Chisholm - Scottish Airs

My recording of Erik Chisholm's Scottish Airs. Most of these pieces are based on tunes from Patrick MacDonald’s A Collection of Scottish Airs, published in 1784, a copy of which was given to the composer when he was 10 years old. Unfortunately I could not find any composition dates - the rather crudely typeset score is woefully uninformative on details. It also did not include any of the titles such as there are, I got those from the recordings by Murray McLachlan. The translation from Scottish Gaelic to English (from Google Translate and a listing of the mentioned Patrick MacDonald collection) might not be totally reliable but it is better than nothing.
Learning these pieces was quite a task on account of Chisholm's adventurous harmonic language. It was the most dissonant and experimental music I have recorded since Bartok's Improvisations on Hungarian Folk Songs which were a wee bit of a struggle as well. Nothing in these pieces is ever predictable, and Chisholm's dissonants, strange leaps and intervals are such that one regularly wonders if they are not misprints. For all I know this score may be littered with mistakes but for better or worse I faithfully stuck to it with perhaps only a handful of exceptions. Whatever the case, these pieces are rugged, craggy and quirky, shot through with moments of great beauty. Quintessentially Scottish I would say, in my mind evoking the smell of heather, bog, peat and sheep dung.
Chris Breemer, piano
buymeacoffee.c...
0:12 - 1. A bhanarach dhonn a’ chruidh (Brown-haired dairymaid)
0:50 - 2. Ceud soraidh uam do ‘n Ailleagan (A hundred farewells from me to the Allegan)
2:06 - 3. Untitled
3:44 - 4. Untitled
4:19 - 5. ‘S mi air cragan na sgurra (I'm on the edge of the cliff)
5:40 - 6. Ossian an déigh nam Fion (Ossian, the last of his race)
6:52 - 7. Aisling (A Dream)
7:47 - 8. Lamentation for Mac Gregor of Roro
9:07 - 9. Jig
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Recording date: Saturday January 13, 2024
Piano: Kawai Novus NV10S
Setting: SK-EX Rendering
Postprocessing: Concert Hall Light reverb
Art work: David Barnes - The North-east coast of Scotland

[@grahamtwist]

Regarding performance dates, according to Wikipedia: "The "Scottish" Period began in the early 1930s where his works were tinged with a distinct Scottish colouring influenced by folk music, indicating most persuasively the ambitions of composers like Chisholm's contemporary Béla Bartók, to create a style based on the music of his ancestors and countrymen. Chisholm's 'Sonatine Ecossaise', '4 Elegies', 'Scottish Airs', 'Piano Concerto no. 1' "Piobaireachd" and 'Dance Suite' display a percussive bite and energy influenced by Bartók and Prokofiev with much use of dissonances and note clusters along with material derived from Scottish folksong, bagpipe music and dance figurations. The folk elements are so deeply integrated in this style that some have referred to Chisholm as 'MacBartók'." Your performance is fabulous, Chris, as I can imagine this demanding music requires much mental energy to master the score with its unique harmonic language and, at times, tricky rhythms. I haven't heard it before and will need to listen on several occasions to acclimatise to the meaty dissonance! Bravo!

[@ChrisBreemer]

Thank you ! Indeed it takes a while to get one's head around this weird and wonderful music 😁

[@LeSheetMusicBoi]

Delicious harmonies !!

[@ChrisBreemer]

Yes, they can be quite weird at first listen, but you just grow into them.

[@RileyTuckerMusic]

Bravo Chris, this is some very interesting harmony here, I think you make the most of it!

[@ChrisBreemer]

Thanks ! I'd like to think that my recordings of these are every bit as good as those by Murray McLachlan.

[@pianothingsmusic]

Sounds interesting 😊

[@ChrisBreemer]

Very 😁