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Jacouse - "Home from the sea" |
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What is tradition?; is a question which, at first, may seem to be answered easily. Surely tradition is what has been around forever, or at least as long as anyone can remember. But tradition is in fact a much more elusive term to define. Traditions can be invented literally overnight and a spurious genealogy used to support a fake heritage. In Scotland we are, arguably, world leaders in the manufacture of an often kitsch quasi-historical view of ourselves - a perspective which is then accommodated and augmented by others. Call it ‘Balmorality’ or the ‘Brigadoon Syndrome’, but there is a disingenuous and unforgivable mythologising around so many so-called traditional aspects of Scottish culture. Our national psyche is so over-burdened with Scotch Myths, that at times there seems little room left to entertain the possibility of vibrant and energetic cultural development. One definition of tradition is not a moribund cultural fossil but rather what can be reinterpreted by successive generations who may find value and meaning for their own times. This is what Arthur Wilson, his sister Margo Falconer and their friend Andrew Hennessey have done in this collection. Scotland has a long tradition of song and it has been argued by the distinguished authority Hamish Henderson, amongst others, that there exists here less of a gap between folk culture on the one hand and high culture on the other than is the case with our southern neighbour, England. Whatever one thinks of this argument there is little doubt that a strong and vibrant undercurrent of song has always persisted in many parts of Scotland, often in those places where one may least expect to find it. Lying only a few miles east of Edinburgh on the sea coast of the Firth of Forth the community of Prestonpans is one such place. Eclipsed by its larger neighbour, few visitors will venture to “The Pans”. Yet the town has a pride and fragile beauty which can only be experienced by going there, walking around and listening to its inhabitants. Arthur and Margo’s family tradition is rooted in this community - both their grandfathers were miners. Music was very much a part of their upbringing, inherited from both sides of the family, but in particular from their maternal grandmother McArthur (née Margaret Hamilton). These songs were known to and sung by her and were part of her musical heritage reaching back into previous generations. As with my own grandmother (née Agnes Burns) grandmother McArthur was born around the turn of the century and would have known those who could remember people born soon after Burns’ death in 1796. Thus a very real and living tradition can be claimed for the handing down of musical material recorded here. Despite its proximity to the avowedly Anglicised Athens of the North, the speech and character of Prestonpans is distinctively Scottish. Indeed, the Scots language finds a secure stronghold in this part of the country. This is no fake tradition but a living, loving tongue which persists to this day in the mouths of the people. It is a way of speaking shared by Arthur Wilson and his family. It is neither affectation nor imposition but a quietly proud mode of expression. A kind of music or a mouth-poem where the accumulated experience of history, geology and climate intermix. The sea, the land and the sky imbue it with a brittle flavour. Scots is also the language of most of songs we hear in this collection. For let us be clear about a few facts. Scots is undoubtedly the majority language of Scotland. Grammar, phraseology, vocabulary and cadence set it apart from the English language. The language shares a common lineage with English but its use and currency go back many centuries and the literary tradition which evolved from a spoken one can be traced back at least as far as the 13th century. And although Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Lady Nairne and others knew the language and Burns, in particular, spoke Scots as his ‘mither tongue’, these figures functioned not as composers, but as collectors, often setting existing lyrics to older melodies, and modifying vocabulary and structure to suit their own tastes or the tastes dictated by the time. Here we find not preserved remnants of song but an amalgam of various forms where older oral forms have been altered and preserved. One definition of tradition, therefore, may be a cultural form which has been continuously modified and remains open to reinterpretation. Interestingly, and in line with this tradition of evolution and adaptation, Arthur and Margo, assisted by Andrew have added their own touches and peculiarities to many of these songs. One of these is the instrumental version - performed by Andrew - of ‘Johnnie Cope’. This was composed in the aftermath of the battle of Prestonpans in 1745 - a Jacobite victory over the Hanoverian forces under the command of General John Cope. (The lyrics, by Adam Skirving of Haddington, and melody were transcribed by Burns around 1790). The setting here hints at the Gaelic tradition of its composition through the use of bodhran (a traditional small drum) and whistle. It is, in words which Burns may have used, ‘a richt guid rant’. Returning to their own speech and their own community, Arthur, Margo and Andrew have found a music which best expresses their love of place and people. GILES SUTHERLAND Giles Sutherland is a writer and critic. He currently writes a column on visual art for ‘The Times’ |