Às an Tobar – From the Well

This port à beul reel is sung by James MacDonald of Kilmuir, Skye, and can be found here: This melody seems to be related to the Duntroon reel (see below). This port à beul is featured on track 21 of Dhannsadh Gun Dannsadh: Dance-Songs of the Scottish Gaels. This seems to be one of the more…

This arrangement is based on the singing of Donald MacColl of Argyllshire (1901- 1977). Donald was a prolific bard, with many recordings on Tobar an Dualchais including his own compositions. His singing is especially expressive, and this track is a good model for reel expression. Portions of this track have been cleaned up and included…

Here is a nice unique strathspey sung by Annie Arnott of Skye in 1954: Note that the major seventh is a prominent feature of the melody. To accomplish that, I’m playing it in G (with my smallpipe drones tuned to G and D). This allows the F# to provide the major seventh. If you can…

This is one of my personal favorite tunes. The melody has an interesting rhythm in 3/4, which could be considered an unusual form of Strathspey. This arrangement is based on the singing of Annie Arnott of Skye in 1953, which can be found on Tobar an Dualchais here: Annie’s performance is track 5 of Dhannsadh…

This is based on the singing of Calum Johnston in 1949. Unfortunately this track isn’t currently available on Tobar an Dualchais, but is featured as track 4 of Dhannsadh Gun Dannsadh: Dance-Songs of the Scottish Gaels. The song, here translated by William Lamb, can easily be interpreted as euphemistic: Nam biodh agam giobal bodaich,Bhogainn anns an…

This song is featured as track 3 of Dhannsadh Gun Dannsadh: Dance-Songs of the Scottish Gaels. The track is by Alasdair Boyd of South Uist. He appears with this song three times on Tobar an Dualchais: The song is a satire about a man named MacAlasdair who wears a dirk (and other excessive apparel). It’s similar…

This song is featured as track 1 of Dhannsadh Gun Dannsadh: Dance-Songs of the Scottish Gaels. The track is by Mary Morrison of Barra. She is recorded three times on Tobar an Dualchais: The song appears a number of times in the archives, and sometimes the title is worded as “Thoir a-null” or “Bheir a-null”. This…