Episode 1 Wayfaring Stranger with Phil Cunningham


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This is the story of a musical migration

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unfolded over many generations and many journeys...

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..of songs and tunes that left Scotland...

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# And it's heather on the moor. #

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..to become a vital part of the traditional music of Ireland.

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For over 40 years, music has taken me all over the world.

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And this series is going to take me from Scotland

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to Northern Ireland and beyond.

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I'm going to follow in the footsteps of pioneers that took their music

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to America's furthest frontiers.

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Wish me luck.

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I'll explore how it mixed and mingled with different traditions

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and new rhythms.

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THEY SING

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I'll share songs and tunes with some new friends

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and some old friends, too.

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# So if you're travelling in the north country fair... #

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And I'll explore the legacy of those wanderers and wayfarers

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who left Scotland and Ulster for a new life in a new world.

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They would leave their mark on religion, politics,

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education and on a new nation's democracy,

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but I'm here to trace and to celebrate their influence

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on what I would consider to be one of America's greatest gifts

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to the world - the music.

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CHOIR HARMONISES

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CHOIR SINGS

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Shape note singing - a uniquely American tradition.

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And this song has been at the heart of America's story

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for more than 200 years.

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Born out of folk tradition,

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it became a hymn about life's journey.

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In a nation built by strangers,

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this song captured the spirit of a restless people.

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# I am a poor wayfaring stranger

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# While journeying through this world of woe

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# Yet there's no sickness, toil nor danger

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# In that bright land to which I go... #

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Poor wayfaring stranger,

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he's somebody who's unknown, because he's left his family,

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he's left all of the people

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that he's known behind him and he's in a strange and foreign land.

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We're the culture of the train, we're the culture of the plane,

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we're the culture of the automobile.

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Migration is fixed into our national consciousness.

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# I know dark clouds will gather over me... #

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Wayfaring Stranger is one of those songs

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about travel and longing and death.

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# Yet beautiful fields lie just before me... #

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We're all looking in the same direction and the longing you

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feel for those who have gone before

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and that deep desire to connect with them,

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that's a universal feeling, that's the power of that song.

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Wayfaring Stranger certainly is a hymn about travelling through life.

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Music is a journey itself and the act of music happens through time.

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It's something rooted in our past and our history,

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but it's also something translatable to anybody anywhere.

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It is part of this epic migration to the New World and all the cultures

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that came and mixed and mingled when they got there.

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If you were to look for just one song that captured up the feel

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of some of that, I think Wayfaring Stranger would be a good candidate.

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# I'm only going over home. #

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Loved by generations of singers,

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Wayfaring Stranger is an American anthem.

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But like a river, every song has its source.

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Its melody is thought to flow from this 17th-century Scottish ballad.

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This tale from the Scottish Borders tells of the doomed love between a

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poor plough boy and a noble lady.

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When he is ambushed by her family,

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he fights for his life on the banks of the River Yarrow.

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# He says, "There's nine o' you, but one o' me

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# It's a most unequal marrow

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# But I'll fight ye a' noo one by one

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# On the Dowie Dens o' Yarrow

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# And so she's run ower yon high, high hill

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# And doon by the den sae narrow

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# And it's there she spied her dear lover John

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# Lyin' pale and deid on Yarrow. #

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Rooted in Scotland's past,

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this melody travelled to a new world.

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Like the people who carried it with them, it was changed along the way.

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# I am a poor wayfaring stranger

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# Travelling through this world alone

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# There is no sickness, toil or danger

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# In that fair land to which I go

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# I'm going home to see my Mother

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# I'm going home no more to roam

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# I'm just going over Jordan

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# I'm just going over home

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# I know dark clouds will gather 'round me

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# I know my way is rough and steep

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# But golden fields lie just before me

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# Where the redeemed shall ever sleep

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# I'm going home to see my mother

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# I'm going home no more to roam

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# I'm just going over Jordan

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# I'm just going over home

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# I'm just going over home

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# I'm just going over home. #

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A new home and a brighter future was what many thousands of Scottish

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and English settlers hoped to find

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in the northern part of Ireland in the 17th century.

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The city of Londonderry was once at the heart of a plantation

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initiated by King James I,

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an ambitious scheme to colonise

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and tame Ireland's most rebellious Gaelic province.

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For huge numbers of lowland Scots, Ulster became the promised land,

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a chance to escape poverty at home.

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It was one of the largest European migrations of the period

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and it would profoundly change the character of life here.

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'Along with their families and their hopes and dreams,

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'they brought their dissenting faith and their culture.'

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They carried songs and tunes with them,

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sometimes that was the only bit of home they had to hang onto.

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And soon these songs and tunes would be reshaped

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to fit into their new surroundings.

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Just like the settlers themselves,

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as they put down roots, they became the Ulster Scots,

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a hybrid people who can claim both

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'a Scottish and an Irish identity.

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'They held tight to their traditions,

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'but natives and newcomers mixed and mingled, and so did their music.'

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THEY PLAY CELTIC MUSIC

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THEY PLAY CELTIC MUSIC

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DRUMMING

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CHEERFUL CELTIC MUSIC PLAYS

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It's clear that those that settled in Ulster from Scotland would have

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brought elements of their culture with them,

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whether songs and ballads,

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bagpipe, later fiddle tunes

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or metrical psalms.

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Where people settled in communities with those of similar cultural

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backgrounds, this would help to preserve their music

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in the new environment.

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At the same time, they would also come into contact with people from

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different traditions, at fairs and markets,

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and tunes would start to leach across the community.

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THEY PLAY CELTIC MUSIC

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This has always been a place were different traditions have collided

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and connected too.

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For shamrock, rose and thistle all played their part

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in the creation of our unique musical heritage.

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# I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight

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# Get teenage kicks right through the night

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# All right! #

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At the closest point, there are just 12 miles between

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Scotland and Ulster.

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We've always been part of one another's story.

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We're looking at 8,000 years of comings and goings

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between Ireland and Scotland across that narrow stretch of water

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and the bringing of traditions,

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bringing of language, ideas, songs, music,

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fish, whatever it was they were trading back and forth.

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It was one big cultural domain, really.

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Saints and sinners, scholars and sailors, singers and musicians too.

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Who knows how many songs and tunes

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came with them across the narrow sea?

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And nothing was as easy carried as a ballad -

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folk songs in English and Scots that were as adaptable as the people that

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carried them from one country to another.

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GUITAR PLAYS

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One song that travelled from Scotland to Ulster and on to America

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tells of a charmer whose music steals the heart of a lady.

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Known as The Raggle Taggle Gypsy in Ireland,

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by 1750 he had made it to America and changed his name.

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# Black Jack David come around through the woods

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# Singing so loud and merry

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# His voice kept a-ringing through the green, green trees

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# He spied a fair-haired maiden... #

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Rockabilly star Warren Smith,

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the Carter family, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, too,

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were just a few of the singers that gypsy beguiled...

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# How old are you, my pretty little miss

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# How old are you, my honey? #

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..but his story began in Scotland.

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# I'll be 16 come Sunday

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# Be 16 come Sunday. #

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It goes all the way back to a 17th-century scandal

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when the wife of an Ayrshire lord

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ran away with the king of the gypsies - Johnny Faa.

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# Three gypsies cam' tae oor ha door An' O but they sang bonnie

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# And they sang sae sweet and sae complete

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# That they stole the heart o' a lady

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# And she cam trippin' doon the stair

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# Her maidens twa before her, O

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# But when they saw her weel-faured face

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# And they cast their spells a' aboot her

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# And she's kicked aff her high-heeled shoe

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# Made of Spanish leather, O

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# And while she's with young Johnny Faa... #

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UNCLEAR LYRICS

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Archie, that's one of the most enduring songs

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in the tradition, isn't it?

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The Three Gypsies.

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Yeah, there are so many sub themes in it

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that I think it's attractive both to male and female singers.

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Karine, one of the things I love about this song is the fact that the

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woman appears to get away with it scot-free.

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Yeah, she's quite a feisty character in that verse and in the verses that

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are similar to Archie's one.

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And it must've been really

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appealing, you know,

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you think late 1600s, 1700s,

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you're a woman, you don't have very many choices,

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you're not going any place, you're stuck.

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And the whole mystique of a song like that,

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the idea that you could up and escape and be free and, you know,

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and fall in love and go and do whatever you wanted.

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In every version, they either

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whistle or sing -

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or do both, in fact.

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And that's the glamourie,

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that's the thing that supposedly enchants the woman.

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You know about that, Phil, don't you?

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Oh, I'm casting my spell from the minute I get up in the morning.

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The song itself is a bit of a traveller, isn't it?

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Yes, songs and music migrate with people

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and this one hopscotched across to Ulster

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and ended up in Appalachia, Appalachia probably because that's

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where a lot of the Scottish and Irish immigrants went

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and was transmitted there.

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And then came back into the mainstream of American folk music.

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Yeah, I think it's really important to remember that at the time

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the song was, you know, first came to life,

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people weren't learning it from books, they were learning it

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one-to-one and passing it that way and it mutated as

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it went, cos it moved slowly.

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When it transfers to America, of course, they didn't have earls.

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They probably had gypsies, they must have had.

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And Woody Guthrie starts his version by...

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# Late last night the boss came home, askin' for his lady

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# And the only answer he received, "She's gone with the Gypsy Davey."

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# "Gone with the Gypsy Dave."

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When it reaches America and the religious climate at the time

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is quite restrictive, it changes from the woman's point of view

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as well, so that it's not a happy ending at all.

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She ends her life in poverty, she's abandoned by the gypsy.

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He takes off with someone else,

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so it becomes much more of a moral parable and a warning to women,

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not to even think about it.

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Can you give us a wee bit of that version?

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Yeah, I'll give you the wee end bit.

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So she's already run away at this point

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and her husband is trying to win her back,

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but she's not having any of it.

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Sounds like a plan to me.

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-OK?

-Yeah.

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# Come home, come home with me, my dear

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# Come home and be my lover

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# I'll furnish you with a room so neat

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# With silken bed and covers

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# I won't go home with you, dear sir

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# Nor will I be your lover

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# I do not care for your room so neat

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# For your silken bed and your covers

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# Oh, I will leave my house and land

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# And I will leave my baby

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# I'm a-goin' to roam the world around

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# And be a gypsy's lady

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# Oh, soon this lady changed her mind

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# Her clothes grew old and faded

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# Her hose and shoe fell off her feet and left them bare and naked.

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# Just what befell this lady then

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# I think it worth relating

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# Her gypsy found another lass

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# And left her heart a-breaking. #

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In all the many versions of this song,

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it's music that gives the wanderer his seductive power.

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CELTIC FOLK SONG PLAYS

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Folk songs like these never belonged to just one social class.

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They were composed by all sorts of people.

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We know of one 16th century nobleman,

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a songwriter who liked to wander the streets

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disguised as a humble musician.

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SONG CONTINUES

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Like the gypsy, he was a charmer too

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who fathered several illegitimate children.

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He called himself the Goodman of Ballengeich.

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But his poor clothes concealed his true identity.

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Built on a great crag of volcanic rock,

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Stirling Castle is one of the splendid palaces

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of the Stuart kings.

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And here is that notorious songwriter,

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the Goodman of Ballengeich himself.

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He was in fact King James V of Scotland.

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The Stuarts loved their music and King James was no different.

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By all accounts, he wasn't much of a singer,

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but he was a fine lute player

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and he brought in the latest instruments from Europe,

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along with musicians to play them.

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He was a Renaissance man.

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He was a man that saw Scotland as a real part of

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that great European cultural movement.

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Just imagine - in the early 16th century,

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these halls would've been just buzzing with music.

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Now, there's a gig for you.

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But this wasn't the only music at court.

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The Chapel Royal echoed to some of the finest church music in Europe,

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also commissioned by the Stuart kings.

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CHORAL CHANTING

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These angelic harmonies were designed

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to lift your thoughts to heaven.

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But sophisticated religious music like this

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was very much the preserve of the church.

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The Catholic Mass was sung in Latin by an elite group of canons

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and choirboys, whilst the congregation sat as spectators.

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There would soon be no place for this beautiful music.

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When religious conflict in Europe created a new religious movement,

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passionate reformers renounced the Pope's authority

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and Scotland became a Protestant country.

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The pomp and ceremony of the Catholic Church was condemned.

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Its rituals, arts and its ornate music

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were seen as a barrier between man and God that had to be cast aside.

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Scotland's reformers were determined -

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the Lord's people would now sing for themselves.

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# I to the hills will lift my eyes

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# From whence doth come my aid

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# My safety cometh from the Lord

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# Who heaven and earth have made... #

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It was a musical revolution,

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sacred music sung by the congregation

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in words that everybody could understand.

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# Slumber that he keeps... #

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French theologian John Calvin, whose teachings became

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the cornerstone of Scottish Presbyterianism,

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believed that worship should be based solely on the Bible.

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He found what he needed to sing God's praise in the old Testament...

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# The Lord thee keeps, the Lord thy shade

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# On thy right hand doth stay... #

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..in the psalms, said to have been given

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to King David by the holy spirit.

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# The moon by night thee shall not smite

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# Nor yet the sun by day. #

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For Calvin, this book was an anatomy of all parts of the soul.

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It's a psalter, or a praise book,

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with the psalms of David set out in simple rhyme and metre.

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Like the songs from oral tradition,

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the psalms expressed a range of human emotion.

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Joy, sadness, love and hope -

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here was something that ordinary people could relate to.

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These are really poems that were meant to be sung,

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either in church or family worship,

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and each one had its own tune.

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HE HUMS THE TUNE

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These tunes were easy to remember.

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They all shared the same strict metre,

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something which people found instantly accessible.

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It was a rhythm borrowed from their own ballad tradition.

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Calvin was fed up of all the ornateness in the medieval church.

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He wants to make it as easy as possible,

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make it in a language that people will understand

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and give them a tune that's fairly simple.

0:24:080:24:10

I'm sure some people must have missed the old Latin choir,

0:24:100:24:12

but do you think there was a sense of excitement and energy

0:24:120:24:15

-about this new form of worship?

-Oh, without a doubt.

0:24:150:24:18

I mean, this is... It's really hard to convey

0:24:180:24:21

the excitement that must have been there,

0:24:210:24:24

because for the first time the congregation's being asked to sing.

0:24:240:24:29

It's in their own speech, it's in Scots or it's in English,

0:24:290:24:32

it's not Latin. You understand what you're singing about

0:24:320:24:36

and there is no greater joy, surely, then being part of

0:24:360:24:40

the congregation of all believers.

0:24:400:24:42

The people come to the foreground for the first time

0:24:420:24:45

in Scottish history at the Reformation

0:24:450:24:48

and nothing proves it better than the singing of the psalms.

0:24:480:24:51

# As far as east is distant from

0:24:570:25:04

# The west, so far hath he... #

0:25:040:25:09

In Ulster, too, the metrical psalms and the familiar tunes

0:25:090:25:12

that went with them became a unifying force.

0:25:120:25:15

# Thus removed

0:25:150:25:20

# That they no more will be. #

0:25:200:25:28

Many of the Lowland Scots who first settled here

0:25:290:25:32

had no great interest in religion at all, but over time,

0:25:320:25:36

the Presbyterian Church became a focal point for these Ulster Scots.

0:25:360:25:41

Singing the metrical psalms together became a part of who they were,

0:25:410:25:45

and it also put music and communal singing at the heart of life.

0:25:450:25:49

I was brought up singing the psalms and one of the lovely things

0:25:510:25:54

is actually that even though Pete and I grew up in different families,

0:25:540:25:58

we grew up singing the same songs.

0:25:580:26:01

So that when we now have our own children,

0:26:010:26:04

it's really lovely to sing the same things to my children

0:26:040:26:07

as my mum and dad sang with me.

0:26:070:26:09

In life there are things which you struggle with,

0:26:190:26:21

battles that you have to fight,

0:26:210:26:23

and that's when I guess I turn more to the psalms for comfort,

0:26:230:26:27

for encouragement, for strength.

0:26:270:26:29

# As like the flower of the field... #

0:26:290:26:36

I think singing with emotion is important.

0:26:360:26:38

There are times when you're holding back tears,

0:26:390:26:42

there are times when there are tears,

0:26:420:26:44

and yet we are able to keep singing through it.

0:26:440:26:47

These are the words that have been given to us to sing,

0:26:540:26:57

and we are offering it to God, emotions and all.

0:26:570:27:01

# Oh my God

0:27:010:27:03

# Oh my God

0:27:030:27:05

# I trust in you

0:27:050:27:07

# I trust in you

0:27:070:27:09

# Let me not be ashamed

0:27:090:27:11

# Let not my enemies triumph over me. #

0:27:110:27:16

These little books that date from the 18th and 19th centuries

0:27:250:27:28

are the work of many hands, men and women, old and young,

0:27:280:27:32

each page as individual as the person who crafted it.

0:27:320:27:35

# Ah, fah, me, lah, so

0:27:380:27:41

# Fah, so, lah. #

0:27:410:27:43

These books are copies of psalms,

0:27:430:27:46

and they could have been used for singing practice

0:27:460:27:49

at singing schools.

0:27:490:27:51

And they are rather beautiful, some of them.

0:27:510:27:54

That's obviously taken a lot of care,

0:27:540:27:56

a lot of attention, and for a people who are not

0:27:560:28:00

normally associated with,

0:28:000:28:02

maybe even suspicious of a lot of visual work,

0:28:020:28:06

there's an awful lot of effort and art has gone into that.

0:28:060:28:09

-It is rather nice.

-You can really see the personality,

0:28:090:28:12

or the hand of the person that created them.

0:28:120:28:15

It goes beyond the music.

0:28:150:28:17

It goes just beyond the psalms -

0:28:180:28:19

this is part of the warp and weft of their community.

0:28:190:28:24

But there is also an attempt to try and maybe have fun with it as well,

0:28:240:28:28

or to maybe not use sacred words all the time in it,

0:28:280:28:32

and there are examples of people making up doggerel verse

0:28:320:28:35

and popular verse to try and learn these tunes, you know,

0:28:350:28:38

silly little rhymes which were often based on individuals

0:28:380:28:41

or particular points in the local geography.

0:28:410:28:45

Have you any examples of that?

0:28:450:28:47

Funnily enough, there's one with an ill-tempered teacher.

0:28:470:28:51

When Satan in the days of old, the herd of swine destroy,

0:28:510:28:55

He left one surly boar behind, McKinley, you're the boy.

0:28:550:28:58

It's interesting about the juxtaposition between

0:28:590:29:02

what you might call the sacred and the secular.

0:29:020:29:05

I think there have always been two kind of parallel and sometimes

0:29:050:29:08

competing strands within Ulster-Scots,

0:29:080:29:11

particularly Presbyterianism.

0:29:110:29:13

There is a strand that can be bawdy and slightly scabrous,

0:29:130:29:17

and then there's a rather more puritanical strand.

0:29:170:29:20

The psalms talk about the community of people

0:29:200:29:23

and they're associated with the Old Testament and God's people,

0:29:230:29:26

and there is a very strong sense in which Presbyterians

0:29:260:29:29

see themselves in that context.

0:29:290:29:31

So singing these psalms of God's people in the Old Testament

0:29:310:29:34

is actually a very important part of their communal identity.

0:29:340:29:37

I think it would be a mistake to picture these people as spending

0:29:370:29:42

all their lives singing psalms,

0:29:420:29:44

with those kind of dour Presbyterian faces that are thought appropriate

0:29:440:29:49

for the worship of God.

0:29:490:29:51

They weren't much more rounded than that,

0:29:510:29:53

but there was a lot of stuff going on outside,

0:29:530:29:55

both musically and socially,

0:29:550:29:58

that mightn't just easily sit with singing psalms.

0:29:580:30:03

# When going to church last Sunday

0:30:030:30:07

# My love, she passed me by

0:30:070:30:11

# And I knew her mind was altered

0:30:110:30:15

# By the rolling of her eye

0:30:150:30:20

# I knew her mind was altered

0:30:200:30:24

# To a land of a high degree

0:30:240:30:28

# Oh, Molly, lovely Molly

0:30:280:30:32

# Your looks, they have wounded me. #

0:30:320:30:36

Passion, tragedy, love.

0:30:370:30:41

# All in the merry month of May... #

0:30:420:30:45

Whether the kirk approved or not, people sang about these things too.

0:30:450:30:49

# When green leaves, they was springing

0:30:490:30:52

# This young man on his death-bed lay

0:30:540:31:00

# For the love of Barbara Allen. #

0:31:000:31:04

Along with metrical psalms,

0:31:080:31:09

the Scots also brought a great ballad tradition to Ulster.

0:31:090:31:12

Folk songs in English and Scots that could be bawdy, comic, tragic,

0:31:120:31:16

satirical and political.

0:31:160:31:18

Songs that helped them remember where they came from,

0:31:180:31:21

and make sense of where they were.

0:31:210:31:24

What were ballads about?

0:31:240:31:26

They were about everything,

0:31:260:31:27

they were about all human experience.

0:31:270:31:29

Love, loss, human dramas, passions.

0:31:290:31:33

People would sing about things that happened in their communities,

0:31:330:31:37

things that had happened in their communities before living memory.

0:31:370:31:40

The printed ballad first appeared in Ireland as early as 1626.

0:31:420:31:46

From the 17th century onwards,

0:31:500:31:52

thousands of songs were printed and sold all over the country.

0:31:520:31:54

But in Ulster, to cater to local taste,

0:31:540:31:57

printers favoured Scottish and English material.

0:31:570:31:59

Printed in the year 1814.

0:32:000:32:02

Sadly, very few have survived.

0:32:030:32:05

These are a precious remnant from the early 19th century,

0:32:050:32:09

an echo of a once-vibrant trade in popular music.

0:32:090:32:12

There's a hole in the ballot -

0:32:150:32:17

an old Ulster expression to cover the moment

0:32:170:32:19

where you can't for the life of you

0:32:190:32:21

remember what you're supposed to say next.

0:32:210:32:23

That's an occurrence I'm well familiar with.

0:32:230:32:25

The ballot of course was the ballad sheet,

0:32:250:32:28

the piece of paper that the song was printed on.

0:32:280:32:30

And if you were to pick it up, fold it up, stick it in your pocket,

0:32:300:32:33

the chances are that you might weaken the paper

0:32:330:32:35

and maybe lose a line and a bit of the song,

0:32:350:32:37

thus making a hole in the ballot.

0:32:370:32:39

Found hidden in a linen chest in 1922,

0:32:410:32:44

this rarely-seen collection was gathered by a single family,

0:32:440:32:47

the Clelands, Presbyterian farmers from County Down.

0:32:470:32:51

They wouldn't have been wealthy,

0:32:510:32:53

but someone thought these songs worth buying and keeping safe.

0:32:530:32:56

It was most likely the person who controlled the family purse strings

0:32:580:33:00

or brought their goods to market. But whoever it was that bought them,

0:33:000:33:04

there was at least one singer in that house,

0:33:040:33:05

and it was a singer with a very impressive repertoire.

0:33:050:33:08

Within this family and their community,

0:33:090:33:12

music, sacred and secular, was part of life.

0:33:120:33:14

# Oh, the hens are in the byre and the cows are on the grass

0:33:160:33:19

# And a man without a woman is no better than an ass

0:33:190:33:22

# The water likes the ducks and the ducks like the drake

0:33:220:33:24

# Oh, Judy Flanagan, I'd die for your sake... #

0:33:240:33:28

The pop music of the day, songs and ballads always attracted

0:33:280:33:31

the wrath of the Presbyterian church.

0:33:310:33:33

As far back as 1718,

0:33:350:33:37

dire warnings were issued to Belfast printers responsible for what

0:33:370:33:41

church records described as obscene ballads.

0:33:410:33:44

100 years later, despite the best efforts of the Godly,

0:33:490:33:52

the ballad trade was still going strong.

0:33:520:33:54

The Belfast Newsletter complained that crowds who had gathered

0:33:540:33:58

to listen to the ballad singers

0:33:580:33:59

were blocking up both ends of Bridge Street, just behind me here.

0:33:590:34:02

These wandering singers were distributors,

0:34:030:34:06

sales people and performers.

0:34:060:34:07

They would pick up their song sheets from the printers,

0:34:070:34:09

then they would walk the streets, singing,

0:34:090:34:11

with their song sheets draped over their arm,

0:34:110:34:13

ready to pass on to the next customer.

0:34:130:34:15

At street corners, at fairs or markets,

0:34:160:34:19

wherever people came together, the ballad singer was there.

0:34:190:34:22

A wanderer with a song to sell.

0:34:240:34:26

# Black is the colour

0:34:280:34:31

# Of my true love's hair

0:34:310:34:34

# Her lips are like

0:34:360:34:40

# Some roses fair... #

0:34:400:34:42

Often viewed as no better than beggars and thieves,

0:34:420:34:45

history has largely forgotten them.

0:34:450:34:46

But these itinerant singers were unlikely guardians

0:34:490:34:52

of our shared musical culture.

0:34:520:34:54

We know about one Scottish singer who worked the Donegal market town

0:35:000:35:03

of Letterkenny at the end of the 18th century.

0:35:030:35:05

She was known as a beauty and a fine singer,

0:35:080:35:11

and her life played out like one of the tragic love songs

0:35:110:35:14

she sang so well.

0:35:140:35:16

She was another respectable lady who fell for a gypsy's charms.

0:35:160:35:20

By the time she got to Letterkenny she had already done time

0:35:200:35:23

as a thief and as a prostitute.

0:35:230:35:25

But the songs she sang and shared

0:35:250:35:27

would become part of Scotland and Ulster song traditions.

0:35:270:35:30

Her name was Jean Glover.

0:35:330:35:35

# Coming through the Craigs of Kyle

0:35:380:35:42

# Among the bonnie blooming heather

0:35:420:35:46

# There I met a bonnie wee lassie

0:35:460:35:50

# Keeping all her yowes together

0:35:500:35:55

# O'er the moor, among the heather

0:35:550:35:59

# O'er the moor among the heather

0:35:590:36:03

# There I met a bonnie wee lassie

0:36:030:36:07

# Keeping all her yowes together. #

0:36:070:36:12

That's lovely, such a bonnie song.

0:36:120:36:14

Jean Glover was born in Kilmarnock in Ayrshire,

0:36:140:36:17

and she was an itinerant and travelling performer,

0:36:170:36:20

travelled with a sleight of hand blaggard, apparently.

0:36:200:36:23

-Met a few of them!

-Yes!

0:36:230:36:25

She's somebody that seems to have performed in a number

0:36:250:36:27

of different locations and could very much hold an audience,

0:36:270:36:32

but she ended her life in Donegal, actually, in Letterkenny,

0:36:320:36:37

because one of the accounts we have talks about someone, a soldier,

0:36:370:36:42

in fact, hearing Jean sing a song in Letterkenny

0:36:420:36:46

and she dies soon after.

0:36:460:36:47

The song Jean Glover sang in Letterkenny is still alive and well.

0:36:590:37:02

It found a new rhythm and a new flavour in Ulster,

0:37:090:37:12

where it's been handed down through three centuries

0:37:120:37:15

from one great singer to another.

0:37:150:37:17

# As I roved out of a bright May morning

0:37:190:37:22

# Calm and clear was the weather

0:37:220:37:26

# I chanced to roam some miles from home

0:37:270:37:29

# Among the beautiful blooming heather

0:37:290:37:32

# And it's heather on the moor, over the heather

0:37:320:37:35

# Over the moor and among the heather

0:37:350:37:38

# And I chanced to roam some miles from home

0:37:380:37:41

# Among the beautiful blooming heather

0:37:410:37:44

# And it's heather on the moor... #

0:37:440:37:46

Heather On The Moor is a perfect pop song.

0:37:460:37:48

It's just six little verses, each advances the story a little bit,

0:37:500:37:56

and the chorus comes again and again and again,

0:37:560:37:58

and you're driven mad by the time the song's over

0:37:580:38:00

and you can't stop singing it, you know?

0:38:000:38:02

# And it's heather on the moor

0:38:020:38:04

# Where are you going to, my pretty fair maid?

0:38:070:38:10

# By hill or dale, come tell me whether

0:38:100:38:15

# Right modestly she answered me

0:38:150:38:18

# To the feeding of my lambs together... #

0:38:180:38:21

When you were growing up in Ulster,

0:38:210:38:23

were you aware of the connection

0:38:230:38:25

between Scotland and Ireland, musically?

0:38:250:38:27

Of course you were. I mean, it's largely the one thing.

0:38:270:38:32

There just happens to be a sea in the middle of it, you know?

0:38:320:38:36

You heard Scottish music all the time.

0:38:370:38:39

Those songs to me were my songs as much as Scottish songs, you know,

0:38:400:38:44

they were the songs that I grew up with.

0:38:440:38:46

It's been there so long as an instinctive way of communicating.

0:38:510:38:56

Before anything, I am sure people were singing

0:38:560:38:59

about what was happening.

0:38:590:39:02

# Well, we both shook hands and down we sat

0:39:020:39:05

# For it being the finest day in summer

0:39:050:39:08

# And we sat till the red setting beams of the sun

0:39:100:39:13

# Came a-sparkling down among the heather

0:39:130:39:16

# And it's heather on the moor, over the heather... #

0:39:160:39:18

The songs are really well written.

0:39:180:39:20

They tell about the deepest things that human beings feel.

0:39:210:39:24

If the song is really a strong song,

0:39:270:39:29

people will adapt it to suit the place they're in.

0:39:290:39:32

# Up she rose and away she goes

0:39:320:39:35

# And her place and name I know not either

0:39:350:39:40

# But if I was king I'd make her queen

0:39:400:39:43

# The lass I met among the heather

0:39:430:39:46

# And it's heather on the moor, over the heather

0:39:460:39:49

# Over the moor and among the heather

0:39:490:39:51

# But if I was king I'd make her queen

0:39:510:39:54

# The lass I met among the heather

0:39:540:39:57

# And it's heather on the moor. #

0:39:570:39:59

Many who heard Jean Glover sing never knew her name.

0:40:190:40:22

There's no picture of her here among the great and the good

0:40:250:40:28

at Scotland's National Portrait Gallery,

0:40:280:40:30

but the reason we know her story is down to the man

0:40:300:40:33

to whom she gave her songs,

0:40:330:40:35

the collector and songwriter who was also Scotland's finest poet.

0:40:350:40:39

Robert Burns.

0:40:400:40:42

I think it's fair to say that we all feel a little bit like he's ours.

0:40:420:40:45

He speaks for us of love and loss, joy and sorrow.

0:40:450:40:49

Whenever we can't find the words to say, it's him we turn to.

0:40:490:40:52

He found his inspiration in the great cargo of songs

0:40:530:40:55

that he collected from his own people.

0:40:550:40:57

But he also reminds me of every great singer I've ever worked with.

0:40:590:41:03

He was able to shape the material to suit himself.

0:41:030:41:06

Burns was very much the eager collector.

0:41:140:41:18

He would find scraps of ballads, he would try to preserve them

0:41:180:41:21

by expanding them into more complete verses.

0:41:210:41:24

He would attach them to tunes he thought they worked quite well with

0:41:240:41:27

and he really was a very creative collector.

0:41:270:41:31

We have a tremendous tradition of song collecting in Scotland.

0:41:380:41:42

He wouldn't have been the first,

0:41:430:41:44

but he was definitely one of the most important.

0:41:440:41:47

Scotland's rich oral tradition inspired Robert Burns

0:41:520:41:55

and provided the raw material for songs

0:41:550:41:57

that are still sung the world over.

0:41:570:42:00

In his own lifetime he was as loved and lauded as any modern rock star,

0:42:020:42:07

and not just in Scotland.

0:42:070:42:08

This is Belfast, where granite and sandstone from Ayrshire,

0:42:130:42:17

Dumfries and Giffnock define the grandest buildings

0:42:170:42:19

in the city centre.

0:42:190:42:21

They're a reminder of the industrial and cultural connections

0:42:220:42:25

that once made this shipbuilding city part of a Scottish world.

0:42:250:42:29

Here at the Linen Hall Library is one of the largest collections

0:42:310:42:34

of the poems and songs of Robert Burns outside of Scotland.

0:42:340:42:37

Burns was taken to Belfast, indeed the north of Ireland, very quickly.

0:42:390:42:43

Practically as soon as Burns' work was published in Scotland

0:42:430:42:47

it was published in Belfast,

0:42:470:42:48

it was pirated and brought out here and a number of his poems

0:42:480:42:52

were reproduced in local newspapers.

0:42:520:42:55

Was it important for the people of Scottish lineage

0:42:550:42:57

to have Robert Burns as a reminder of their Scottish roots?

0:42:570:43:00

I think this is one of the reasons that Burns becomes so popular here.

0:43:000:43:04

Burns gives them a sense of confidence

0:43:040:43:07

and an awareness of their culture.

0:43:070:43:10

There is a sense of being a hyphenated person

0:43:100:43:12

if you are an Ulster Scot. You are aware of your Scottishness

0:43:120:43:16

and you are aware of your Irishness, and even if we see the hyphen

0:43:160:43:20

as a kind of metaphor which enables these two cultures to meet,

0:43:200:43:24

just as they speak and revere Burns,

0:43:240:43:28

they're also aware that they are part and parcel of an Irish world.

0:43:280:43:32

The music of Ulster reflects a place

0:43:370:43:38

where cultures have always mixed and mingled.

0:43:380:43:41

Over time, as Scottish ballads and verse forms

0:43:450:43:47

connected with the ancient music of Gaelic Ireland,

0:43:470:43:50

songs in English borrowed Irish tunes.

0:43:500:43:53

Three strands came together to create a unique song tradition.

0:43:530:43:56

It's as vibrant as ever

0:43:570:43:59

in the hands of a new generation of musicians.

0:43:590:44:02

# Courting is a pleasure

0:44:020:44:06

# Between my love and I

0:44:060:44:09

# And it's down in yonder valley

0:44:090:44:14

# I will meet her by and by

0:44:140:44:18

# It's down in yonder valley

0:44:180:44:22

# She is my heart's delight

0:44:220:44:26

# And it's with you, lovely Molly

0:44:260:44:31

# I will stay till the broad daylight

0:44:310:44:34

# Going to church on Sunday

0:44:380:44:41

# My love, she passed me by

0:44:410:44:44

# And I knew her mind was altered

0:44:460:44:49

# By the roving of her eye

0:44:490:44:53

# I knew her mind was altered

0:44:540:44:58

# By a lad of high degree

0:44:580:45:02

# Oh Molly, lovely Molly

0:45:020:45:06

# Your looks have wounded me... #

0:45:060:45:10

Courting is a Pleasure, Charming Molly,

0:45:100:45:13

Black-Eyed Mary, Farewell Ballymoney -

0:45:130:45:17

this northern song has many names

0:45:170:45:18

and its many versions are widely travelled.

0:45:180:45:21

The melody is thought to be an Irish take on a Scottish tune

0:45:280:45:31

with roots in the 17th century.

0:45:310:45:33

Like so many others, this song too would travel on to America,

0:45:340:45:38

where Charming Molly became Loving Hannah.

0:45:380:45:42

# Oh, never court a wee girl

0:45:420:45:46

# With a dark and a roving eye

0:45:460:45:51

# Just kiss her and embrace her

0:45:510:45:54

# Never tell her the reason why

0:45:540:45:58

# Just her and embrace her

0:45:580:46:03

# Till you cause her heart to yield

0:46:030:46:07

# For a faint-hearted soldier

0:46:070:46:11

# Never gained a battlefield

0:46:110:46:15

# Oh, farewell, Ballymoney

0:46:150:46:19

# And to County Antrim too

0:46:190:46:23

# Likewise, farewell dear Molly

0:46:230:46:28

# I will bear you a fonder due

0:46:280:46:32

# America is far away

0:46:320:46:37

# Across the ocean blue

0:46:370:46:40

# And I'm bound for there, dear Molly

0:46:400:46:45

# And again I'll ne'er see you. #

0:46:450:46:48

Songs like this one moved freely

0:46:550:46:57

between Ulster's different communities,

0:46:570:46:59

but instrumental music, the tunes that people love to dance to,

0:46:590:47:02

were also important.

0:47:020:47:04

In the 1830s, as part of the great mapping of the British Isles,

0:47:090:47:12

the Ordnance Survey published a set of memoirs

0:47:120:47:15

which examined Ulster society.

0:47:150:47:17

These were observations of life in rural communities,

0:47:170:47:20

and among the descendants of the Scots settlers who came here

0:47:200:47:23

in the 17th century, what they found was music, dancing and fiddles.

0:47:230:47:28

FIDDLER PLAYS

0:47:280:47:30

They noted that dancing to the fiddle was the favourite amusement,

0:47:350:47:39

but that the people had no other music

0:47:390:47:41

than what one scornful surveyor dismissed as

0:47:410:47:43

the "common airs" of the country.

0:47:430:47:45

Check this out from the surveyor of Ballymartin Parish.

0:47:470:47:50

He writes, "Their dialect, idioms,

0:47:510:47:54

"customs and manners are purely Scottish and by no means pleasing."

0:47:540:47:59

Well, to each his ain, but it's a safe bet

0:48:000:48:02

that among those "common airs" of the country

0:48:020:48:05

there would be some common airs from Scotland.

0:48:050:48:08

At farms and forges, from the big house to the smallest cottage,

0:48:150:48:19

at every social occasion the fiddle was there.

0:48:190:48:21

And in all the counties of Ulster,

0:48:240:48:25

Scottish tunes became part of the fabric of life.

0:48:250:48:28

A handloom weaver, like his father before him,

0:48:390:48:41

John Simpson was just a boy when the Ordnance Survey men

0:48:410:48:44

were at work in County Down.

0:48:440:48:46

He was a fiddler, too, with a great store of tunes.

0:48:470:48:49

But his legacy might have been forgotten

0:48:530:48:55

were it not for musician and collector Nigel Boullier.

0:48:550:48:58

Gathering 500 tunes and the stories of over 300 fiddlers in County Down,

0:48:580:49:02

he was able to trace an unbroken line of music

0:49:020:49:05

that stretched from the 1830s to his own lifetime.

0:49:050:49:09

To my mind that's what traditional music is,

0:49:090:49:11

it's been handed down from one generation to another.

0:49:110:49:14

When I look back at the 300-odd fiddle players

0:49:140:49:16

that I was gathering information on,

0:49:160:49:18

the biggest percentage were actually farmers and farm labourers.

0:49:180:49:21

A large number were weavers, stonemasons, various trades.

0:49:210:49:25

The majority were Protestant because it just matches the population.

0:49:260:49:29

There's a network of Orange halls around a lot of County Down

0:49:320:49:36

and they had a very strong social side of dancing.

0:49:360:49:39

They were doing dancing classes during the week

0:49:390:49:42

and then the weekly dance would be on the Friday night.

0:49:420:49:44

It was quite simple in the hall,

0:49:440:49:45

you just locked the door and danced all night.

0:49:450:49:48

The fiddlers were largely working men,

0:49:520:49:54

but their music gave them status.

0:49:540:49:56

They moved freely from farmhouse ceilidhs

0:49:570:49:59

to Orange halls and parish dances.

0:49:590:50:02

The Irish and Scottish tunes they played were common threads

0:50:020:50:05

connecting different communities and traditions.

0:50:050:50:07

Among these young fiddlers in County Antrim, they still are.

0:50:160:50:19

We play the music of our area and always have done.

0:50:260:50:29

The Antrim style is quite...

0:50:340:50:36

-Open.

-Open, and it's not ornamented that much.

0:50:360:50:39

It's quite like the West Coast of Scotland.

0:50:390:50:41

They play it like they speak.

0:50:560:50:57

It's quite clipped, quite strong.

0:50:590:51:01

Musical dialect is very important.

0:51:070:51:09

I think it is, I think it's an identity,

0:51:090:51:12

and playing it with our own indigenous dialect

0:51:120:51:15

is very important to keeping it alive.

0:51:150:51:18

Here at Queen's University in Belfast there is a rare treasure

0:51:410:51:44

dating back to the early 18th century,

0:51:440:51:47

proof of the growing popularity of the fiddle in Ireland.

0:51:470:51:49

Printed by Dublin fiddle makers John and William Neal,

0:51:520:51:55

this is the only surviving copy of the first-ever collection

0:51:550:51:58

of Irish traditional music.

0:51:580:52:00

Here's another book that the Neals printed in 1724,

0:52:020:52:06

a full two years before anything of the sort would appear in Scotland.

0:52:060:52:10

Most of them are song tunes, but check this out.

0:52:100:52:14

HE HUMS THE TUNE

0:52:140:52:16

It's amazing. I know this tune as Jenny Dang The Weaver.

0:52:210:52:24

It's a reel, and the reel was Scotland's gift to Ireland,

0:52:240:52:27

and it's still the dancer's favourite.

0:52:270:52:30

We tend to forget that a lot of the reels came from Scotland.

0:52:410:52:45

It is just that they've gone into the tradition

0:52:450:52:48

and people forget where they've come from.

0:52:480:52:50

The Scottish influence on fiddle music here in Donegal

0:52:560:52:59

and all the Northern counties is very, very strong,

0:52:590:53:02

especially in the Boyne.

0:53:020:53:03

You can hear it in the repertoire and in the style.

0:53:040:53:08

The Irish borrowed from everywhere. We borrowed the reel,

0:53:170:53:21

we borrowed the hornpipe from England,

0:53:210:53:24

we borrowed the jig, the giga from Italy,

0:53:240:53:28

but apparently the only native rhythm we have is the slip jig.

0:53:280:53:32

But what we did with those was we took it and we digested it

0:53:330:53:38

and made it our own.

0:53:380:53:39

APPLAUSE

0:53:520:53:55

Playing music is a wee bit like travelling in time.

0:54:010:54:03

It evokes emotions, wakens memories.

0:54:070:54:09

But it also connects us to people and communities

0:54:150:54:18

who played and shared the music in another time, another place.

0:54:180:54:22

That's as true today as it must have been for those first Scots

0:54:260:54:30

who settled in Ireland so long ago.

0:54:300:54:32

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:54:350:54:37

Thank you very much, thank you.

0:54:390:54:41

Thanks, folks, see you next time.

0:54:410:54:43

Their ballads, psalms and tunes changed Ulster's musical story,

0:54:470:54:52

just like living in Ireland

0:54:520:54:54

transformed and enriched the Scottish traditions.

0:54:540:54:56

That same process of cultural fusion and musical exchange

0:54:560:55:00

would happen all over again with another great wave of migration

0:55:000:55:03

in the 18th century.

0:55:030:55:05

BELL TOLLS

0:55:070:55:10

The port city of Londonderry became one of the major points of departure

0:55:160:55:21

where up to a quarter of a million Ulster Scots left for America.

0:55:210:55:24

Some were driven by poverty,

0:55:300:55:32

others wanted land or religious freedom,

0:55:320:55:34

but whatever their reasons, when they boarded that ship,

0:55:340:55:38

they brought a precious cargo of music with them.

0:55:380:55:40

This old Scots song of parting found a new tune in 18th-century Ulster

0:55:420:55:48

when it became an emigrant's farewell.

0:55:480:55:50

# An evening sun goes down west

0:55:530:55:59

# The birds sit nodding in the trees

0:55:590:56:04

# All nature now prepares to rest

0:56:060:56:11

# But there's no rest prepared for me

0:56:120:56:18

# Good nicht and joy

0:56:190:56:22

# Good nicht and joy

0:56:220:56:25

# Good nicht and joy be wi' you all

0:56:250:56:29

# For this is my departing nicht

0:56:310:56:37

# And the morn's the day I'm gaun awa'

0:56:370:56:42

# Oh, all the comrades that e'er I had

0:56:440:56:50

# They're sorry for my going away

0:56:500:56:55

# And all the sweethearts that e'er I had

0:56:560:57:03

# They'd wish me one more day to stay

0:57:030:57:07

# But since it falls into my lot

0:57:090:57:15

# That I should rise and you should not

0:57:150:57:19

# I'll gently rise and softly call

0:57:210:57:26

# Goodnight and joy be with you all

0:57:260:57:32

# Goodnight and joy be with you all. #

0:57:330:57:41

In the next episode, I'll follow in the footsteps of pioneers

0:57:490:57:52

down the Great Wagon Road to the Appalachian Mountains.

0:57:520:57:56

I'll look at how the songs and tunes they carried with them

0:57:560:57:59

changed in the New World

0:57:590:58:00

and I'll celebrate their enduring influence on America's music.

0:58:000:58:04

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