Ex.7.10 — “Wha daur meddle wi me”, Verse 3
Syncopated setting S o p
S c o ts - m an's p ro u d s p i - rit can m e tak' tent
w f W h a _ d a u r m e d - die C o n
A S co ts - m an's p ro u d sp i - rit can tak1 tent
W h a d a u r m ed - die wi' m e
P iano
C m ajor I
Tonic pedal H7 VI/G maj: II
✓
m
A nd c ro o n s he will clo o r,
nev - e r b e bent, H e's_ thraw n and h e's d ow n, H e
A nd c ro o n s h e will cloor, H e n ev - e r b e bent, H e's_ thraw n and h e's d ow n,
P n o G : V 7c C : V7 I F : V 7d lb D : V 7d lb C :V 7d lb D #dim 7 S. C. P n o • £
n e 'e r fo r a c o w - a r d w as m eant, _ that's kent, H e n e'e r fo r a c o w -a n d w as m e a n t,, that's kent.
n e 'e r fo r a c o w - a r d w as m e a n t,, th at's kent, H e ne'e r fo r a c o w - a r d w as m eant, th at's kent.
r r - f 3 i
lb
v
i
Ji
Drysdale employs several techniques derived from traditional music to portray Allan’s Scots text. The vocal line is set to a hexatonic tune which avoids the fourth o f the scale (its use is confined to areas where the music moves through subdominant key) and there is some use of pedals to mimic drones. Moreover, dominant harmony is avoided, frequently being substituted by subdominant chords, a common facet of Scots folk music.
Ex.7.11 — “Wha daur meddle wi me”, Introduction
H ex ato n ic m elody
Allegro risoluto
IV IV
Linked to this feature is the preference for modulation to the subdominant key, rather than the more usual dominant, albeit that the third verse is based in this tonal area.
“Wha daur meddle wi me” demonstrates Drysdale’s ability to compose simple but effective music. The work shows restraint in its harmonic and modulatory techniques, whilst the vocal parts require little technical ability from the performers — Drysdale could not have made it much easier with intervals o f thirds and sixths and a mainly consistent rhythm between the parts. The average school choir or singers at home could easily perform the song. From examination of the other published choral compositions of this period (e.g. Barbara Allan below), it can be seen that Drysdale was capable of producing works which were more technically demanding for both choir and accompanist. There is no doubt that in ‘Wha daur meddle wi’ m e’, Drysdale is writing for a specific market — that of the amateur.
7.3 Folksong arrangement
From his earliest works, Drysdale’s original compositions demonstrate his considerable interest in Scottish traditional culture. Nevertheless, it was not until the final years o f his life that he became actively involved in folksong arrangement, following a commission from the choirmaster and bandmaster James Wood. In a fascinating anecdote (given in full Scots vernacular), Wood relates how he learned o f Drysdale’s aptitude for folksong
1 q
arrangement. Around 1902, Drysdale called on John Glen (a member o f the well- known Edinburgh instrument making and publishing family, and an eminent scholar of Scottish music14) to ask for a copy of the old song “The braes o’ Killiecrankie” which he
13 James Wood “Meeting o f Mr John Glen and Learmont Drysdale”, [1908], in Brief Biographies o f
Learmont Drysdale CblO-y.7 (bound after the article from the Musical Herald)
14 John Glen formed a collection o f old Scottish printed music books which was acquired by the NLS in 1927. His publications include The Glen Collection o f Scottish Dance Music 2 vols (1:1891, 2: 1895) and
wished to employ in his new opera Flora Macdonald. Glen took the opportunity to show Drysdale a version of Wood’s “Mally Lee” which had been set by John Grieve. Afterwards Glen expostulated to Wood:
I tell’t ye it wadna dae. ... He [Drysdale] condemned it at once as an atrocity, and he sat doun at the piano and played right off an accompaniment that wad a dune your heart guid tae listen to.15
Glen and Drysdale proceeded to spend the evening going through arrangements, with the composer providing re-harmonisations and suitable accompaniments such that:
He just made beautiful harmony out o’ what some o’ them wad ha’e the cheek to tell ye was impossible to harmonise. What a differ frae a lot o’ your consecutive fifth gentry! He’s simply a musical genius and one or two like him, if they were gi’en the opportunity, wad mak’ Scottish music second to none in the wide world. I’ve interested him in what we’re doein’, but he’s too busy the noo w i’ his opera [Flora Macdonald\. But we’ll see
, . . 16
him again.
Glen died in 1904 and it was four years before Wood proceeded with the project. By this time Drysdale was happy to assist in the work and he collaborated with several other eminent Scottish musicians including J.A. Moonie, Allan MacBeth and Charles MacPherson in the production of a collection published as Song G em s}1 Drysdale’s main involvement was as general editor of the volume but he also supplied several o f his own arrangements. These are o f their period, being similar in style to those made by the well-known Scots folksong researcher and arranger Maijorie Kennedy-Fraser around the same time (see Ex.7.12 for Drysdale’s arrangement of R.A. Smith’s “Row weel your boatie”).
Drysdale took his task of editor seriously, researching the antecedents o f music and text whilst noting similarities among some one hundred and thirty Scots folksongs; his final
• 18
analysis shows that his chosen texts were set to only forty-five melodies. As well as associating with the prominent folksong scholars of his time, surviving documents pertaining to his work in this field demonstrate that Drysdale studied the collections of many earlier enthusiasts including James Johnston, Henry Playford, Allan Ramsay, Robert Archibald Smith and George Thomson. It seems likely that these activities were instrumental in Drysdale being made president o f the Edinburgh branch o f The Scottish
15 James Wood “Meeting ...” 16 Ibid.
17 James Wood comp. Song Gems (Scots): The Dunedin Collection (London: Vincent Music Co., 1908) 18 Learmont Drysdale “Notes on old Scottish Tunes”, [1908], M23907, Arts Department, ML, Glasgow
- m - 1 3
13
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W§
CQ >* S ►J w ws
j
4 : 3Ex.7.12: Drysdale’s arrangement of R.A. Smith’s “Row weelyour boatie” from Song Gems
'•jn
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National Song Society (SNSS) which had been founded in 1906 to promote the interests of Scottish literature and song (cf. 80).19 A number o f Drysdale’s settings were performed at the society’s successor organisation the Dunedin Association in the years following his death. Moreover, the Scottish baritone Hamish MacKay sang a number of Drysdale’s arrangements during tours o f Canada and the USA (including at a lecture and performance at the Carnegie Hall, New York20) and said of them: “anything more beautiful than [Drysdale’s] settings o f ‘I gaed a waefu’ gate yestreen’ and ‘Willie’s gane
91 to Melville Castle’ [do] not exist in the song literature of any nation.”
Today’s fashion, however, would call for a more sympathetic and simple realisation of folksong rather than the highly pianistic and more advanced harmony utilised in Drysdale’s arrangements.
7.4 Barbara Allan: a choral ballad with piano accompaniment
Drysdale’s interest in traditional music did not just entail imitating folk style in his original compositions or producing arrangements o f songs; he also employed it as the basis for compositions, producing works which are a hybrid o f arrangement and original music. One of the best examples of this style is found in Barbara Allan (1906) in which Drysdale demonstrates his ability to develop the limited material available in one version of a traditional ballad, to form a medium-scale work lasting around eight minutes. Drysdale designates Barbara Allan as a choral ballad, a genre popular with composers of his generation although the term is not listed in any modem reference work in English, suggesting that the terminology is no longer extant in this country. The only entries discovered are those in the early editions of Grove’s Dictionary which state “Choral ballads, are generally speaking, musical settings of poems that would be
• 99 • •
naturally described as ballads”, not particularly helpful when trying to discern the exact features of a genre. Such works are unified by the metre of their text, but a limited examination of a few examples has indicated a diverse form which varies in scale,
19 “Scottish National Song Society” Glasgow Herald 22 May 1909, 5f
20 Janey Drysdale to Henry Farmer, 5 November 1946, Farmer 249/1946/u. Drysdale’s music was to lose one o f its greatest supporters when Hamish Mackay was drowned after the Lusitania was torpedoed on 7 May 1915.
21 Hamish MacKay “Piano Accompaniments to Scots Songs” The Scottish American 6 May [1912] in Henry Farmer comp. “Press Cuttings — Drysdale”, CblO-y.6, p. 67
22 W. H. Cummings with additions by J. Fuller-Maitland “Ballad” Grove’s Dictionary o f Music and
structure and forces utilised, a diversity which is observed in Drysdale’s settings in the genre (e.g. The ProudDamozel and Tamlane {see App. I for further information}).
The Traditional Tunes o f the Child Ballads,23 Bertrand Bronson’s survey of Francis
Child’s monumental ballad collection,24 states that there are at least 198 textual variants associated with “Bonnie Barbara Allan”, gathered from numerous sources in both Britain and the USA. These variants have similar subject matter and express the same sentiment — unrequited love. Nevertheless, they contain innumerable differences in detail, a feature o f their diverse heritage. Bronson classes the version of text set by Drysdale as Scots in origin.25 First printed in Allan Ramsay’s A Tea-Table Miscellany of 1724,26 this text has appeared in numerous publications since that time.27 Its structure is common ballad form (i.e. four alternating four-stress and three-stress lines, with the rhyme scheme ABCB).
Bronson provides over a hundred different melodies associated with “Barbara Allan”. He notes that the earliest printed source o f the melody used by Drysdale can be traced to James Johnson’s The Scots Musical Museum28 compiled between 1787-1803. The melody has a four-phrase structure mirroring the metre of the text, with longer notes at the ends o f the second and fourth phrases (the three-stress lines o f the text) providing symmetrical two-bar phrases. The tune is built on a ‘D’ hexatonic scale (i.e. dorian mode without the sixth) but has a major feel to its third phrase.
23 Bertrand Harris Bronson The Traditional Tunes o f the Child Ballads with Their Texts, According to the
Extant Records o f Great Britain and America 6 vols (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962)
24 Francis James Child English and Scottish Popular Ballads 8 vols (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Co., 1857-59)
25 Bertrand Harris Bronson The Traditional Tunes o f the Child Ballads... 2, 322
26 Allan Ramsay A Tea-Table Miscellany: A Collection o f Choice Songs, Scots and English 2 vols (Glasgow: Fouks, 1768)2, 171-172
27 Including Thomas Percy Reliques o f Ancient English Poetry 3 vols (London: Dodsley, 1767) 3, 131— 133
Ex.7.13 — Traditional melody of “Bonnie Barbara Allan”, James Johnson The Scots
Musical Museum, 3, 230
Phrase (1)
It was in and a -b o u t th e Mar - tin -m a s tim e,_ When the
(3)
f Lr m iJ
r
it iJ r
green le a v e s, were a fal - ling, T hat Sir John Graham in the
(4)
J
'IT K ~ Hw est coun - trie, Fell in love with Barbara A1 - lan
Drysdale does not provide the source for the traditional melody and text he employs (and the song does not form part o f his extant folksong researches29), but as previously noted, he was familiar with the work of both Ramsay and Johnson through his related studies.
Barbara Allan is scored for SATB and piano with the chorus textures occasionally
augmented by division o f parts. The work is accessible to the competent choir, being well within available ranges and generally lacking in any awkward intervals. This lack of serious technical demand does not equate with the reported talents o f the Glasgow Select Choir to whom the work is dedicated. Drysdale, however, would have been aware that a relatively simple but effective setting would be of more interest to publishers who, in turn, wished to attract the largest market possible.
Drysdale retains the traditional version o f the text but uses an interesting mix o f Scots and English dialect which does not totally conform with any of the versions discussed above, a divergence which may owe some debt to the oral tradition he inherited from his mother. His setting is in simple quadruple metre and mainly syllabic — the few melismatic passages either emphasise final lines of stanzas or form choral accompanying figures such as the “Ah” in verse eight (Ex.7.17). Although lines of direct speech by particular characters are generally allocated to the correct sex of singer, repetitions are given by the full choir, providing an effective variety of timbre and texture. In comparison with his other vocal works, Drysdale makes considerable use of textual representation within the music. For example, a “deid bell” rings on a drone in
the weak beats o f verse eight (Ex.7.17) while pedals continue throughout the final verse conveying the sense o f Barbara’s loss. In addition, unison/octaves highlight “Though your hearts’ blood were aspillin” (Ex.7.14a), whilst chromaticism and ambiguous tonality underline “slichted [slighted] Barbara Allan” (Ex.7.14b), a line further emphasised by a slower tempo.
Ex.7.14 — Barbara Allan, textual representation in: (a) Verse 4; (b) Verse 5
S A T B
sirumuiu
^
J . J JT3>- ff- f-
? r F ^ : r £ n—^—
r r r
—cresc. --- 1* J Ar J• • . • s ’.
x u . 1
.
s -
9-
--ji---^---
*3 =
(a)[Allegro moderate]
hearts' b lo o d were spiQ - in
Meno mosso slicht B ar b a - ra A nd A nd Meno mosso Piano I; slicht - e d B ar - b 'r a slicht - e d B ar - b 'r a _ lan o lan
Sudden tempo change is rather unusual in Drysdale’s work and is used here to considerable effect to highlight particularly prominent phrases. Moreover, longer than usual note durations seem to symbolise death in verses three and seven (an effect heightened by the pedal), although rhythms generally follow those of the traditional melody albeit that the dotted figures are not always retained (see Ex.7.13).
Although the chorus sections are generally homophonic interspersed with occasional melody with accompaniment passages, there are a number of welcome changes to the prevailing textures which assist in portraying the sentiments of the traditional ballad. For example, the closing lines of verses frequently employ imitation which can either be between the vocal parts themselves (accompanied by the piano) or between all the available forces as shown in Ex.7.15. Both these features assist in accentuating significant text.
Ex.7.15 — Barbara Allan, conclusion of Verse 3
\Allegro moderato, meno mosso]
rail
"Y oung m an ,. I think y e're dy - ing,
y o u n g m an ,. ■ : ~W PP Piano
T O T
-v Vwn
mg I think ye're mg'The piece is through composed and although its structure is developed from the folk melody, the allocation o f text to music differs from that of the traditional setting as shown in Table 3.
Table 3: The folk melody “Barbara Allan” and how it is employed by Drysdale Verse/section in Drysdale’s setting Phrase/s of folk melody used/ developed30 Structural function in Drysdale setting (with bar nos.31)
Comments
Introduction 1 & 2 Bars 1-24" Mainly based on a cell derived from phrase 2
1 1 & 2 :|| A [243—32]
2 3 & 4 :|| B [32-43] An additional passing note in the melody and the supporting harmonies clearly indicate a major tonality 3 C [48-63] New material which is harmonically
derived 4 Some similarity to 1 & 2; 4 D [64-74]: a hybrid of A1and B
Resembles A in rhythm and shape, but the final line is set as in phrase 4 o f the traditional melody
5 Based on 3 & 4 Bi [77-89] Opens as B but develops new music based upon it 6 3 & 4 B [90-106] 7 Some similarity to 1 & 2; 4 D [109-120] 8 3 & 4 :|| l|:B:|| [128-155] 9 1 & 2 :|| 3 & 4 :|| A B [159—183 ^]
Postlude Bars 183"-4 Based on a cell derived from phrase 2
The Introduction begins with the first half o f the traditional melody followed by material based on a melodic cell derived from phrase 2 (Cell A). However, the passage is rather static, as there is little variety in tonality, very limited thematic development and a great deal o f repetition.
30 See Ex.7.13 for details of the phrase structure.