Hearing Scotland's Past: Tobar an Dualchais Kist o Riches

There is nothing that quite compares to being present for a live performance of music, or a session, or holding in your hands books and music and instruments from the past that others' hands have held.

Stories from the past and modern technology: sometimes these things intersect, though, and sometimes the intersections are good. One of the places where such meetings are very good is Tobar an Dualchais Kist of Riches. The riches in this case are stories, songs, and tales from Scotland’s history, tales of traditions, poetry, folklore, stories of how places got their names, songs that might be at the edge of memory, songs with different stories passed down....


All this is to be explored through the work of those who are organizing and cataloguing recordings from the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh, the National Trust for Scotland’s Canna Collection, and other sources. The project itself is headquartered in Skye. You can listen to the fruits of their research and labor without traveling to Skye, however, or even to Scotland. Much of the work of Tobar an Dualchais is available to be heard online. There's material in English, Scots, and Scottish Gaelic, from all parts of the country.

But, you say, I’d not even know what to look for or where to begin? No worries, they have a good search program and the material is well catalogued, Even better, there’s a tab on the home page that is called Lucky Dip. It’s just what it sounds like: you'll have no idea what you’re getting as you press this, but in my experience I’d say it’s bound to be interesting. Up will come a short description of song or story, information about who recorded it, where and when, and a button to push to play the selection if you’d like. Voices from the past, indeed.


photograph made in the Western Highlands of Scotland by Kerry Dexter. it is copyrighted. thank you for respecting that

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History into song: Capercaillie: Glenfinnan

Putting history into song is a long tradition. It makes sense that they should intertwine: both hold the capability for vivid storytelling, and of connecting people across time, space, and country.

The Scotland based band Capercaillie is known for connecting the music of Scotland with that of other countries and continents. For the film Glenfinnan, though, they focused on the stories surrounding a major event in the history of Scotland: the raising of the standard by Highlanders who would follow Charles Edward Stuart -- Bonnie Prince Charlie -- into battle in attempt to restore the house of Stuart to the monarchy. The first raising of the standard took place at Glenfinnan, in 1745. The program, from which this video was taken, was shot there.



It’s also instructive in the making of visual statements with music. Sure, it took some production values to get the fire and the flames and the night lighting and the stage on the water, but compared to many music videos common today, this one is quite straightforward, and lets the visual aspect enhance the music rather than compete with it. It was made in 1995, and still holds impact.



I was fortunate to see the whole film during a Gaelic Film Festival which was part of Celtic Connections several years back, and the whole thing is equally powerful. As far as I can tell, the film isn’t available. The music Capercaillie made for it is, though, and it is certainly powerful enough for you to create your own images while listening.
Glenfinnan: Songs of the 45

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Highlands history in song

The Rise and Fall o' Charlie
Alan Reid and Rob van Sante


You might perhaps know the Skye Boat Song, which is sometimes used as a lullabye, or perhaps you've heard the rousing and wtty song by Robert Burns, Charlie Is My Darlin’. There’s more to the story of Prince Charles Edward Stuart than that, though, in both song and history.

It’s a history intimately connected with Scotland, as the Rising of 1745, when Bonnie Prince Charlie, as he was known, hoped to lead a revolution to bring the British Crown back to the house of Stuart, began and in many ways ended in the Scottish Highlands. Alan Reid of the Battlefield Band and his frequent duo partner Rob van Sante have gathered songs, written songs, and gathered friends together to play and sing them to tell the story of the prince, from rising to remembrance. It makes for a cohesive whole and good listening, whether you know anything about Charles Stuart, Johnny Cope, Preston Pans, or Culloden or not. If yuo're not up on this part of history, the liner notes will fill you in a bit on the trajectory of the story, and the provenance of the music, as well.

A few of the songs, mostly those in Scottish Gaelic, are from Charlie’s time, and there are two Robert Burns songs, from not that long after. Several of the pieces come from the nineteenth century, a time when Charlie's life and quest were often quite romanticized, and Alan Reid has written four of the fourteen pieces included here. The collection opens with Sound of the Pibroch, marking the highland pipes which called the clans from glen to glen to join in the rising, and ends with Will Ye No’ Come Back Again, a song which today is still sung often at the end of gatherings to wish friends a speedy return. Between there are songs in Gaelic, songs welcoming the prince, songs celebrating victories in battle, songs questioning the future of the prince and his cause, and songs looking back and, as Reid puts it in the liner notes “beginning the long process of romanticizing the life and creating the myth” of Bonnie Prince Charlie. It’s a thoughtful collection balanced both musically, and you might say, philosophically. Reid and van Sante are joined by several gifted Scottish musicians, including rising Gaelic singer Maeve MacKinnon, cellist and singer Wendy Weatherby, fiddler Alistair White, Susan Miller on whistle and flute, Mike Katz on the pipes and Ian Fairbairn on fiddle.


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