Catalogue
Auld Nick's Dance Tunes Vol. 6 : Version for Flute and Piano (2001)
Programme Note available | View performance history...
Commissioned by Airs and Phrases (Richard Chester & Rhona Mackay) with subsidy from SAC.
Work Details
Category: chamber duo
Duration: 10
Instrumentation: Fl Pf
SMC Holdings
- Recording (CD track): Marcos Fernández, Marta Lledó [enquire]
- Recording (CD single): Katie Punter [enquire]
- Score, unpublished, ref library [buy]
- Score, unpublished, hard disk (sibelius file) [enquire]
- Score, unpublished, hard disk (pdf file) [buy]
- Part(s), unpublished, ref library [enquire]
- Part(s), unpublished, archive collection [enquire]
Programme Note
This collection of 4 dances was prompted by the following passage from Robert Burns' poem Tam o' Shanter in which Tam arrives at Alloway Kirk to hear the sound of mirth and dancing:
And, wow ! Tam saw an unco sight !
Warlocks and witches in a dance;
Nae cotillion, brent new frae France,
But hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys and reels,
Put life and mettle in their heels.
A winnock-bunker in the east,
There sat auld Nick, in shape o' beast;
A Towzie tyke, black, grim, and large,
To gie them music was his charge:
On the grounds that the devil must have had several collections of hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels for this ghoulish party which must have gone on for most of the night, I have merely attempted to suggest the music in one collection with just one of each dance represented, although, as far as I am aware, I have yet to write the first five volumes, at least, not when sober. The order of the dances is the same as in the poem.
