' you all | 0:56:25 | 0:56:29 | |
# For this is my departing nicht | 0:56:31 | 0:56:37 | |
# And the morn's the day I'm gaun awa' | 0:56:37 | 0:56:42 | |
# Oh, all the comrades that e'er I had | 0:56:44 | 0:56:50 | |
# They're sorry for my going away | 0:56:50 | 0:56:55 | |
# And all the sweethearts that e'er I had | 0:56:56 | 0:57:03 | |
# They'd wish me one more day to stay | 0:57:03 | 0:57:07 | |
# But since it falls into my lot | 0:57:09 | 0:57:15 | |
# That I should rise and you should not | 0:57:15 | 0:57:19 | |
# I'll gently rise and softly call | 0:57:21 | 0:57:26 | |
# Goodnight and joy be with you all | 0:57:26 | 0:57:32 | |
# Goodnight and joy be with you all. # | 0:57:33 | 0:57:41 | |
In the next episode, I'll follow in the footsteps of pioneers | 0:57:49 | 0:57:52 | |
down the Great Wagon Road to the Appalachian Mountains. | 0:57:52 | 0:57:56 | |
I'll look at how the songs and tunes they carried with them | 0:57:56 | 0:57:59 | |
changed in the New World | 0:57:59 | 0:58:00 | |
and I'll celebrate their enduring influence on America's music. | 0:58:00 | 0:58:04 |