This is a past event
This talk will look at 'macaronic songs', songs which mix two or more languages.
Part of the King's Museum lecture programme.
’S Iomadh Ceum a Shiubhail Mi
(This event replaces the previously advertised"Glaschu: Gaelic Songs from the Glasgow Gaidhealtachd")
After showing a range of examples from the North-East and the Highlands, I’ll focus on one collected in the 1930s by James Madison Carpenter, ‘Whiskers on a Baby’, a version of the Child ballad ‘Seven Nights Drunk’. Though a light-hearted story of drunken mistaken identity, the song’s use of Scots and Gaelic is fluent, graceful, and natural, as befits two languages that have shared the same island for a thousand years. Such songs are fairly common throughout the geographic areas where these tongues interface, mix, and overlay, including parts of the Southern USA and Canada, where songs using four languages have been found. Finally, I’ll offer some thoughts on these songs’ popularity and function.The result is a wealth of material from late 18thC to the present day which tells of the Gael’s experience in Glasgow and which expresses universal themes of urban immigration, cultural collision, social deprivation and dysfunction, of compatriot support in unfamiliar environments: Argyllshiremen in Argyle Street, but parallels exist in cities worldwide from Lagos to Los Angeles, and within the various communities that have arrived in Glasgow over centuries.
There is a particular focus on John MacFadyen, a Muileach who essentially became Glasgow’s ‘village bard’, whose witty and imaginative songs won him a place in the hearts of his peers. He is barely known today, with few even recognising him for his ‘parting glass’, ‘Soraidh Leibh is Oidhche Mhath Leibh’, the finale of any Gaelic cèilidh the world over: it’s a particular pleasure to bring his songs into the spotlight.
Entry is £3 and open to all.
- Speaker
- Dr Tom McKean
- Hosted by
- The Elphinstone Institute
- Venue
- MacRobert Building, room 051
- Contact