These Scottish Dances (completed 2022) are a way of connecting with my Scottish heritage. Rather than using actual folk melodies, they imaginatively recreate my childhood experiences of Burns suppers and Hogmanay celebrations (typically soundtracked by Jimmy Shand's Scottish dance records, with their characteristic framing tonic chords). Rhythmic and other characteristics of Scottish traditional music (Scotch snaps, bagpipe references, modality, jigs) are deployed but slightly displaced by the occasional irruption of certain elements characteristic of early modernism (‘wrong’ notes, non-functional harmonic sonorities, non-periodic phrasing). I also set myself specific compositional challenges: to create melody from scale fragments (Strathspey, Jig) and from arpeggios (Reel, Valse).
They have a complicated genealogy. The earliest versions of the core movements—here Musette, Strathspey (originally March), Reel, Valse and Jig—were written in 1987, when I was still at school. Both piano solo and piano duet versions, in pencil and ink drafts, date from this time. In 2009 I re-copied and revised the duet versions of the core movements Strathspey, Reel, Waltz and Jig, and these dances were published by Composers Edition in January 2016 (Scottish Dances, ce-bi1sd1; ISMN 9790570682867). I also wrote a separate ‘Scottish Prelude’ for piano duet in June 2016, intended for performance as an introduction to the suite. Material from this piece has been included in the Prelude movement here, published and brought together with the rest of the suite for the first time.
Preparing this solo version for publication has been like a critical editing process, comparing and reconciling the pencil and ink drafts from 1987; taking account of the 2009 duet version; and considering how to present my ideas and intentions to pianists and audiences in the 2020s. This has been informed by my recent discovery of the music of neglected Scottish composer Erik Chisholm (1904-1965), and his aim to present elements of traditional Scottish music within the context of international pan-European modernism. His desire to establish the March-Strathspey-Reel sequence as a pattern for modern Scottish composers to explore is reflected in the central medley: the ‘alla marcia’ Strathspey (originally actually titled March, as noted; and with a ‘Highland Fling’ coda episode), followed by the newly-composed Strathspey II, and succeeded by the Reel. While putting together this suite for publication, my uncle Chilton Inglis died, in April 2022. An audio engineer for BBC Scotland based in Glasgow, he had a lifelong love of music—I discussed this work-in-progress with him in our final telephone conversation in January 2022. This work is dedicated to his memory.
- ISMN: 9790570684557 (M570684557)