Scottish Waltz

[davedove]

Hey all, I'm looking for some suggestions for a waltz with a Scottish theme. I want to work up some choreography and put together a showcase where I'm all done up in my finery. I've found a few, including one called The Scottish Waltz, but they all seem to be in Viennese Waltz tempo and I'm looking for a slow waltz. Not that I can't do a Viennese waltz, I would just like something slower.

Any ideas?

[macwilkin]

Hey all, I'm looking for some suggestions for a waltz with a Scottish theme. I want to work up some choreography and put together a showcase where I'm all done up in my finery. I've found a few, including one called The Scottish Waltz, but they all seem to be in Viennese Waltz tempo and I'm looking for a slow waltz. Not that I can't do a Viennese waltz, I would just like something slower.

Any ideas?

There's always the St. Bernard's Waltz, which is popular at Scottish events:

http://www.headlanders.co.uk/html/st...rds_waltz.html

T.

[Tartan Tess]

Are you doing the dancing or playing an instrument?
Crossing to Ireland is one of my favorites

[vmac3205]

Morag of Dunvegan, Mist Covered Mountains, Hector the Hero (a personal favorite) and the traditionl Steamboat can all be played in waltz time.

[davedove]

Are you doing the dancing or playing an instrument?
Crossing to Ireland is one of my favorites

I'll be doing the dancing. Although I could play some basics on several instruments, i never had the discipline to be good at any of them.

[Tim Little]

My wife and I used the Boys of the Lough's "A Midwinter Waltz" as our first dance at our wedding.

[piperdbh]

The "Skye Boat Song" would work nicely, methinks.

[Tim Little]

The "Skye Boat Song" would work nicely, methinks.

We used also used that (Howie MacDonald's version off the "Sounds of Nova Scotia" CD) as mother-of-groom/groom//father-of-bride/bride dance.

[Tim Little]

My wife and I used the Boys of the Lough's "A Midwinter Waltz" as our first dance at our wedding.

Audio link via Yahoo! Music beta

[OC Richard]

Morag of Dunvegan, Mist Covered Mountains, Hector the Hero...

Yes there's an entire genre of traditional Scottish pipe tune which pipers call "slow marches" and notate in 6/8 time, but have the "feel" of a waltz, and are used to dance the waltz all the time.

Many are originally Gaelic folksongs.

You'll encounter the same tune written in 3/4 and called an air in one book, but written in 6/8 and called a slow march in another book.

When piping at a wedding and they want to dance the waltz I'll play my usual medley of

Skye Boat Song
Chi Mi na Morbheanna (the Mist-covered Mountains)
The Highland Cradle Song
Fagail Lios Mor (Leaving Lismore)

Just in the popular pipe music book Scots Guards Collection Vol II there are the following Gaelic slow marches, all of which are in waltz time:

Cailinn Mo Ruinsa
O Luaidh
Theid mi dhachaidh 'chro chinn t-saile (I will go home to Kintail) (notated in 4/4 but playable in waltz time)
Fagail Lios Mor
Sine Bhan

plus

Brentwood Bay
The Cradle Song (a different tune from The Highland Cradle Song)
The Dark Island
Dream Angus
The Fair Lullaby
Leaving Lochboisdale
Loch Tay Boat Song
The Love Lullaby
The Mingulay Boat Song
Miss Kirkwood
Morag of Dunvegan

and more, and that's just in one of the hundreds of pipe music books out there!

I was completely astonished a few years ago, at a folk festival, when a prominent Scottish harpist informed the crowd that no such thing as Gaelic airs existed in Scotland!

Highland pipers, many of whom currently and in the past have been Gaelic speakers, have adapted dozens (if not hundreds) of Gaelic airs to the pipes.

In fact I had opened up that harpist's workshop/lecture by playing a Gaelic air on the pipes to that same audience.