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ROiNGS The Scottish music scene has never been more exciting. A new generation of singers, songwriters, composers, and musicians are adding their own voices and interpretations to a tradition that stretches back centuries. Their inspiration and creativity are reflected in a new compilation produced by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings especially for the 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Scotland the Real: Music from Contemporary Caledonia (SFW CD 40511) offers 20 tracks selected by Fiona Ritchie, creator and host of National Public Radio's weekly show "Thistle & Shamrock*," and Nancy Groce, folklorist and curator of the Scotland at the Smithsonian program. The recording spotlights marquis-name Scottish performers such as the Battlefield Band, Alasdair Fraser, the Tannahill Weavers, Fiddlers' Bid, Brian McNeill, the Wrigley Sisters, and Cilia Fisher, as well as equally talented artists who deserve to be better known to American audiences. Cilia Fisher also appears with her husband Artie Trezise on an album of children's songs, The Singing Kettle: Singalong Songs from Scotland (SFW CD 45057). Favorite songs for young people such as "Down on the Funny Farm" and "Five Wee Monkeys" will listeners of all ages. Both albums are available for purchase at the Festival Marketplace and through the delight Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Web site, www.folkways.si.edu. Connecting People through Music Returning north again to the Central Belt you will sense a myriad of cultural differences, especially in the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, and Dundee. Landscapes, skyscapes, and traditional industries are reflected in local songs and music. Glasgow, world famous for building ships such as the Queen Elizabeth II, also had an earlier tobacco trade with Virginia. Self-styled "tobacco lords" built huge mansions, in stark contrast to the overcrowded tenements of the masses. If surviving depends on a sense of humor, then Glasgow will flourish—the rapidfire retort that gives comedian Billy Connelly his fame (or notoriety) is part of the Glasgow character, and the matchless wit of song-maker Adam McNaughtan sums up the Glaswegian. It's also true there that, regardless of your name, you might be asked, "How's it gaun, Jimmy?" Dundee, with its jute and jam and newspapers, has a more droll humor, as does Edinburgh. Though Scotland's capital is only 40 miles from Glasgow, there is a world of difference between the two cities. Every August since 1946, the Edinburgh International Festival has been the world stage to every imaginable art form, from the most sophisticated classical ballet, opera, or orchestra to the seediest sidestreet show. In 1951. to offset its elitist bias, Hamish Henderson helped set up The People's Festival Ceilidhs. The aim was to give a platform to traditional Scots singers such as Jeannie Robertson and Jimmy MacBeath, Gaelic singers Flora MacNeill and Kitty MacLeod, and piper Calum Johnston. So successful were these ceilidhs, that they are often credited as sparking what became known as the Folksong Revival, and Henderson is acknowledged as the father of the movement. From the early 1960s, folk clubs were springing up all over Scotland, with rural festivals giving people a chance to enjoy weekends of music and song. Then, in the 1980s, a Hebridean priest. Father Colin Maclnnes, piloted a feis on the Isle of Barra—a teaching festival where youngsters could learn traditional Gaehc songs, bagpipes, darsiuh (harp), fiddle, and other instruments. It was a resounding success and triggered a movement that now extends all over Scotland, with hundreds of children becoming proficient in a range of instruments and songs. Every January since 1993, Glasgow's Celtic Connections Festival has staged world-class folk music concerts that attract people from all over the world. Though the rural areas may have been incubators of folk songs and music for centuries, Glasgow has suddenly become center stage for a huge revival of traditional songs and music, along with newer sounds that borrow from other cultures. Twenty-first-century Scotland enjoys the healthiest and liveliest "folk scene" imaginable. High schools offering academic concentrations in traditional music have been established in the Wester Ross town of Plockton, and in Edinburgh. The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow also offers a college degree in Scottish traditional music. If the enthusiasm and performance standards among young generations of traditional singers and instrumentalists are anything to go by, then Scottish music and song are in safe hands.
j^ ,. V ẏ 7 Traditional Scottish dance is as varied as its music, and includes both social and performance forms. People dance at weddings and at public dance events, many of which are held in village halls. The origin of most dances in Scotland can be traced to the mid-i8th century, but many are older. Traditional social dances have remained popular in rural Scodand, and recendy in towns and cities, interest in them has revived in the form of ceilidh (pronounced "kaylee") dancing. Ceilidh is the Scottish phanie Smith is a folklorist archivist at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Sff received her Ph.D. from the Universitv of Edinburgh's School of Scottish Studies. She recently co-produced and annotated The Singing Kettle: Singalong Songs from Scotland for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and is currently working on the English Country Dance Video Documentatior Project with the Center's Media Producer Charles Weber. i J Gaelic word for "party^TraaitionaUy, a ceilidh might include music, dance, story, and talk as part of the festivities; today, "ceilidh" has come to mean a pubhc or private dance event. The most popular ceilidh dances include "Strip the Willow," "The Dashing White Sergeant," "The Eightsome Reel," "The Canadian Barn Dance," "The Highland Schottische," "The Gay Gordons," "St. "Broun's Bernard's Waltz," Reel," and "The Britannia Two-Step."At rural village dances, you may find people doing old-time waltzes, the Lancers and Quadrilles (in square formation), as well as popular longways dances. Most urban ceilidhs feature a caller, whose instruction helps those unfamiliar with the dances to have a good time. The role of the present-day caller is analogous to the one played by the peripatetic dancing masters of the i8th to 20th centuries, who went to villages and towns to give dance classes. The oldest Scottish social dances, those born ofvillage hfe, are the Threesome or Foursome Reels mentioned in early Scottish literature and first described in the 1700s in forms similar to those enjoyed today. In a basic reel, three or four people in a line do setting steps (dancing in place) and then a figure-eight pattern. There are regional reel variations, notably in Orkney, Shetland, and the Hebrides. During the 1 6th to 1 8 th centuries, the Scottish social dance repertoire grew incrementally by incorporating couple dances, longways set dances, and square formations fixsm continental Europe and England. These forms were adapted to Scottish tastes with Scottish tunes and steps. Dance Assemblies began in the early i8th century in civic buildings in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and eastern Scottish towns, attended mosdy by the landed gentry and a new and wealthy merchant class. The traveling dancing masters brought the latest dances to people even in remote country districts. In 1923, in response to a decline in country dancing, Jean Milhgan and Ysobel Stewart, supported by publisher Michael Diack, founded the Scottish Country Dance Society in Glasgow; it later became the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (RSCDS). It estabHshed standardized and stylized steps, figures, and dances. The RSCDS
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SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL SCOTL
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The annual Smithsonian Folklife Fes
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Table of Contents The Festival: Doi
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The Festival: Doing the Public Good
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— a singular, global, mass coniii
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The 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festi
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— Appalachia Heritage and Harmony
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Virginia, is one of the best known.
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A mural by Tim White, in Bristol, T
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string bands of note were Charlie P
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Carolina, who learned many of her s
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— 1 riate •KM ''&L'X^'Ttyi«iFi
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- 26 Appalachia, Where Tradition an
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28 and Latin America. They are addi
Page 32 and 33: Native American Traditions in Appal
Page 34 and 35: 32 OF APPALACHIA of cultural histor
Page 36 and 37: ^, — 34 or "Dive for the Oyster."
Page 38 and 39: 36 Pnolo by Jirri Higgins Library o
Page 40 and 41: . 2000. . ^^FORMATION Blue Ridge Mu
Page 42 and 43: Mali From Timbuktu to Washington /.
Page 44 and 45: universities in the United States,
Page 46 and 47: A woman [ in Timbuktu. Knotograpn b
Page 48 and 49: — From Golden Age Empires to Inde
Page 50 and 51: The French had hardly been welcomed
Page 52 and 53: \ constitution brought about the Th
Page 54 and 55: Burkina Faso. It is played on diffe
Page 56 and 57: Malian crafts are a legacy from the
Page 58 and 59: the garment, and ornamentation 56 s
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Page 62 and 63: ack into the Sahara and Sahehan zon
Page 64 and 65: increasing popularity of television
Page 66 and 67: — Certain dishes are linked to pa
Page 68 and 69: ft J ncK DjeDje, Jacquehne Cogdell,
Page 70 and 71: I Scotland at the Smithsonian is pr
Page 72 and 73: — John o'Groals OUTER HEBRIDES {W
Page 75 and 76: Scottish History: The Culture and t
Page 77 and 78: Much of contemporary Scottish tradi
Page 79 and 80: — 1 Traditional Song and Music in
Page 81: . . throughout occasional dance in
Page 85 and 86: — Panto in Scotland JOYCE MCMILLA
Page 87 and 88: — 85 The prehistoric Callanish St
Page 89 and 90: The makars ar also pairt o a proces
Page 91 and 92: have a direct connection with worki
Page 93 and 94: (Outer Hebrides) can still visit sn
Page 95 and 96: Moore, Maggie. Scottish Step Dancin
Page 97 and 98: General Festival Information FESTIV
Page 99 and 100: ^^1:30 S^ 3:00 Talking Tree 12;00 Y
Page 101 and 102: Scotland at Smithsonian the 3:00 Sc
Page 103 and 104: Scotland at Smithsonian Feis Stage
Page 105 and 106: Kora players perrorm at 6 p.m. at t
Page 107 and 108: Malian Foodways
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Page 113 and 114: Scotland at the Smithsonian Feis St
Page 115 and 116: 2:45 Growing Up m Mali 113 3:30 Bab
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Page 119: [ ] ) \ I I i ; i 117 NATIONAL MUSE
Page 123 and 124: — Saturday, July 5 Beautiful Beyo
Page 125 and 126: Festival Participants Laura Boosing
Page 127 and 128: The New Southern Ramblers (with Ral
Page 129 and 130: N'Goussonn, Koulikoro Salif Keita,
Page 131 and 132: Pottery Shoemakiiig TRADITIONAL MED
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Fiti Moore, Diitikeld DANCE POETRY/
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Tapestry Weaving Dovecot Tapestry W
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Special Tixanks Sam Adams. Tiie Mou
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staff SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Lawre
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Tourism Task Force Special thanks t
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• III SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS RECORD
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Smithso >lklife Festiv,
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