Capercaillie - Skye Waulking Song

Capercaillie - Skye Waulking Song

1. CONTEXT

   • Waulking song - a work song
   • Based on a Gaelic folk song - 'Folk music': Music of the people
   • Passed on by an oral tradition
   • Played at social gatherings
   • Fusion of folk music and Western popular music

2. TEXTURE

   • Interweaving of melodies - contrapuntal
   • Hetraphonic - a decorated version of the melody line, played simultaneously with the melody line.
   • Mainly melody and accompaniment

3. TONALITY

   • E minor
   • G major

4. HARMONY

   • Only 4 chords for the whole song:
   • Chord sequence Em - G
   • Verse 4 the chords change C-G-Em-g
   • Verse 7 the chords change Am7-Em-Em-G
   • Verse 8 the chords change back to C-G-Em-G

5. INSTRUMENTS

   • Combination of traditional folk instruments and Western Pop instruments
     • BOUZOUKI
     • ACOUSTIC GUITAR
     • VOCALS
     • ACCORDIAN
     • VIOLIN
     • PIPES
     • DRUMS
     • WURLITZER PIANO
     • BASS GUITAR
     • SYNTH

6. RHYTHM AND METRE

   • 12/8 - 12 quavers in a bar
   • The intro feels like it might be in triple time (3 beats in a bar).

7. STRUCTURE

   • Intro - Verse 1 - Break - Verse 2 - Verse 3 - Verse 4 - Verse 5 - Verse 6 - Instrumental - Verse 7 - Verse 8 - Outro
     • Mainly verses - based on a variant of the melodic line

8. DYNAMICS

   • No written dynamics - dynamic level changes with the amount of instruments that are playing.

9. MELODY

   • Melody based on the E minor / G pentatonic scale - (5 note scale) G, A, B, D, E
   • Folk style melodies
   • Vocal melody improvises - use of nonsense syllables