A
kenspeckle individual amongst the predominantly literary figures
who powered the revival in the Scottish Arts in the early years
of the 20th Century, Francis George Scott, Border
schoolmaster and composer, attracted little enough attention
among the general public in Scotland. This was partly due to
his setting, to his own melodies, the verses of Scotland’s national
Bard, Robert Burns whose own melodies, known the world over,
had accrued to themselves the stamp of a tradition. Scott and
Burns shared the same birthday, 25 January.
Scott’s
orchestral works - the Renaissance Overture, and a ballet
on Dunbar’s The Seven Deidly Sinnis’ – have been studiously
ignored. His The Ballad of Kynd Kyttock for voice and
orchestra written in 1934 has only been heard once - in St Andrews
in November 2001 (see BMS Newsletter 89, March 2001, p.116).
Understandably
reluctant, as a family man, to exchange the security of a profession
for the vagaries of an artist’s life he pursued his musical
interests by taking an external Mus. Bac. at Durham, and confined
himself to writing songs. The early songs, although to unusual
texts - such as O’Sullivan, Wilde and even Stacpoole - give
little hint of the later originality of Scott’s music. There
is a sense of ‘prophet in his own country’ here which Cedric
Thorpe Davie once translated as “Him, a famous musician? Away
– I kent his faither.’
In
1922 Bayley and Ferguson, the Glasgow publishers, issued two
books of Scottish Lyrics (at the composer’s expense). Of these
first seventeen songs, twelve are to words of Burns. Few can
have been prepared for the raucous cascade of octaves that opened
the first of these songs ‘The Carles of Dysart’; nor
could one have anticipated the rich harmonic texture of ‘Mary
Morrison’ or the masterly ‘Ay waukin’ O’.
In
that same year 1922 Scott chanced upon a lyric, in The Scottish
Chapbook entitled ‘The Watergaw’ under the name of
Hugh MacDiarmid. This poem was just what the composer was looking
for, and he at once set about contacting the poet – who, it
turned out was the Montrose editor of the publication, fiercely
nationalist whose slogan was “Not traditions – Precedents!”
More surprises were to come – for when they met Scott discovered
that the pseudonym Hugh MacDiarmid concealed one Christopher
Murray Grieve, Scott’s erstwhile pupil in the English class
at Langholm! This poem, MacDiarmid’s first in the vernacular,
(lallans) proved a catalyst in Scott’s expression and of the
twelve songs in the third volume to be published, seven were
settings of MacDiarmid. The fourth volume appeared in 1936,
the fifth and final in 1939 – and a separate collection of seven
followed in 1946. The Saltire Society published a subscription
volume of thirty-five songs in 1949 and the enterprising Roberton
published a memorial volume of forty-one songs in 1980 - all
previously published.
The
present CD is doubly welcome – tho’ it is only half the story!
I relish here favourites such as ‘Milkwort and Bog Cotton’
(probably his masterpiece), The Sauchs in the Reuch Heuch
Hauch (who but a Scot like Lisa Milne could get their vocal
chords round this!), Florine (perhaps his nearest approach
to his English colleagues), Lourd on my hert (with its
first seven bars of pipe music, and the wonderful anticlimax
“It’s juist mair Snaw!”), The Watergaw, (with the hint
of ‘Clair de Lune’) and the awe-inspiring The Innumerable
Christ.
There’s
so much more! There must be another disc at least, to give us
‘Reid E’en’, ‘The Kerry Shore’, ‘There’s News
lasses News’ ‘Wee Willy Gray’ and above all ‘Since
all thy vows false maid’ and the inscrutable ‘Scroggam’!
You cannot compare these songs with anyone – they are unique.
Ronald
Stevenson, always a keen advocate of FG, transcribed eight of
the songs for piano solo. These virtuoso pieces were published
by Roberton in 2004 – the titles are: Since all thy vows
false maid are lown to air; Wha is that at my bower door;
O were my love yon lilac fair; Wee Willie Gray;
Milkwort and Bogcotton; Crowdieknowe; Ay waukin
O; and There’s News Lasses, News.
This
Signum disc is probably the finest account of FG’s songs that
I have heard. Roderick Williams, despite his north London origins,
grasps the vernacular with rare gusto and Burnside – not merely
accompanist but a true partner - handles the rhythmic intricacies
with total mastery … in addition to providing perceptive notes
on the music! This is a Must!
Colin Scott-Sutherland
Lisa
Milne (soprano)
