STRATHSPEY is a term used to describe a certain type of Scottish reel which employs a dotted rhythm and a distinctive "snap"; that is,a short note followed by a longer one. It's named after the area of Scotland called Strathspey, or the Spey Valley.
The first Strathspeys in print appear to be from James Oswald's
Caledonian Pocket Companion series published in the mid eighteenth
century. How or why this peculiarly Scottish music form started is rather vague, but it caught on very quickly and became the most popular dance tune alongside the reel.
The most difficult part of playing Strathspeys is playing the snaps in the right place. There appears to be no set pattern for this, it rather being left to the spirit or the composer's whim, but in many tunes, it feels right to snap in some places and not in others. There is also a form of tune called the slow Strathspey which uses the same rhythms as its dance counterpart, but is played much slower, and is intended to be listened to rather than danced to. The celebrated Scots fiddler James Scott Skinner called his ones "solo Strathspeys". A good example of this is Mrs Scott Skinner.
Comin' Thro' the Rye
THE TUNE CONTAINS THE snap, which characterises almost all Strathspeys. Look at the third and fourth notes; the rhythm indications (the half-bar at the top of the stem and the dot) have been reversed, leading to a short D note (all fingers down) followed quickly by a longer A note (two fingers down).
The tune is well known largely because Robert Burns wrote lyrics to
it (see below), but in fact there have been several versions of the song, some of them quite bawdy and not widely known. There was a suggestion that by "Rye" is meant a streamlet of that name in Ayrshire,but that's not likely, particularly as Burns inscribed the following on a pane of glass in Mauchline:
Gin a body kiss a body comin' through the grain.
Need a body grudge a body what's a body's ain?
The tune is one of a family of tunes which are fairly similar, the
earliest of these being The Duke of Buccleugh's Tune, published in 1690. Others in the family are I've Been Courting At a Lass, Hey,How, Johnnie Lad, I Fee'd a lad at Michaelmas, and so on. As well as Comin' Thro' the Rye, another off-shoot is the tune used for Auld Lang Syne.
Comin' Thro' the Rye
Irregular Rhythms
LOOK
AT THE NOTATION in Comin' Thro' the Rye,
and Burning of the Piper's Hut; notice that almost half the notes have dots after them. If a note has a dot after it, it increases its length by half. If the first of two quarter notes is replaced by a dotted quarter note, the length of the second note must be decreased to compensate (see fig. 1).
The
same goes for any note. If an eighth note is dotted, the next note has to be halved to compensate (in fig. 2 the eighth note becomes a sixteenth note - you can tell it's half the length because it has two tails instead of one.). This is the rhythm of most hornpipes and odd examples of other types of tune.
One characteristic of Scottish music is called the snap, when a short note is followed by a longer note, such as in Strathspeys. What is happening during the snap is that it is the second of two notes that is dotted, and the first note is halved to compensate. For fun, try playing a well known tune, but "Scotticise" it by putting snaps in here and there.
Here is an exercise in irregular rhythms - try to hear the dotted notes longer, and the following notes shorter to compensate.
Exercise 1
The Burning of the Piper's Hut
The
English general Cumberland received the sobriquet 'Butcher' after
the defeat of the Jacobite forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden in 1746, such was the savagery of his reprisals and cruelty toward prisoners of the engagement. In the aftermath of the rising a series of laws were passed which aimed to suppress the Highland culture and break forever the power of the ancient clans in order to prevent any such rebellion from again happening. Thus, highland dress and the wearing of clan tartan was prohibited on pain of death, arms were banned, and, attesting to the power of traditional music to evoke emotion, pipers were outlawed. In fact, reports Williamson, the kilt continued to be prohibited until 1782, forcing the Highlanders to wear trews.
Any clergyman who did not pray in church expressly for George of Hanover could be transported for life, and those who attended such services were liable to fine and imprisonment. This was in force till 1792. The Burning of the Piper's Hut probably refers to these times.
LOOK
AT THE NOTATION in Comin' Thro' the Rye,
and Burning of the Piper's Hut; notice that almost half the notes have dots after them. If a note has a dot after it, it increases its length by half. If the first of two quarter notes is replaced by a dotted quarter note, the length of the second note must be decreased to compensate (see fig. 1).
The
same goes for any note. If an eighth note is dotted, the next note has to be halved to compensate (in fig. 2 the eighth note becomes a sixteenth note - you can tell it's half the length because it has two tails instead of one.). This is the rhythm of most hornpipes and odd examples of other types of tune.
The
English general Cumberland received the sobriquet 'Butcher' after
the defeat of the Jacobite forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden in 1746, such was the savagery of his reprisals and cruelty toward prisoners of the engagement. In the aftermath of the rising a series of laws were passed which aimed to suppress the Highland culture and break forever the power of the ancient clans in order to prevent any such rebellion from again happening. Thus, highland dress and the wearing of clan tartan was prohibited on pain of death, arms were banned, and, attesting to the power of traditional music to evoke emotion, pipers were outlawed. In fact, reports Williamson, the kilt continued to be prohibited until 1782, forcing the Highlanders to wear trews. 