DASG Blog

Tog t’ inntinn ’s gabh òran – Cheer up and sing a song

Cluas ri Claisneachd went live online in August 2018 and I have really enjoyed being involved in the project. The archive contains recordings made during the collection process for the Historical Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic and other recordings that were donated to Celtic and Gaelic over the years. In March 2018 I began emailing Tracy Chipman about publishing some recordings of her own. Tracy lives in America but she often came over to the Western Isles in the nineties to record with informants. Her recordings are now also available in Cluas ri Claisneachd.

Our recordings are full of local words, life stories and fiction (but sometimes I’m not at all convinced that they are, indeed, fiction!) but the Gaelic songs are one of the things that I like best. Myself and Eilidh are very happy to spend out days sitting working on them and writing out the transcriptions.

On the 27th of August we had an event at the University of Glasgow to launch Cluas ri Claisneachd and Eilidh sang one of the songs we have in our archive A Chuthag nam Beann. This is hard to believe but the night before this we recieved an email from Lisa MacDougall. She is the Grand Daughter of Catherine Patterson (Ceiteag Ailein Bhragaidh) who is singing A Chuthag nam Beann in our recording in Antigonish, Canada in 1959.

Lisa wrote;

“She was an amazing woman. She and her husband ran the mail, raised sheep, and farmed. The wool from her sheep, she wove into clothes for her family. And in the midst of that she sang. Her songs were some of the rarest, so she was favored by folklorists collecting traditional songs. She was such a unique, strong character, that in 2004 when I emailed Mrs John Lorne Campbell to inquire if any recordings till existed, she told her assistant that she remember her well and sent me a copy of Mr. Campbell’s last book that included Katie’s songs.”

We are delighted that Lisa wrote to us and also that she sent us a photo of Catherine and her husband.

In our own archive we have published eighty songs and Tracy’s recordings are full of them as well. In the recording Songs from Angus MacIsaac and Mrs Catherine Patterson there are eighteen songs such as, Òran a’ Bhotail, Òran a’ Ghunna, A’ Choille Ghruamach, Òran a’ Bhear, Tha m’ inntinn trom, Òran an Teine, Òran a’ Chaimbeulaich and also A Chuachag nam Beann. Because DASG is now full of Gaelic songs I wanted to have a look at what terminology we have in Faclan bhon t-Sluagh, our collection of vernacular materials collected throughout Gaelic Scotland and in Nova Scotia between the 1960s and 1980s.

I find it interesting that some of the words that we have in Faclan bhon t-Sluagh come from songs. You often see ‘from a song’, ‘word from an old song’ and even ‘a song my mother used to sing’ but unfortunatley the informants don’t often give which song they are talking about!

The word amhran was used for a song in Aultbea and Sutherland. The word dramalich was collected in South Uist for ‘a badly made song’. Iorman was used for a song in Tummel and Rannoch and iorram was used in Harris. We also have oran-molaidh from Harris which was used to praise someone perhaps after their death and rannair which was used for;

songster, a person applicable to verses, singing verses, verse or two of different song not having the complete song. Rannaire uamhasach h-ann. Something like duanaire, perhaps similar but not quite. Duanaire is a most adjustable and a more stationary in this musical category.

Have you found any good songs whilst listening to Cluas ri Claisneachd? We had 1,500 hits in the first week so I’m sure you must have! It would be great to hear from you about which is your favourite song from the archive. Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.

(‘Tog t’inntinn ’s gabh òran’ – Cheer up and sing a song’ comes from Lochabar in 1977.)