Capercaillie is a Scottish folk band formed in 1983.
By 2008 they had 14 albums.
Skye Waulking Song is the first track in album Nadurra, released September 2000. It is a folk gaelic song or celtic rock.
"Chuir m’athair mise dhan taigh charraideach" means "My father sent me to the house of sorrow".
A waulking song is a work song that was sung by Scottish women processing tweed cloth, and it would be sung along to the rhythmic movements they would make while processing the cloth.
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Instrumentation
Traditional folk instruments:Fiddle- the folk name for a violin. Uilean Pipes- softer and sweeter than the bagpipes, and air is controlled by the elbows rather than by mouth. Accordion- Bellows are moved in and out which causes vibrations. Bouzouki- It is a Greek long neck lute with strings, played with a plectrum. In recent years it has been used in traditional Scottish and Irish music.
Modern instruments:Wurlitzer piano-the predecessor of the electric piano. It is a keyboard instrument without strings. The sound is produced by a combination of steel reeds, hammer action and an electrostatic pickup system. Synthesiser, bass guitar, drum kit
Singer-Karen Matheson, a low alto voice.
A layered texture is created by:
The drum kit playing rhythmic patterns.
The bass line on the bass guitar.
Chords on the synthesiser and accordion.
The main melody is sung and the countermelodies are played on instruments.
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Structure
It is in strophic form.
The vocal line alternates between 4 phrases, each lasting 1 bar in a call-and-response pattern.
The vocal line is based on Phrase 1, Refrain 1 and Phrase 2, Refrain 2. Each phrase is followed by its refrain.
The introduction is an instrumental section.
Basic structure: Intro, verse 1, verse 2 and the coda.
Throughout the verses, the phrases and refrains are repeated.
There is an instrumental break in verse 2.
In the coda, there are echoes of refrain 1 and 2.
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Melody
It is sung by a low alto voice, and is transcripted into the vocal tenor clef. The vocal line is main syllabic.
The vocal melody is pentatonic, based on a five note scale in G major- G, A, B, D, E. The accompanient uses all the notes of the scale.
Phrase 1 and Refrain 1: Starts on the upper dominant, and the refrain falls on the tonic.
Phrase 2 and Refrain 2: Starts on the lower dominant, refrain ends on the upper dominant.
The phrases are in Gaelic, and the vocables or refrains are nonsense syllables.
The instrumentalists play short motifs and counter-melodies based on vocal phrases.
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Harmony
This piece is entirely in the diatonic key of G.
The main chords used are G major, E minor and C major.
There is a modal feel because the dominant chord is avoided.
There is a cluster chord at the beginning on the synthesiser, a group of adjacent notes. This cluster chord is loosely based on the G chord.
The fiddle tremolo on D above the cluster chord in the introduction shows that it isn't in Em, as Em would have D#.
In the introduction, the main chords are Em and G.
Phrase 1 and 2 are harmonised with the G chord except once, where Em9 is used, which contains all the chord notes of G.
Refrains are harmonised with C and/or Em, except once, where Am9 is used, where it has all the chord notes of C and Em.
There is an effect of repeated plagal cadences at the coda, as it continually jumps between IV and I of G major.
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