Let’s relax about original tunes! By Muriel Johnstone B.Mus., L.A.R.M.

Muriel Johnstone was RSCDS Music Director for 25 years, responsible for Books 28 to 42. As a distinguished class musician, she followed in her mother’s footsteps. As a composer, she has given us sublime tunes such as her 60th Summer School. In this article Muriel draws on her research and vast experience to throw fresh light on the issue of original tunes.

By Muriel Johnstone B.Mus., L.A.R.M.

What does ‘original’ mean?

When an expression such as ‘original tune’ is used often enough, it becomes accepted as the correct term to describe the music used for a particular dance. If ‘original’ means ‘present or existing from the beginning, first or earliest’, it is clear that many of our so-called ‘original tunes’ are not original. In the RSCDS we have come to a point where far too much credence is placed on using the term ‘original tune’.

The historic background

In Books 1 – 21 there are many examples of dances with their own tune, ie the title of the tune is the same as the title of the dance. Where these tunes originated or where they were first published is key to the argument that they were the original tune used for the dance in question. The early 19th century saw a proliferation in the production of printed dance music. While a handful of London-based publishers had been responsible for most of the dance publications of the late 18th century, the 1790s through the 1810s saw many more music and dance publishers emerge. A popular country dance tune of this era might be published in a dozen or more collections, each with different instructions, eg The Favourite Dances of 1812 composed by Nathaniel Gow as performed at his Annual Ball in George Street Assembly Rooms the 3 rd of March. The link between ‘tune’ and ‘figures’ that may once have existed for printed dances had waned. Dancers of the early 19th century were encouraged to invent fresh figure sequences each time they danced. The process of selecting the tune and figures to be danced was known as ‘calling’ and was usually the responsibility of the 1 st couple. Couples would take turns to ‘lead off’ a country dance from the top of the set; the Master of Ceremonies would liaise between the calling couple and the leader of the band. It is unclear at what date this convention began, but it was widely adopted by the start of the 19th century.

The term ‘original tune’ There is no mention in any of the early RSCDS books of the term ‘original tune’. A tune is often described as ‘own tune’, which suggests, correctly in most cases, that the dance instructions and the music had appeared together, eg Walsh’s Caledonian Collection (1748) has several well-known titles: Fairly Shot on Her, Ladds of Dunce, Muirland Willie, Soldier Laddie and Tweedside, all with the same title for tune and dance. But was this the original tune used for this set of dance instructions? That particular Muirland Willie bears no resemblance to the dance in Book 21! When or where the term ‘original tune’ first appeared I have not been able to discover. Today many teachers and experienced dancers refer to a tune using the name of the dance, unaware that it may have a totally different name.

The early years of the Society

In the early days of the Scottish Country Dance Society the aim was to collect dances and publish books of instructions together with music. The idea was to standardise the movements and the steps. Mrs Stewart was an active researcher and her researches were transcribed into notebooks. Sometimes she would hear a tune, whistle it, and carry it in her head until she could transcribe it. Oral transmission is fraught with the danger of inaccuracy! At the outset, Mrs Stewart and Miss Milligan, together with some advisers and musicians, made choices of tunes to match or suit the dances. In Books 1–21 there are 155 dances found with a tune of the same name. There are also lots of dances which came to us with no tune. Valiant attempts were made to find the name tune with the limited resources available. It would have taken a huge amount of time to research hundreds of collections and manuscripts to locate tunes of the same name. The body of work that is represented by the Society’s publications is of a very high standard, but is not without flaws. We should remember that, compared with today, old manuscripts and collections were not easily or quickly accessible. Painstaking searches and handcopying went on in the National Library of Scotland, mainly by Susan Inglis, one of Miss Milligan’s musicians.

What term to use?

In the many places where the music source is given, ‘source tune’ would be a good term to use. Even where a dance and its music are found together in a collection, there are often other sources for the tune, sometimes earlier and sometimes with a different dance attached.

Why did we not use the source tunes in these dances?

The Frisky – Book 26

Published in 1774 in Samuel Thompson’s Twenty Four Country Dances with its own tune. The Society uses Humber Jumber, a children’s singing game. A good source tune not used!

Lucy Campbell – Book 17

Tune used is The Hon. Mrs Campbell (of Lochnel), a Robert Mackintosh reel. The tune Lucy Campbell is a strathspey in Gow’s Beauties of the North Vol.3.

West’s Hornpipe – 5 for 1965

Tune used is Robertson’s Hornpipe. The dance is from The Ladies Pocket Book of 1797. The tune West’s Hornpipe was wellknown and found in many English Country Dance tune books but also in Kerr’s Merry Melodies. Another source tune not used!

None so Pretty – Book 19

Tune used – Johnny in the Nether Mains by Niel Gow. The dance None So Pretty appears in Preston’s Twenty Four Country dances for the Year 1796 to a reel tune of the same name as well as in at least three other sources. Source tune not used!

Woo’d and Married and A’ – Book 16

This is a 9/8 jig from Wilson’s Companion to the Ballroom changed by the Society to 6/8, giving the dance a completely different feel.

After Miss Milligan died, the Research Sub-Committee had the task of collecting traditional dances for publication and selecting music. Today the tunes are the agreed choice of a group of people together with the Music Director.

Modern dances

By the time the Society’s publications had reached Book 21 lots of devisers were writing new dances. In 1963 and 1967 the Society published our first two books containing newly devised dances – Books 22 and 23. Some of the dances were submitted without a chosen tune so music had to be found by the Publications Committee. The tune assigned was almost certainly not the tune to which the deviser had tried out the dance. It may be that the deviser had a particular tune in mind, but this was not always found to be suitable. I served on that committee for a very long time. Whilst many choices were excellent, some of the tunes were unbelievably unsuitable! Some things just will not do!

Changing the tune

Some dances are in circulation for quite a long time before being included in an RSCDS book. In the case of Best Set in the Hall, the dance enjoyed huge popularity, perhaps partly due to the music chosen by the deviser/original publisher. The Society published it with a different tune, which cannot, therefore, be described as the original because it was not the first! So, how do we reconcile the term ‘original tune? The one submitted with the dance? The one chosen by the committee?

The bigger picture

I have looked through all 52 books plus the Leaflet Dances, Graded Books etc. in search of ‘original tunes’. There are c.170 where the name of the tune and dance are the same, but the source tune may not be the ‘original’. This represents only about 20% of RSCDS published dances. The majority are dances where the committee or the deviser have chosen the music or where a tune has been specifically composed.

The old familiar tunes

Because class musicians and bands played the tunes published with the dances, these became well-known and strongly associated with the dance and its figures. I am thinking of dances like The Machine without Horses, Braes of Tulliemet, Corn Rigs, Petronella, Braes of Breadalbane, Duke of Perth, etc. Most dancers of my generation would agree that hearing any of those tunes immediately brings the dance to mind.

Poor 2nd and 3rd couples!

However, it is worth remembering that it is generally only the first and fourth couples who dance to the ‘original tune’. Does this mean that the second and third couples are unable to do the dance? Of course not. A modern trend is for the band to play the ‘original tune’ only once – at the start! I think that is a pity because I like the idea of completing the loop and finishing with the first tune to say – We’re home! However, as a musician, I know that the choice of tunes in an 8 times through dance is more limited if you have to return to the first tune.

Strong feelings!

Teachers and dancers often have strong views about tunes. How many of us have been involved in discussions relating to original tunes? “I hate this or that original tune! I can’t play this original! No wonder this dance has ‘died’– stuck with an original tune like that! I don’t like this recording, even though it has the original tune, so can we dance to something else? Why lock up that great tune with such an awful dance?”

Let’s relax about it!

Despite having been brought up surrounded by a consensus of opinion that the original tune MUST be played, I have relaxed my stance. The whole point of dancing is to enjoy it, to dance to the best of our ability, to observe the sociability and courtesy, and to reflect the nuances of the music in our dancing. How can this be achieved if the source of the enjoyment and the impetus to dance – the music – is not of the highest quality? Therefore, in any given situation, the best music that is available should be used, whether that is the best recording (for tempo; for best match for the figures; for excitement) or the tunes that the musician can play best or enjoys most. Insistence on having the ‘original tune’ will not necessarily achieve this.

My own experience

In class I have played the music for every Society book. I cannot quickly recall the original tunes for the dances beyond about Book 27, (which probably coincides with the last time I danced regularly in a class) except for those that have become really popular, eg Fair Donald, Mrs Stewart’s Jig, John of Bon Accord. Apart from a few truly memorable tunes, I would have great difficulty in singing a tune for any particular dance after about Book 40. It is an accepted fact that a number of popular dances have become very firmly associated with their music: Maxwell’s Rant, Duke of Perth, The Montgomeries’ Rant, Mairi’s Wedding, etc. Add in the thousands of non-RSCDS dances with their own tunes, and the majority of dancers would not know if an original was being played for much of the repertoire.

Three practical examples

Let’s have a look at three dances and the tunes most often played for them: Duke of Perth, The Montgomeries’ Rant and

The mystery of Lady Harriet Hope and Mrs Stewart of Fasnacloich

1932 – Book 8

Lassie wi’ the Yellow Coatie. The 2nd tune printed is Lady Harriot Hope from Nathaniel Gow’s Repository Vol 1.

1951 – Book 16

Lady Harriet Hope’s Reel. The 1st tune is untitled, leading us to believe it is Lady Harriet Hope, but is in fact Miss Margaret Graham’s (of Gartmore’s) Favourite by Mackintosh. Why was Lady Harriot Hope not used for the dance of the same name, since it was already known?

1973 – Golden Jubilee Leaflet

Mrs Stewart of Fasnacloich. The tune is given the title Lady Harriet Hope’s Reel by R. Mackintosh. This is incorrect. It is the same one used for Lady Harriet Hope’s Reel! i.e. Miss Margaret Graham’s (of Gartmore’s) Favourite.

2001 – The Leaflet Dances

Mrs Stewart of Fasnacloich. The correction was made and the tune is Miss Margaret Graham’s (of Gartmore’s) Favourite!

Cadgers in the Canongate. Up until Book 21, the RSCDS published two tunes for each dance, presumably to give musicians a second tune to move into. The fact that in many cases this practice married together some very mismatched tunes is the subject of another discussion!

1. Duke of Perth

Duke of Perth is a reel in C or 4/4 time. It should be played in the same style as tunes such as: Merry Lads of Ayr, Ye’re Welcome Charly Stuart, Lady Mary Menzies’ Rant, Argyll’s Bowling Green. At some stage it was decided that the tune was either too difficult to play as written or would sound better if the tempo was cut in half to make a simpler type of reel; so our ‘original’ has become a very different kind of tune altogether. All the above tunes are tricky to play and not many of these dances are seen on programmes. Some of them are used as ‘teaching’ dances. So, were the musicians of that period really very good or was the tempo for reels in the 18th and 19th centuries slower than today? Did the dances not catch on because they are not very sociable or did the taste for this type of tune go out of fashion? Spare a thought for the class musician at a weekend school who is asked to play one of these ‘originals’ – which won’t be under their fingers!

2. The Montgomeries’ Rant

I cannot find a tune called The Montgomeries’ Rant. The dance comes from the handwritten Menzies Manuscript with no music, described not as a reel but as a ‘strathspey reel’. The ‘original’ tune published by us, Lord Eglintoune, was chosen presumably due to a family connection between the Eglinton and Montgomerie families. Hugh Montgomerie (1739 – 1813) was the 12 th Lord Eglintoune, an amateur composer and cellist, who is credited as the composer of our second tune, and the one most dancers will associate with the dance, Lady Montgomerie. At some point musicians – bands in particular – decided that this second tune was better or easier to play or suited the dance better and so it became the customary choice. The old Society recording by Colin Finlayson uses Lord Eglintoune, adhering to the practice adopted by the Society. I am sure that when this recording came out a lot of people must have wondered what the first tune was – never having heard it before!

3. Cadgers in the Canongate

We have the same situation with Cadgers in the Canongate. The first tune is Cadgers in the Canongate, and the second is John McNeil’s Reel, very different in style. Thus we have moved away from the original matching of dance and tune in name and in style. To throw another anomaly into the picture, in one of the old collections I found Cadgers in the Canongate with dance instructions, but described as a strathspey. In Gow’s First Repository the tune is described as a reel, but has some dotted notes similar to a strathspey, which tells us that there was far less difference in tempo between a strathspey and a reel back then and the same tune could be used for either. On the old RSCDS recording, David Cunningham played the tune Cadgers in the Canongate and it is a stunning rendition, followed by other tunes in similar style (not including John McNeil’s Reel). Liam Stewart on the current Society recording uses John McNeil. Dancers have become accustomed to hearing John McNeil for this dance and they would experience the same surprise in the case of The Montgomeries’ Rant if they heard the source tune. I am sure that they would enjoy dancing to David Cunningham’s recording, using the Cadgers tune.

Modern-devised dances

The search for matching tunes goes on. As in the beginning, they are decided by a group of people, led by the Music Director. The choice of tune is often a more random exercise based on personal preference or by what is available at the time of the meeting when the music is chosen. This is not to say that there are not some splendid ‘marriages’ of dance and tune. However, to call the chosen tune the ‘original’ for the dance is only correct in that the dance may never have had a tune associated with it previously. In more modern times, many dances have ‘original’ tunes composed specially for them, which may or may not have the same title. These could perhaps be accurately described as ‘original tunes’. It is inevitable that choices will be made based on people’s taste and preferences and what is in vogue at the time. This is as it always was. What is true, however, is that in the past, tunes were not so inextricably linked to a particular dance.

100 years of tradition

The body of work in existence under the auspices of the RSCDS since 1923 constitutes a historical record of the development of the style of our music over a period of nearly 100 years. This should not be lost. We should ensure that the best of arrangements from the past are still available to musicians interested in the historical aspect of the Society’s work, preserving music in the way it was first published.

The role of research

Today there appears to be an appetite for accurate research and for findings to be shared. In the interest of following the aims and purposes of the Society this should be encouraged. It is fascinating to discover new connections between the dancing and the music, how it was performed and what music was played. This does not invalidate the work done, but rather furthers it. Fostering an interest in the history of our traditional music and dance is one of our aims. If this means correcting past errors or filling in some gaps, so be it.

Consider our musicians

We also need to consider the load we are imposing on our musicians.

-Musicians are expected to be able to play an ever-increasing number of tunes. From the Society’s books alone, this amounts to over 700 – a staggering number!

-The average dancer has little conception of the years of work that go into becoming a competent (never mind an expert) musician for dancing.

- The enormous and time-consuming task of compiling sets of music for social dancing and for classes.

Today’s dancers are often more preoccupied with remembering ‘what comes next’ to be concerned that the original tune is being played!

A problem for bands

One very valid concern often heard from practising musicians is that a great number of tunes that they have been playing for years within their selections of alternative tunes have now been ‘assigned’ to dances by the RSCDS. Does this mean that these have to be removed from the general repertoire and only played for a particular dance? This is where we have to stop and consider the need for flexibility.

A proposal

It seems to me that the title ‘original tune’ is now being given an emphasis that was never intended in the past and that the older term ‘own tune’, is a much better way of describing the music used for those dances where the name of the tune and the dance are the same. For all other dances, ‘chosen tune’, ‘suggested tune’ or ‘source tune’ might be preferable. It is also my opinion that insistence upon obscure ‘original’ tunes can be unfortunate when the result is disastrous, eg in the case of an inexperienced player being forced into the embarrassing position of being unable to play the tune and the class then complaining that they would rather dance to a CD. Even experienced musicians sometimes struggle with difficult or unseen pieces of music resulting in the first tune being played too slowly and then the music racing away when a more familiar tune appears.

Our priorities

Perhaps the ‘purists’ who insist on ‘original’ tunes should consider the infinitely more important aspects of dancing by putting more emphasis on:

-dancing for joy – joy in the movement, joy in the music, joy in the company.

-removing what is so often seen on the dance floor nowadays – unnatural dancing bred out of fear of not being able to get through the complexity of figures such that very little attention is being paid to the music at all.

So why, in a Society that chose from the outset to be historically accurate, do we have such a rigid idea about what music should be played for a dance, when we modified the dance instructions, sometimes drastically? Let us introduce a little more flexibility into the ‘original tune’ conundrum.