Remember I was telling you about J. Murray Mackenzie’s Gaelic Hotch-Potch collection? And how I thought he might have composed the lament, ‘The Gaelic Bottle’s Done’, to go in his book promoting ‘Gaelic’ and ‘Old Smuggler’ whisky, largely for export?
Borrowed Tunes
Sadly, he didn’t. It was one of many tunes that he drew from an earlier publication. He just gave a Highland tune a new name, to suit his own purposes. Nearly all his tunes came from one source.
Standard Songs
And his songs are all standard repertoire. Although I can trace them (very easily) to an earlier publication, I still want to dig a little deeper to see if there are other places he might have drawn them from. At the moment, I’m left with a suspicion that, if he lifted his marches, pibrochs and most of his dances from one source, then maybe he lifted the song settings from another. I’ve traced the songs but not the settings. Or did he set them himself …?
Right, that’s enough for now. I have so many big old Scottish music books open around the room, that it’ll take me a while to tidy up after myself …
