strathspey@strathspey.org:43933

Richard Goss

Re: Scottish dancing

Jan. 29, 2006, 4:56 p.m. (Message 43933, in reply to message 43931)

I agree that what makes it for me with a lot of Scottish country
dances is the Scottish traditional music.
   
  At the same time, one must keep in mind that the sources for most of
  our traditional music in Scotland comes from South Britain. If you
  check the various collections, they were published in London,
  because the Scots in Scotland could not make any money doing so.
   
  On the other hand, a lot of what we call Scottish style was composed
  and promoted by teachers trained on the continent.
   
  If one analyzes many of the reels and jigs we use, they are common
  British, and seldom uniqely Scottish. When it comes to strathspeys,
  I think the trend through the RSCDS books has been away from
  traditional strathspeys and more to either 4/4 song tunes, or modern
  composed tunes with little bits added for strathspeyness.