Capercaillie - Skye Waulking Song

Capercaillie - Skye Waulking Song

1. Instrumentation and Texture

   • Layered texture throughout
   • Drum Kit - Rhythmic pattern
   • Bass Guitar - Bass Line
   • Synthesiser and Accordion - Chords
   • Voice - Main Melody
   • Countermelodies - Violin, Wurlitzer piano, Uilleannn pipes and Bouzouki
   • Three Unusual Instruments
     • Wurlitzer Piano - early type of electric piano
     • Uilleann pipes - bagpipes but with a softer tone
     • Bouzouki - lute from greece
   • N.C - no chord - accompaniment drops out
   • 'With modulation' means modulation applied to the synth chord - makes pitch fluctuate slightly ( vibrato)
   • Cluster Chord - opens song - a chord whose notes are all next to eachother

2. Structure

   • Vocal Line alternates between 4 different phrases, each lasting 1 bar, in a call and response pattern
     • Phrase 1: call (in gaelic, starts on high D)
     • Refrain 1: response (vocables, starts on mid B)
     • Phrase 2: call (in Gaelic, starts on low D)
     • Refrain 2: response (vocables, starts on a high E)
   • 1. Introduction: an instrumental section, after which he voice enters with the first line of text
   • 2. Verse 1: voice and accompaniment
   • 3. Verse 2: voice and accompaniment- includes a instrumental break
   • 4. Coda: short vocal phrases echo the end of refrain 1, after which the accompaniment fades out

3. Melody

   • Vocal Melody
     • penatonic - based on 5 note scale
     • lower register - soloists part in vocal tenor clef - music sounds an octave lower than printed
     • mainly syllabic
     • Alternates between one bar phrases in Gaelic (the call) and phrases that use vocables (the response)
     • Gaelic is a language spoken in parts of Scotand
     • Vocables are nonsense syllables
   • Instumentalists
     • short motifs and countermelodies based on vocal phrases
     • main instrumental break, based on refrain 2

4. Rhythm and Metre

   • 12/8 - compound quadruple time
   • frequent syncopation
   • at the start of the song the hi-hat creates cross rhythms. When the full band enters the hi-hat rhythm changes and more clearly emphasises 12/8

5. Harmony

   • G major
   • enirely diatonic
   • Three main chords are : G, Em and C
   • Dominant Chord D is avoidedd
   • has a modal feel