Scottish Folk Music: History, Genres & Wild Mountain Thyme - Essay Sample

Introduction

Scottish folk music has a rich history and culture. Folk songs are the most celebrated genre of music that is significantly explored in Scottish culture. Across several decades, the Scottish people have adversely embraced outstanding rendition and verdict that evaluate the credibility of songs to contemporary society. However, the earlier exploration of the "Wild Mountain Thyme" song gives the culture and specific standpoint where various genres can be combined to produce a pleasant piece. The introduction of the modern instrument provides the part with a chronological flow in performance as well as builds its tune to ascertain both modernity and traditional repertoires. This paper focuses on examining the "Wild Mountain Thyme" song and its major components that make it outstanding as a Scottish folk song. "Thyme" exhibited significant renditions and lyrical styles through exploration of different instruments to make it enticing.

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Historical Development of Scottish Folk Music

Scottish folk music is a genre of songs that uses the Scottish culture and tradition as part of their form. Studies show that folk music was the most celebrated genre in the Scottish traditional culture in the late middle Ages. The first most identified characteristic of the Scottish folk music is the use of Highland bagpipes for their rendition. It was the only genre that had melody before other genres were introduced. There is also evidence that the melodies of the genre have survived in distinct aspects in the Post-Reformation Publications which were associated with spiritual satires accompanying popular songs. However, in the modern world, the introduction of electric bass guitars ease the play, thereby making the song appeasing. The piece also establishes a homophonic surface as it develops through percussion and guitar as well as synthesizer supports from the melodic instruments such as penny whistles, bass, and piano. The lower pitch of the song sustains a drone, a significant constant tone, while the adjacent line executes an elaborate melody, which is above the latter. The song transgresses between higher and lower pitch to perform its imminent rendition. However, in terms of ornamentation, the "Wild Mountain Thyme" song exploits the used guitar of different kinds to produce the required voice. The inclusion of the glissando technique by the performers, in other cases, creates an overall balance of tones from one view to another to maintain the constant tempo. The first tunes that are evident in the piece through a guitar melody portray it equivocal and keep other voices along with the guitar. The original and traditional version of the song was majorly played using a quartet, with each employing guitar skills to give an outstanding tone. The vector ornament in the Scottish song gives it a pleasant timbre throughout the performance. Well-known musicians of this genre in Scotland Habbie Simpson, piper and Pattie Birnie, fiddler. The tradition progresses into the 19th century with major figures like Niel and Nathaniel Gow son composed several fiddle variations and tunes for the genre development.

Contemporary Context

Scottish folk music was regarded as traditional symbols of identity. The interest that have adversely grown in the Scottish folk genre has revamped the culture celebration and embracement. Similarly, the chorus of the song has a reference to garden and silver fountain, which reveals that its original version has been influenced by the older Scottish songs written by MCPeake to make the piece concrete. The "Wild Mountain Thyme also refers to the "Will Ye Go Lassie Go" is a Scottish folk song that was written in the late 18th century by a poet Robert Tannahill (Tannahill, 2013, 282). It attributed to Francis McPeoke, one of the renowned folk singers during those periods, and explored the significance of lyrical pieces in the Scottish Culture. The song has been covered in several occasions by other musicians across different genres by many singers such as Thin Lizzy, The Clancy Brother, The Corries, and Bob Dylan. The song has an explicit and well-orchestrated chorus that can arouse emotions and feelings (Rollason, 2017, 154). Notably, the origin of the song is naturally Scots and characterized by "blooming heather." The earliest version of the song portrays the existence of treasure trove, which expresses an artistic expression that is equal to high literary culture and amalgamation of the writers' identity into the Giant Albion. Notably, according to Tannahill (2013), the confusion that was exhibited in the song resulted in a more beautiful and vast Scottish Ballad, which is accompanied by echoes, especially in the early 19th century.

Musical Parameters

The melody and lyric of the genre is a variant to itself and reveals and outstanding flow that not only tell rendition but also creates appeasing and therapeutic feeling to the audience. The beautiful melody from the song makes it distinct from other categories that do not have noticeable echoes in their lyrics. The three minutes and fifty-nine seconds song is a set of folk song that exploits the use of different versions of the guitar to enhance rhythm and tonal output. The new version of the song employs the use of bass, piano, fiddle kick, and penny whistle to back up the accompaniment (Beatty et al., 2015, 143). For live recording, the song uses different instruments such as mandolin and banjo, foundational drums, piano, and bass to execute a pleasant tone. Wild Mountain Thyme's existing tune portrays a significant difference from the original songs that were made by Tannahill (Bold, 2013, 244). The music is majorly notated for guitar in its most E major. In terms of form, "Wild Mountain Thyme" song, it is easier to make sense from the entire piece. However, lack of a chorus makes it simple to understand, and no repetitions are realized as it advances s within the stipulated time. The three minute and fifty-nine seconds outline a less complicated form that is easy to follow and evaluate. The piece is also composed in four short melodies which are being played twice by alternating the rhythm of the guitar. The short themes contain a four phrase pattern of "AABB," "bbcc," "ccdd," "ddee." the combination of these tunes in pieces makes it have easy to analyze. Significantly, the inclusion of the bagpipes and flute in other forms of the song portrays a tantamount identity, which can be traced in Scotland's history and culture.

The Byrd majorly played "Wild Mountain Thyme" song; an American four-person rock band. The composition of the four people gave the song an outstanding existence and exploration of significant aspects before it was influenced by contemporary success from other band groups such as the Beach Boys, among others (Atkinson, 2018, 200). The band's signature blended apparent singing harmony through the use of the twelve-stringed guitar to boost the rendition. The meter is mostly pentatonic with a round melody that rise and falls in a sequential manner to dominate a scale degree while the Ionian mode is executed in toning other voices. The bass guitar is an integral instrument that is used to evaluate the meter in the song. The melody in the "Wild Mountain Thyme" song exhibits a broader variation and portrays a typical set of style that is prevalent in the piece. The gap between the higher and lower notes is vast and reveals wave-like contours to balance the numerous instruments that are being used to change the moral principle and harmony of the song. The melody is adversely arched and portrays a descending pitch to validate its texture. The Songs in this genre song exhibit biphobic texture where the pitch varies from high to low regardless of the tune chosen in playing the instruments. The entry of the fiddle and piano in the second iteration doubles the melody and shifts the tonality from lower pitch to a higher one. The "Wild Mountain Thyme" song's tempo is andante; playing at an average eighty-seven beats per minute. In other measures, it exhibits twenty-nine actions per minute regardless of the pitch or instrument used. Notably, the song is performed at a volume of twenty-six to ensure that both the ball and the tone adequately mix to release the intended tempo. The timbre of the song is bright and piercing with clear pronunciation of consonants to ascertain the flow of the piece. The inclusion of many instruments such as bass and piano during recordings gives the part a pinched vocal.

Musical Characteristics and Construction

The melody and lyric of the song are re variants of another, "The Bares of Baquhither," which was published in 1859. The lyrics of the song are also based on the Longest John version and portray a significant evaluation between the verses and the chorus. The word of the song was directly derived from the other similar versions and exhibited the earlier traditional air that was created, Tannahill. The modern version of "The "Wild Mountain Thyme" song is an aerophone that consists of various accompaniments and instruments to produce the required tempo, texture, rendition, and volume (Tannahill, 2013, 282). While the guitar could have been the most valuable instrument in the construction of the song, the inclusion of other devices and accompaniment accounts for its more excellent pitch and volume as well as buzzy timbre. A typical performance of the song includes four to six members based on the required rendition and the instruments available.

Concclusion

In conclusion, Scottish culture plays a vital role in the formation of folk songs and exhibits the instruments to be used in their rendition. Traditional tools such as bass guitars, wooden flute, whistles, and bagpipes are the main features. However, in the "Wild Mountain Thyme" song by Robert Tannahill portrays specific characteristics of Scottish through the exploitation of basic melody and tune, which are a balance in either quartet or six-member group and an exuberant balance of forms. The song employed universal modal principles, its tempo, its timbre, its wave-like melodies, and fastpitch. The instrumentation of the song is typically Scottish music and combines both traditional and modern guitars to enhance its texture. Overall, the double melody also includes a combination of cymbals and tambourine to show the western influence on the piece.

Bibliography

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McGuinn, Roger. "THE BYRDS'20 GREATEST TRACKS." Uncut, (2015): 108.

Mercer, Ffion, and Speechmark Speechmark. Song Book: Words for 100 Popular Songs. Routledge, 2017.

Rollason, Christopher. "Dylan the writer at work: On the multiple versions of 'Dignity'and the two versions of 'Ain't Talkin''."

Tannahill, Robert. "CHAPTER NINETEEN ROBERT TANNAHILL AND IRISH SONG JIM FERGUSON." Romantic Ireland: From Tone to Gonne; Fresh Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Ireland (2013): 282.