This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. ROB DONN MACKAY: FINDING THE MUSIC IN THE SONGS Ellen L. Beard Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Edinburgh 2015 ABSTRACT AND LAY SUMMARY This thesis explores the musical world and the song compositions of eighteenth-century Sutherland Gaelic bard Rob Donn MacKay (1714-1778). The principal focus is musical rather than literary, aimed at developing an analytical model to reconstruct how a non-literate Gaelic song-maker chose and composed the music for his songs. In that regard, the thesis breaks new ground in at least two ways: as the first full-length study of the musical work of Rob Donn, and as the first full-length musical study of any eighteenth-century Scottish Gaelic poet. Among other things, it demonstrates that a critical assessment of Rob Donn merely as a “poet” seriously underestimates his achievement in combining words and music to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The study also illustrates how widely melodic material circulated in eighteenth-century Scotland through aural transmission, easily crossing between languages and between instrumental and vocal music. The thesis includes a musical biography, a review of sources and commentary on Rob Donn, an introduction to relevant theoretical concepts in ethnomusicology and related fields, and a survey of eighteenth-century Scottish music, followed by several chapters analyzing the music of one hundred songs by topic (elegies; social and political commentary; love, courtship and weddings; satire and humor; and praise, nature and sea songs). The study shows that Rob Donn borrowed tunes for 67 of these songs from earlier sources (45% from Gaelic song, 25% from Scots song, 12% from English or Irish song, and 18% from instrumental tunes). It then provides evidence that he composed the melodies of 33 songs, examining in detail how he adapted earlier musical models and created musical settings to reinforce aspects of his poetic message. It also analyzes the musical features of all 100 songs, providing charts summarizing their vocal range, musical meter, scales and tonality. The thesis is accompanied by two appendices, one containing 121 musical settings of the 100 songs, and the other containing their complete texts with English translations (most translated here for the first time). 1 SIGNED DECLARATION I hereby confirm that this thesis has been composed entirely by myself and contains solely the result of my own work. The contents have not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification, although 13 of the 100 songs analyzed here were discussed in my MSc thesis presented to the University of Edinburgh in 2011. None of the work has been published to date, although I have presented several related conference papers, some of which may be published in the future. Dated: _______________________ Signed: ________________________ Ellen L. Beard 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of illustrations 5 List of abbreviations 6 Preface and acknowledgements 7 I. Introduction 8 A. Research questions 10 B. Biographical sketch 12 C. Methodology, sources and structure of thesis 21 II. Sources and Commentary on Rob Donn 28 A. The first half-century 28 B. The Mackintosh Mackay edition (1829) 34 C. Nineteenth-century commentary 38 D. The Hew Morrison edition (1899) 42 E. The Gunn and MacFarlane edition (1899) 44 F. Twentieth-century commentary 46 G. The Ian Grimble biography 50 H. Twenty-first century commentary 51 I. Summary and conclusions 53 III. Theoretical and Disciplinary Perspectives 56 A. Folk song scholarship 57 B. Ethnomusicology 63 C. Orality and literacy studies 69 D. Composition 75 IV. The Musical World of Rob Donn 82 A. Music in eighteenth-century Scotland 84 B. Gaelic song 92 C. Bagpipe music 103 D. Fiddle music 111 E. Two scholarly models 114 V. Elegies 119 A. The poems 119 B. The melodies 124 C. Discussion and analysis 135 3 VI. Social and political commentary 140 A. The poems 140 B. The melodies 148 C. Discussion and analysis 158 VII. Love, courtship and weddings 162 A. The poems 162 B. The melodies 170 C. Discussion and analysis 186 VIII. Satire and humor 191 A. The poems 191 B. The melodies 196 C. Discussion and analysis 206 IX. Praise, nature and sea songs 209 A. Pibroch songs 209 B. Praise 214 C. Nature 222 D. Sea journeys 228 X. Conclusion 236 A. Borrowed melodies – continuity and selection 237 B. New melodies – variation, recomposition, creation 242 C. All melodies – musical characteristics 246 D. How did Rob Donn compose? 252 E. Topics for future research 253 Bibliography 256 4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Map of MacKay Country 11 Stemma of Rob Donn sources 29 MUSIC EXAMPLES #1. Elegy to Hugh MacKay (funeral march rhythm) 125 #2. Murt Ghlinne Comhann (funeral march rhythm) 127 #3. A’ cheud Di-luain de’n ràithe 171 #4. Is trom leam an àirigh 171 #5. Thig trì nithean gun iarraidh 182 #6. The Strathmore meeting 182 #7. O’er the Hills and Far Away 218 #8. Sally Grant 218 #9. Roy’s Wife of Aldievalloch 226 #10. Town and Country Life 226 #11. Rupert MacKay (example of iorram) 234 #12. Iseabail NicAoidh (example of double tonic) 251 SUMMARY CHARTS #1. Sources of borrowed tunes 238 #2. Tunes used more than once 240 #3. Original melodies 243 #4. Ranges exceeding a ninth 247 #5. Musical meter 248 #6. Scales 249 #7. Tonality 250 5 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACG An Comunn Gàidhealach AF Angus Fraser Collection CPC Caledonian Pocket Companion ER Elizabeth Ross Manuscript Gesto Gesto Collection HSS Highland Society of Scotland HVA Highland Vocal Airs (Patrick MacDonald Collection) ICTM International Council for Traditional Music NLS National Library of Scotland Sed. Bk. Sederunt Book (official minutes of HSS) SEM Society for Ethnomusicology SF Simon Fraser Collection SGS Scottish Gaelic Studies SMM Scots Musical Museum TGSI Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 6 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Once upon a time, when I was an American teenager, my mother told me that we were descended from a poet laureate of Scotland named Rob Donn. I was very dubious, but a seed had been planted. A few years later, in the library at the University of Chicago, I found a book called An Introduction to Gaelic Poetry that confirmed his existence (although not the elevated title). And there the matter rested for several decades. Later, as I was contemplating retirement from my legal career, I realized that if I wanted to read his poetry I would have to learn Gaelic, which took me first to the traditional music program at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and then to the department of Celtic and Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh. For guidance and encouragement on this pilgrimage, I am greatly indebted to all the dedicated staff at both institutions, particularly my PhD supervisors Dr. Anja Gunderloch in Celtic and Dr. Katherine Campbell in ethnomusicology, and Dr. John Purser in Skye. Special thanks go to Dr. Ulrike Hogg at the National Library of Scotland for advice and copies of relevant manuscripts, to Bethany Lawson for access to the Highland Society archives at Ingliston House (and to Ronald Black for cataloguing them many years ago), and to Dr. Jake King for the map of MacKay Country. I am grateful to Professor William Gillies for advice on texts and translations of Rob Donn, and to Dr. Virginia Blankenhorn, Allan MacDonald, and Morag MacLeod for advice on musical settings. I am also indebted to the late Ailsa Smith for access to family documents and oral history regarding her grandfather Hew Morrison, to Willie and David Morrison for oral history from Durness, and to Gillebrìde MacMillan and Christine Primrose for their efforts to explain the aesthetics of traditional Gaelic singing. Although this study is not based on fieldwork, the generosity of these and many other persons in sharing their knowledge and the insights I gained as a participant-observer in the contemporary Gaelic song community (by singing in a Gaelic choir and competing at Mòds) have greatly enriched an understanding otherwise based only on the printed page. I am sure I was never an easy pupil, since I questioned everything I was told, but thank you all ― mòran taing dhuibh uile ― for persevering. 7 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION As Colm Ó Baoill said recently about another Gaelic song-maker: “The words should not be judged without their tune: if we do not know the tune we do not know the whole artefact.”1 This is equally true for my subject, Sutherland Gaelic bard Robert (Rob Donn) MacKay (1714-1778), but it remains a principle honored more in the breach than the observance in the realm of Gaelic scholarship. That is, despite the consensus that most Scottish Gaelic poetry before the twentieth century was in fact song,2 this awareness has produced a surprising dearth of musical scholarship or performing editions of the work of individual song-makers.3 Rob Donn has perhaps fared better than many, as a songbook with music for forty- five of his 220 songs was published in 1899.4 In general, however, poetry anthologies and editions of individual poets still follow the pattern established in the eighteenth century of publishing only verbal texts, supplemented at times with tune names and occasionally with melodies but usually devoid of musical analysis.5 As William Gillies wrote in 2002: [T]here is very little criticism that is expert in musicological and literary terms at the same time.