(Preview) Songs of a Celtic Age – A Celebration of Scottish Composers and Poets
St Michael’s Church, Slateford Road, Edinburgh EH11 1NX - 17/09/22, 7:30pm
After their highly successful recital in 2021, Brian Bannatyne-Scott and Beth Taylor, this time with Hamish Brown as accompanist, return to St Michael’s Church, with its excellent acoustics, for a brand new programme of songs derived from our Celtic tradition.
It has taken a long time for Scots to be recognised as a language in its own right, and still a fierce battle rages, often along political lines, about its place in modern society. Are we really talking about a separate language, or a variety of dialects and accents? The diehards maintain that Scots is itself an amalgam of dialects, no different in essence from Geordie, Yorkshire, Somerset or Scouse. To credit Scotland with a separate language is to admit that Scotland is a separate nation, and that idea is treason to some.
Without getting stuck in the murky waters of nationalism and unionism, it seems to me, as a Scot born and bred, although without a strong accent, that there is a very clear idea of what constitutes a Scottish language, and that language is recognised by every Scot, even if not in everyday use. The ability to understand what Scots is seems to me the essence of what makes us Scottish and distinguishes us from other nationalities. As Scots, we can understand the language of Burns and Irvine Welsh, Bill McLaren and Alex Ferguson, Hugh MacDiarmid and George Mackay Brown.
It is this tradition that we celebrate in our recital on September 17th, and to which I very much hope that you will come. Beth is from Glasgow and I am from Edinburgh, but we are both part of that great linguistic tradition of which I have written, and both bring an ear for the rhythms and nuances of Scots. You will hear songs with poetry by MacDiarmid, Mackay Brown, Campbell Hay, Lady John Scott, William Soutar, Norman MacCaig and others, and I hope you will revel in the richness of the language. This is all as far away as possible from Brigadoon Scots, or Scottie from ‘Star Trek’. It annoys me to hear singers from other countries, who will spend hours of painstaking grind to perfect their accents in French, German or Italian, turning up to sing a song in Scots, and simply putting on a funny accent, in the vague hope that it will be acceptable! It isn’t, or rather it isnae!
My mission to champion the music of F G Scott and Ronald Stevenson continues in my selection of songs, some in Scots and some in English. Francis George Scott was a seriously underrated composer, and Ronald Stevenson, although born in Lancashire, saw himself as a Scottish composer. My extensive interview with his widow Marjorie is still available on the EMR Blog, and I encourage you to read this story of a wonderful, warm-hearted woman. I will be singing the last of Ronald’s 1974 cycle ‘Songs of Quest’ on the 17th, an extensive examination of existential angst which I have had transposed from the original baritone key. The poet was John Davidson, a Scottish writer who sadly committed suicide in 1909, aged 51. He is credited with a strong influence on MacDiarmid, and clearly also on Stevenson.
Beth has chosen some fascinating songs too, including a big piece by the Irish composer, Hamilton Harty, a perfect example of late Victorian melodrama, which shows off Beth’s magnificent voice and her powers of interpretation. Returning to Scotland, and indeed Edinburgh, we close our recital with three excerpts from Tom Cunningham and Alexander McCall Smiths’ ‘Songs of Edinburgh’, which we sang last year, and recently released as a CD, which you can purchase at the interval. Also available to buy are my CD ‘Songs of Stevenson’, featuring several songs heard in this concert, and a CD of Czech Songs, recorded in the Canongate Kirk.
‘Songs of a Celtic Age’ promises to be an absolutely fascinating recital by two brilliant singers, one at the beginning of a major career, with starry premieres lined up, one towards the end of an illustrious musical journey which has seen highlights such as La Scala, Milan, The Royal Opera, Covent Garden and the Salzburg Festival. With the wonderful pianist, Hamish Brown, who is already establishing a notable reputation as an up and coming accompanist, this promises to be a concert not to be missed.
The night before, in the same venue at St Michael’s Church, Beth and Hamish will present a solo recital, entitled ‘Licht in der Nacht’, an exploration of the fin du siècle world of Paris and Vienna around 1900. Like ‘Songs of a Celtic Age’, this is unmissable. Clear your diaries! You will not hear better singing in Edinburgh this autumn!
