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Wings Over Scotland


The way I feel today

Posted on March 21, 2013 by

Had yesterday’s podcast been going out today instead, I’d probably have chosen this as the play-out music. But it’ll do just fine right now too.

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57 to “The way I feel today”

  1. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    “My da’s right, my da’s right

    My da’s right, my da’s right

    Win, lose or draw it’s a’right

    If I don’t fight, I can’t go home

    Here we,

    Here we,

    Here we,

    Here we,

    Here we,

    Here we fucking go…”

    Reply
  2. Megsmaw says:

    Guid yin Rev.  🙂

    Reply
  3. Morag says:

    18th September!

    Reply
  4. John H says:

    Listening now to Johann Lamont. Sick, bitter, and twisted !

    Reply
  5. Barbara Gribbon says:

    woooohhoooooo! Do I feel the Nation engaging?

    Reply
  6. JuanBonnets says:

    Lamont was just depressing, but Salmond got it right when he turned her Bliar quote back at her “the hand of history must have missed Johann Lamont entirely!”

    Davidson is hilarious: “A YES vote will end Devolution”. In what Universe is does that make any sort of sense?

    Rennie, same old pish. “home rule, home rule, home rule” – he still hasn’t figured out they’ve had plenty of chances to deliver on it and have achieved precisely hee haw.

    Every time I think the opposition can’t sink any lower in my estimations (e.g. the Trident debate yesterday), they somehow manage to surprise me.

    Reply
  7. Marcia says:

    When Mrs Graham started speaking I put this on.
     


    Reply
  8. pa_broon says:

    I see the date of the referendum is up on the BBC news website in the UK page with comments allowed, retrospectively moderated.
     
    The ones there are certainly interesting. If you’re easily worked up, I’d give it a miss.

    Reply
  9. CameronB says:

    Perhaps not a site for me today, the way I’m feeling.

    Reply
  10. Jeannie says:

    They keep saying it – “Independence will be forever” – and they say it like it’s a bad thing.  And, as I’ve said before, it’s nonsensical anyway.  We used to be independent and now we’re not, so how can independence be forever?

    Reply
  11. CameronB says:

    Even diamonds aren’t forever. You can burn them to a cinder, if you have a hot enough fire. That is how they diamond price is artificially inflated. They burn literally tones of them every year. (lowest grades obviously)

    Reply
  12. muttley79 says:

    To be honest I am now actively ignoring any Unionist sites/arguments.  I think we all know that they are almost all based on the belief that Scotland can’t run her own affairs, and fear of change (fear of change is much more understandable in a way).  They just will not accept that we can run our own affairs as well as any other nation.  This desire to be negative about Scotland’s self-governing abilities is corrosive, and I just think we have to leave some people to this fate.  Today showed that the Scottish cringe is alive and well among Unionists.   

    Reply
  13. John Lyons says:

    I think one comment on the BBC summed it up perfectly, something like
     
    If Scotland Votes for Independence there is NO GOING BACK. Think Carefully Scotland, Look at how America Australia and Hong Kong are desperately fighting tooth and nail to be ruled by London again.
     
    LOL, definately had his tongue in his cheek when he posted that one….

    Reply
  14. pa_broon says:

    I think my favourite was the one about having a third world country on the doorstep with independence…
     
    A bit hysterical but there you go.
     
    The obligatory keep English taxes in England was number 6 I think… The people who did that video should do a top ten of daft commentary.

    Reply
  15. pa_broon says:

    I think my favourite was the one about having a third world country on the doorstep with independence…
     
    A wee bit hysterical but there you go.
     
    The obligatory keep English taxes in England was number 6 I think… The people who did that video should do a top ten of daft commentary.

    Reply
  16. Mosstrooper says:

    Heard the date, came on here and watched Marcia’s link. Burst into tears and then sent an E-mail to all my contacts all over the world. Quite a simple message really
    HERE WE FUCKIN GO…….CHAAARGE!
    for me it’s been 60 YEARS OF WAITING,  TIME TO RIGHT SOME WRONGS!
     
    Another 25 quid on it’s way REV.

    Reply
  17. Morag says:

    Marcia said:
    When Mrs Graham started speaking I put this on.




     
    No doubt Lumilumi will correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve heard it said that that music won Finland its independence.

    Reply
  18. Brian Ritchie says:

    Another great piece by Sibelius I like to play is Finlandia, the spirit and pride of a nation.

    Reply
  19. Patronsaintofcats says:

    “Keep English taxes in England”
    …and Scottish taxes in Scotland.  Sort of the point of the whole exercise lol!
     

    Reply
  20. Morag says:

    Brian, I think that was the piece I was actually thinking of.

    Reply
  21. Mosstrooper says:

    Will you guys stop giving me links to Sibelius. You’ll have me an emotional wreck.
    Finlandia was the first classical record I bought after I had joined the Scottish National Congress  some 56 years ago. It moved me then and it moves me now.
    Independence—-Nothing Less!

    Reply
  22. Jeannie says:

    @Brian Ritchie
    @Morag
     
    Don’t think we can rely on James MacMillan somehow to come up an inspiring Scottish independence piece.  Just as well we’ve got The Proclaimers then.

    Reply
  23. Albert Herring says:

    @Brian Ritchie
    @Morag
    @Jeannie
    Maybe Sir Peter Maxwell Davies would like to have a go.

    Reply
  24. The Man in the Jar says:

    Seeing as how we are coming over all musical like!


    Reply
  25. Horace Broon says:

    An inspired choice – you’ve had me singing this to myself all afternoon.

    Reply
  26. lumilumi says:

    😀
    Morag and Brian Ritchie beat me to it!
     
    I was touched that Marcia chose Sibelius’s Karelia Intermezzo – a nice, jaunty piece, but mention Sibelius to a Finn, we immediately think of Finlandia. That piece of music is Finland, is us. You can enjoy it as just a piece depicting the Finnish seasons (flurries of snow, the spring sun, whatever) but it makes a lot more sense when you realise that Jean Sibelius was a Finnish nationalist and it’s all about Russian oppression, rising nationalism, difficulties but hope. It was composed in 1899/1900, well before Finland finally became independent in 1917. Finlandia played its part in the national awakening, and it’s still known to every Finn, even the lager-loutish ice hockey fans. 😀
     
    I like Brian Ritchie’s YouTube contribution because the scenery is actually Finnish (yes, Finland is full of trees. And lakes. And bogs.) I was looking for a YouTube Finlandia and most of them had pictures from god knows where! Or the music was wrong.
     
    I’ll give a link to how Finlandia should be played – my criteria is that the “quiet” parts should be played very fragile, because that’s what our nationhood was at times, but it should also be brave and bold, even joyous. This is the national orchestra in Finland, not a very interesting video but great music. The chorus sings “arise, Finland, your day will dawn…” (The choral lyrics weren’t written until 1941 – during WWII)
     
    link to youtube.com
     
    I wish Scotland will also arise and be an independent country again.
     
    (Hm. What would Finlandia sound like played on the bagpipes…?)
     
     

    Reply
  27. The Man in the Jar says:

    Perhaps for today this is more appropriate.
    “Although it’s true I’m worried now. I wont be worried long!”
    Bagpipes and everything. Bring a tear tae a glass eye so it would!

    Reply
  28. Brian Ritchie says:

    I’m glad you liked my choice lumilumi, and thanks for the link!
    Mosstrooper – Sorry mate!

    Reply
  29. Morag says:

    I don’t think you could play Finlandia on the bagpipes.  It’s chromatic.  It would need to be pentatonic.

    Reply
  30. The Man in the Jar says:

    PS.
    Regarding my above post I was refering to my earlyer comment at 6.22pm. when I said. “more appropriate”
    Just before all the Sibelious fans get annoyed.
    Sorry!

    Reply
  31. Albert Herring says:

    @The Man in the Jar
    You deliberately misspelling the great man’s name just to get us Sibelians wound up? Grrrr

    Reply
  32. The Man in the Jar says:

    Oops! Sorry again.
    Knew they would be a touchy lot! 🙂

    Reply
  33. Jiggsbro says:

    Davidson is hilarious: “A YES vote will end Devolution”. In what Universe is does that make any sort of sense?
     
    In the Universe of Paranoid Fantasists, a ‘Yes’ vote could be rejected by Westminster and devolution withdrawn to prevent the referendum ever being repeated: a ‘Yes’ vote ending devolution. As far as I can see, that’s the only possible – sensible – interpretation of Davidson’s remark. A veiled threat. Of course, that’s assuming the remark is sensible. If you assume Davidson is an idiot…well, it could mean just about anything.

    Reply
  34. Jiggsbro says:

    Just before all the Sibelious fans get annoyed.
     
    That spelling is libelious.

    Reply
  35. Vronsky says:

    link to youtube.com
     

    Reply
  36. Jeannie says:

    @lumilumi
    That was a really lovely link – very moving.  I happened to notice a version by Joan Baez and clicked on it to get the words.  They are beautiful and so poignant in the context of the second world war. 

    Reply
  37. Vronsky says:

    ” It would need to be pentatonic.”
     
    No, although it’s true that many Scottish tunes are pentatonic (built on a scale with five notes instead of seven).  It would need to be mixolydian  – a seven-note scale with a flattened seventh, like G major with F natural instead of F# (play from G up to the next G on the piano using only the white notes).  In fact the slow hymn-like tune in the middle of Finlandia can be played quite easily on the bagpipes. The bagpipe chanter actually has nine notes – the lowest is the flattened seventh beneath the first tonic (the note obtained when your fingers cover all the holes on the chanter).

    Reply
  38. Albert Herring says:

    @Vronsky
    If we’re just talking about the big tune, it’s actually hexatonic – there’s no F natural there at all (assuming in G). Still easily played on the pipes though.

    Reply
  39. Albert Herring says:

    It’s actually in A flat. Letter I bar 132 in woodwind, then strings at Letter L. 
    link to conquest.imslp.info

    Reply
  40. Vronsky says:

    @Albert
     
    Just meant that mixolydian (unless otherwise qualifed) has seven notes, and the bagpipes are not pentatonic although they play a lot of pentatonic tunes.  You can get pentatonic intruments – some Steiner Schools use little lyre-like things with 5 strings (1,2,4,5,6 of the scale) so that anything you hit sounds OK.

    Reply
  41. Albert Herring says:

    @Vronsky
    That’s True, but it also fits in an ordinary major scale (or ionian mode if you prefer).
    If you look at the harmonisation, there are no G flats, just G naturals e.g. in the viola part, so I would say that it’s simply in A flat major. It’s just that the tune only uses 6 notes.

    Reply
  42. ianbrotherhood says:

    Away tae Quarantine the lot ay ye’s…musical bams man, whit’re they like, eh? Aye, away an’ beat it or it’s ma g-string ye’s’ll be gettin right roon ye…

    Reply
  43. Albert Herring says:

    @ianbrotherhood
    Ah’m willin tae bet ah’ve got mair g-strings than you’ve hud hot denners!

    Reply
  44. Morag says:

    The bagpipe chanter actually has nine notes – the lowest is the flattened seventh beneath the first tonic (the note obtained when your fingers cover all the holes on the chanter).

    At the risk of the whole lot being flung into Quarantine, thanks, I never knew that.

    Reply
  45. ianbrotherhood says:

    @Albert Herring-
    Few years ago the Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald carried a story about a local man who fell foul of the law because of his G-string. We were experiencing a rare heatwave, and the accused had taken advantage of the weather to sit on the steps of his home and ‘get some rays’. He had a few cans of powerful lager to help quench his thirst as he sat enjoying the sunshine.
    Trouble erupted after some schoolchildren making their way home called their parents, who in turn alerted the authorities. Police rushed to the scene, found the man in a state of undress and the worse for drink, so took him away for questioning. The lawyer for the accused explained to the court that his client had been wearing clothing i.e. the G-string in question, but he had inadvertently worn it back to front.
    He was found guilty and given Community Service….strange, but true.

    Reply
  46. CameronB says:

    ianbrotherhood
    Evidence please. 🙂

    Reply
  47. Albert Herring says:

    Aw come on ianbrotherhood, a heatwave in Ardrossan/Saltcoats? If you’re making stuff up, at least make it credible! Good story though 😀

    Reply
  48. CameronB says:

    Albert Herring
    Your smile is bigger than mine. How come, what were your keys?

    Reply
  49. ianbrotherhood says:

    @CameronB-
    Well, that’s as much as I remember, really. 
    (Never did get that G-string back…)

    Reply
  50. Jeannie says:

    @ianbrotherhood
     
    Don’t suppose you’ve heard how the TUFI thing went today?

    Reply
  51. Albert Herring says:

    @CameronB
    I had a big win on the GG’s, enough for the deposit on A flat. 😀

    Reply
  52. CameronB says:

    Albert Herring
    Congratulations. I hope you wipe your feat when you got home. 🙂

    Reply
  53. ianbrotherhood says:

    @Jeannie-
    Sorry, no, I haven’t. Will certainly post any details I get. (They picked a good day to have it!)

    Reply
  54. Matt says:

    Great tune, love it!

    Reply
  55. Simon says:

    There’s a bagpipe tune, pibroch, composed in 1707 called “the Lament for the Union” or “An Co-aontachadh”. But I’m struggling to find a recording of it online.

    Reply
  56. Albert Herring says:

    @Simon
    It’s on the Piobaireachd Society website 
    link to piobaireachd.co.uk but you need to join to hear it.

    Reply
  57. lumilumi says:

    Wow!
     
    I’m impressed that so many have actually thought about my joking throw-away comment about playing Finlandia on the bagpipes.
     
    I’m totally musically untalented and know nothing about music – I can’t even clap me hands to my favourite songs at my favourite bands’ concerts – so I was fairly amazed about all that analysis of pentatonic whatevers and c flats and whatnot.
     
    My point was that a piece of music might be important in a struggle for independence.
     
    Scotland hasn’t anything like Sibelius’s Finlandia. Flower of Scotland or Scotland will Flourish or whatever aren’t quite on par with Sibelius’s work… But there are pieces of music that capture the popular imagination.
     
    The Finnish national anthem Maamme/Vårt Land/Our Land is a sort of a German drinking ditty. Nationalist uni students wrote nationalist lyrics and sang it in 1848. And we’re stuck with it. Later on, the lyrics have been slightly re-written, and, I suppose, the music simplified, so that lager-loutish ice hockey fans can holler the anthem. The national anthem usually gets hollered/sung very unmusically.
     
    Our southern neighbour, Estonia, also adopted the same song as their national anthem in the 1920s when they first were independent, and of course reverted back to it when they regained their independence in the early 1990s.  The only way to distinguish the Finnish and the Estonian national anthems is to listen if the chorus is repeated. Finnish: chorus repeated. Estonian: chorus not repeated. The stupid thing is that even Olympic and other sporty authorities play the wrong anthem, the shorter Estonian anthem, when they ought to play the longer, Finnish anthem.

    Ho-hum. Shit happens.

    Reply


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