Scottish Folk Song Suite is a three-movement composition that draws on the traditional music and songs of Scotland.
The first movement, titled “Ceol Beag”(pronounced Key-al Beck), refers to the Scottish Gaelic term for any instrumental music that is not Highland Pipe Music such as the three fiddle tunes from the Shetland Islands featured in this movement. It begins with The Day Dawn, which is traditionally played by a solo fiddler on New Year’s Day morning to greet the new day. This is followed by The Full Rigged Ship, a jig, and then by, The New Rigged Ship, a reel. The movement concludes with a return of the opening theme, ending with a lively dance-like flourish.
The second movement, Ayre, incorporates songs associated with the Highland or Jacobite Uprising of 1745, as its source materials. Adieu Dundee begins the movement and expresses the sorrow felt on leaving your home and your loved ones behind. This sombre tone shifts with the famous Scottish song, The Skye Boat Song. The song’s rhythm and the change in tempo evoke the image of a boat moving through the water as Prince Charles, the leader of the failed rebellion, is carried away from danger to the Isle of Skye.
The third movement, March, opens with Johnnie Cope a march like song celebrating the Scot’s victory at Prestonpans, where The Highland Army defeated the English general John Cope. The contrasting B section features the ballad, Jock O’ Hazeldean, a tale of love lost and then found again on the return of a soldier thought dead. The middle section features the well-known song The Blue Bells of Scotland. On the surface of it, the song appears to be a reference to the native wildflower of Scotland. While true, it also refers to the sea of blue that the Highland Army’s soldiers’ blue tams presented to the casual observer in the field of battle, much like the flowers do in the fields and woods in spring. The work concludes by repeating the first two melodies in reverse order.
