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Culture
This is Commandery Work In
Progress
Piping
Two of our Chevaliers
are Pipers having learned in Pipe Bands. There is an easy
way to appreciate the Great Highland Bagpipe. Tune into BBC
Radio Scotland's weekly piping programme
"Pipeline", available
on demand on the internet.
Our recommendation for learning is do not try
teaching yourself, join your local pipe band or take private
lessons.
Scottish Country
Dancing
Scottish Country Dancing
is a very important part of the Scottish Culture, and can be
found anywhere in the world where there is a Scottish Community.
It is tending to go out of fashion at home though, as global
popular music is marketed so heavily. The good news is
Scottish Country Dancing has become easier to learn, as there is
now a variety of videos to help prepare for and refresh your
steps between dances or ceilidhs. Apart from preserving an
enjoyable tradition, it keeps communities alive and is a great
way to keep fit.
RSCDS Shop — The Royal
Scottish Country Dance Society
Scottish Dance DVDs, Videos and CDs - Learn Scottish dancing
Scottish Country Dance
Videos
Grand Chain links - Scottish Dance Links
One of our Chevaliers
has been running a campaign for
"The Real Reel of the 51st", as
a modern variation does not recreate Scotland's Flag, the Saltire, as a focal point intended by the creators of the famous
reel.
The Fiddle
In 1974 the highly
regarded fiddler Hector MacAndrew, in a television broadcast
from Blair Castle, attempted to teach the famous classical
violinist Yehudi Menuhin the basics of fiddle music. The
programme producer, James Hunter, later recalled: "Menuhin just
couldn't get
a hold of the famous Scottish up-stroke, and he got more and
more frustrated and eventually said to Hector, "Oh, I cannot
play The Marquis of Huntly's Farewell." But Hector looked at
him and said, "Ah, but you can play the Beethoven (violin
concerto) and I can't."" Menuhin said of MacAndrew "When
I met this man and heard him play, I knew I was in the presence
of Scottish history."
In Scandinavia there are fiddles with "drone" strings under the
fingerboard, the effect being similar to the drones on bagpipes,
which they replaced in Scandinavia. The best known is the
Hardanger Fiddle, "hardingfele" in Norwegian.
Hector MacAndrew - Legend Of The Scots Fiddle
Hector MacAndrew - The Touch of a Master - Am Bratach No 210
Hector MacAndrew - Folk who speak in Strathspeys
Hector MacAndrew - Bowing before a new audience
Elphinstone Kist - The Fiddlers and Composers by Les Wheeler
Anders Buen - Hardingfeler
On the Subject of Swedish Under-Stringed Rustic Fiddles by Lars
Söderström
(translated by Wes Ludemann)
Drone Fiddle sound samples
Language
Robbie Shepherd writes a
weekly column in
Comment in the
Press and Journal in the North East Dialect, Doric (Doric
thought to be a reference to the complex Greek Dorian dialect
when it was popular to refer to Edinburgh as the Athens of the
North, Athens using "Attic" Greek). He recorded a
number of his columns as a
podcast,
Fou's yer dous loons and quines and other Doric masterpieces -
Scotsman.com Heritage & Culture
Scots-Online - Pittin the Mither Tongue on the Wab!
BBC - Where I Live - Voices Comments - North East
Scottish
Words Illustrated
Scots Gaelic
Each year the
Royal National Mod (Assembly) is a
celebration of Scots Gaelic Culture. In 2009 the Mod is
taking place at
Oban
from 9-17 October.
BBC - Scotland - Alba
Am Briathrachan Beag - Faclair MhicPhàrlain (on-line Gaelic
dictionary)
Literature
2009 is the 250th
Anniversary of the birth of Scotland's Bard, Robert Burns.
The BBC have an ongoing project to record his works, and have
currently recorded 178 works, by some of Scotland's biggest
names.
BBC -
Robert Burns
Book of Deer
The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens
The Brus by John Barbour
John Barbour by J Derrick McLure in the Leopard, The
Magazine for North East Scotland, with pdf
 of
The Brus
Walter Scott Digital Archive
Robert Louis Stevenson
Lewis
Grassic Gibbon
Neil Gunn
Sorley MacLean Online
Charles Murray
The
Elphinstone Institute
The Write
Stuff - National
The Scottish
Poetry Library
Internet Archive: Details: The Golden Treasury Of Scottish
Poetry
Leopard:
The Magazine for North-East Scotland
General
BBC Radio Scotland has a
variety of programmes available on demand on the Internet.
Visit its
Home page and click on the
Listen Again Radio Player Link for programmes on demand.
The Saltire Society The brainchild of a number of
people who in the 1930s saw a need to interest the Scots
themselves in their own rich culture - the arts, literature,
music and also their country´s history and its environment. The
name Saltire is taken from the saltire, the heraldic name of the
Cross of St. Andrew.
Scotland
on TV - Home page
Chev I Laird MA FSA Scot
KCTpl
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