Martin Dalby

Programme Note

Macpherson's Rant (1971) Martin Dalby

Macpherson was a cattle thief and leader of a gang of outlaws which roamed the province of Moray in Scotland. He was sought by the Banffshire authorities, arrested and executed in 1700. Macpherson was not only persecuted for being a rogue but for being an "Egyptian". Being a gipsy was a capital offence in Scotland at this time. Macpherson's Rant is the tune Macpherson spent his last hours writing and then played on his fiddle to the crowds at his execution.

The event is celebrated in Scottish folk music; the tune is well known to Scots fiddle players and Burns modelled a song on the original ballad.

Dalby's work Macpherson"s Rant is a virtuoso piece for piccolo, flute and alto-flute (played by one player) and double bass. It is a good humoured tribute to Scottish traditional music and in particular Scots fiddle music. In addition to the original tune Macpherson's Rant, the work calls on two other Scottish dance tunes: Feargon, a reel, and Mackenzie's Rant, a Strathspey.

Published: Yorke Edition, 31 Thornhill Square, London, N1 1BQ. (Tel: 0171 607 0849 Fax: 0171 400 4577)

Some other performances: Bertram Turetsky (contrabass) and Nancy Turetsky (flute), Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall, ?, USA, 17 January 1974.

Bertram Turetsky (contrabass) and Nancy Turetsky (flute), Athenaeum, La Jolla, California, 18 February 1974.

New Music Group of Scotland, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, 21 October 19??) (in company with Lyell Cresswell's Macpherson's Rant.)

New Music Group of Scotland, Edinburgh College of Art, 23 October (19??)

Double Bass Forum, Rodney Slatford? (double bass) and Duke Dobing (flutes), Wigmore Hall, London, 9 March 19??.

Commission: "For Rodney Slatford, commissioned by him with the aid of
the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon."

Scoring: Flute (doubling piccolo and alto flute) and double bass.

Completed: London-Glasgow: 11/12/71

Duration: about ten minutes.

Farewell, ye dungeons dark and strong,
The wretch's destinie!
McPherson's time will not be long
On yonder gallow's-tree.

Chorus. Sae rantingly, sae wantonly,
Sae dauntingly gaed he,
He play'd a spring, and danc'd it round
Below the gallows tree.

O, what is death but parting breath!
On many a bloody plain
I've dared his face and in this place
I scorn him yet again!

Untie these bands from off my hands,
And bring to me my sword,
And there's no a man in all Scotland
But I'll brave him at a word.

I've liv'd a life of sturt and strife;
I die by treacherie:
It burns my heart I must depart,
And not avenged be.

Now farewell light, thou sunshine bright, And all beneath the sky!
May coward shame distain his name,
The wretch that dare not die!

Robert Burns

Sung to McPherson's Rant: Scots Musical Museum, 1788, No 114