Skye Waulking Song - Capercaillie

Context
1. Waulking: A traditional process used for making tweed fabric more flexible and waterproof
2. Waulking Song: Sung to keep everyone in time and to make work sociable and more fun
3. From the album 'Nadurra' released in 2000
4. Scottish folk music sung in Gaelic
5. The song is a Lament [Song of grief]
6. The title translates to 'My father sent me to a house of sorrow'
Instrumentation
1. Bouzouki [folk]
2. Accordian [folk]
3. Uillean Pipes [folk]
4. Synthesiser [pop]
5. Drum Kit [pop]
6. Fiddle [folk]
7. Piano [pop]
8. Acoustic Guitar [pop]
9. Electric Bass Guiar [pop]
Structure
1. Repetitive and Strophic
  1. Introduction
    1. Ambient voice on keyboard playing a sustained Em9 chord
    2. Fiddle plays tremolo
    3. Drums enter together with a tremolo electric piano which plays in counterpoint with the Bouzouki
    4. Bass plays staccato together with a bass drum
    5. Key is now Eminor
    6. Ambiguous time signature - feels like 6/8 [duple] or 12/8 [quadruple] but the shaker and high-hat play in triple metre
  2. Verse 1
    1. Instruments play same as in the introduction
    2. Voice comes in with the title of the song
    3. Cross rhythms between voice and other instruments, making the metre ambiguous
  3. Break
    1. Fiddle plays more effects than melody, along with the backing instruments
  4. Verse 2
    1. Voice is the main rhythmic feature, singing in 12/8 time [compund quadruple]
  5. Verse 3
    1. Last line is sung unaccompanied [accapella]
  6. Verse 4
    1. Accordion joins in along with a strummed acoustic guitar and bouzouki accompaniment
    2. Backing vocals join in with nonsense syllables
    3. Drum parts also play in 12/8 time
    4. Bass part is more prominent
    5. Chord sequence changes to C / G / Em / G
  7. Verse 5
    1. Same as Verse 4
    2. Accordion plays countermelodies to the vocal part
  8. Verse 6
    1. Same as Verse 5
  9. Instrumental
    1. Uillean Pipes solo along with the fiddle in heterophonic texture [similar melody in slightly different ways]
    2. Accordion provides accompaniment and sometimes doubles the melody
    3. Instruments [especially accordion] emphasise beats 2 and 5, adding rhythmic interest
  10. Verse 7
    1. Chord sequence changes to Am7 / Em / Em / G for this verse only
    2. Dynamics reduce so that the voices can be more prominent [backing vocals sing nonsense syllables]
    3. All instruments stop for the last line
    4. Drums build up to the last verse
  11. Verse 8
    1. Chord sequence returns to C / G / Em / G
    2. Full band plays
  12. Outro
    1. Vocals improvise to the nonsense syllables
    2. Instruments weave a counterpoint with each other
    3. Chords alternate between C and G for the remainder of the song
    4. Call and Response
    5. Polyphonic texture
Tonality
1. Ambiguous key a the beginning
2. Modal
3. Aeolian Mode of E [or E minor] is established by the end of the introduction
4. Key seems to change to G major in Verse 4
5. In Verse 7 the song briefly returns to E minor before changing again to G major
Texture
1. Starting with the synthesiser and fiddle, the texture builds up gradually, introducing other instruments after 9 seconds
2. Texture is thin to begin with
3. Bouzouki and keyboard play interweaving melody
4. Texture becomes monophonic when the voice sings on its own
5. After the first 33 seconds the voices join in, adding to the thin, polyphonic texture
Melody
1. Made up of C, G and Em chords
2. Based on a pentatonic scale
3. G major
4. Strophic [same melody in each verse]
Rhythm
1. Begins 6/4 time
2. Bass guiar contradicts by playing 12/8 but occasionally displaces the metric accent to suit the 6/4 rhythms
3. Switches to 12/8 occasionally
Dynamics
1. Begins on the keyboard playing a sustained Em9 chord softly [piano - quiet]
2. After about 3 verses the beat picks up introducing more instruments and therefore the dynamics increase making it more upbeat

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Skye Waulking Song - Capercaillie

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	Created by Hannah Saks almost 9 years ago

	Copied by ElthamCollegeMusic almost 9 years ago