Skye Waulking Song - Capercaillie

Skye Waulking Song - Capercaillie

1. Context

   • Waulking: A traditional process used for making tweed fabric more flexible and waterproof
   • Waulking Song: Sung to keep everyone in time and to make work sociable and more fun
   • From the album 'Nadurra' released in 2000
   • Scottish folk music sung in Gaelic
   • The song is a Lament [Song of grief]
   • The title translates to 'My father sent me to a house of sorrow'

2. Instrumentation

   • Bouzouki [folk]
   • Accordian [folk]
   • Uillean Pipes [folk]
   • Synthesiser [pop]
   • Drum Kit [pop]
   • Fiddle [folk]
   • Piano [pop]
   • Acoustic Guitar [pop]
   • Electric Bass Guiar [pop]

3. Structure

   • Repetitive and Strophic
     • Introduction
       • Ambient voice on keyboard playing a sustained Em9 chord
       • Fiddle plays tremolo
       • Drums enter together with a tremolo electric piano which plays in counterpoint with the Bouzouki
       • Bass plays staccato together with a bass drum
       • Key is now Eminor
       • Ambiguous time signature - feels like 6/8 [duple] or 12/8 [quadruple] but the shaker and high-hat play in triple metre
     • Verse 1
       • Instruments play same as in the introduction
       • Voice comes in with the title of the song
       • Cross rhythms between voice and other instruments, making the metre ambiguous
     • Break
       • Fiddle plays more effects than melody, along with the backing instruments
     • Verse 2
       • Voice is the main rhythmic feature, singing in 12/8 time [compund quadruple]
     • Verse 3
       • Last line is sung unaccompanied [accapella]
     • Verse 4
       • Accordion joins in along with a strummed acoustic guitar and bouzouki accompaniment
       • Backing vocals join in with nonsense syllables
       • Drum parts also play in 12/8 time
       • Bass part is more prominent
       • Chord sequence changes to C / G / Em / G
     • Verse 5
       • Same as Verse 4
       • Accordion plays countermelodies to the vocal part
     • Verse 6
       • Same as Verse 5
     • Instrumental
       • Uillean Pipes solo along with the fiddle in heterophonic texture [similar melody in slightly different ways]
       • Accordion provides accompaniment and sometimes doubles the melody
       • Instruments [especially accordion] emphasise beats 2 and 5, adding rhythmic interest
     • Verse 7
       • Chord sequence changes to Am7 / Em / Em / G for this verse only
       • Dynamics reduce so that the voices can be more prominent [backing vocals sing nonsense syllables]
       • All instruments stop for the last line
       • Drums build up to the last verse
     • Verse 8
       • Chord sequence returns to C / G / Em / G
       • Full band plays
     • Outro
       • Vocals improvise to the nonsense syllables
       • Instruments weave a counterpoint with each other
       • Chords alternate between C and G for the remainder of the song
       • Call and Response
       • Polyphonic texture

4. Tonality

   • Ambiguous key a the beginning
   • Modal
   • Aeolian Mode of E [or E minor] is established by the end of the introduction
   • Key seems to change to G major in Verse 4
   • In Verse 7 the song briefly returns to E minor before changing again to G major

5. Texture

   • Starting with the synthesiser and fiddle, the texture builds up gradually, introducing other instruments after 9 seconds
   • Texture is thin to begin with
   • Bouzouki and keyboard play interweaving melody
   • Texture becomes monophonic when the voice sings on its own
   • After the first 33 seconds the voices join in, adding to the thin, polyphonic texture

6. Melody

   • Made up of C, G and Em chords
   • Based on a pentatonic scale
   • G major
   • Strophic [same melody in each verse]

7. Rhythm

   • Begins 6/4 time
   • Bass guiar contradicts by playing 12/8 but occasionally displaces the metric accent to suit the 6/4 rhythms
   • Switches to 12/8 occasionally

8. Dynamics

   • Begins on the keyboard playing a sustained Em9 chord softly [piano - quiet]
   • After about 3 verses the beat picks up introducing more instruments and therefore the dynamics increase making it more upbeat