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Scotland has ever been the leader in characteristic folk-music; the national character of Scottish music is so pronounced, yet so versatile, that it has exerted a greater influence upon composers than the popular music of any country. There are many reasons for this. It is very ancient and takes us back, in some of its num�bers, to the most primitive scale forms; if ever we are to comprehend how the old Greek music could charm so powerfully even without the aid of harmony, it will be by a study of the old Scottish music, which may come nearer to the old 'Hellenic style than is suspected. The Scottish folk-song is more closely interwoven with national history than that of any other nation. It has the aid of a remark�ably tender and expressive poetry. It is a music that sounds every note in the gamut of human emotion from deepest gloom to wildest merriment, from mournful dirge to rollicking Strathspey. It is not wonderful therefore that the composers of many different nationali�ties have come under its spell, that the folk-music of Scotland has exerted the greatest influence upon the classical school.
At the head of the list we find Beethoven gladly undertaking the arrangement of a whole series of folk-songs for a Scottish publisher �Thompson of Edinburg. Beethoven, we may add, also used a Russian folk-song in one of his string quartets. We find Schumann and Robert Franz endeavoring, though vainly, to achieve the Scottish lilt in themes taken from Burns and others, and made into German "I,ieder." We find the Swiss composer, Niedermayer, and the Frenchman, Boieldieu, using Scottish themes in their operas. We find the German, Volktnann, making both a national and a chronological error by introducing the melody of "The Campbells are Comin'" in his overture, "Richard III," in the final battle scene�a Scot's tune composed in 1568, in an English battle fought in 1485. The modern German composer, Max Bruch, has come most thoroughly under the Scottish influence.
It must be confessed, however, that not one of the above cited instances of attempts of foreign composers to employ the Scottish song has proved thoroughly Gaelic in spirit. To one German com�poser only was it given successfully to imitate the Scottish muse; Mendelssohn in his "Scotch Symphony," especially in the lilting scherzo, has actually created a Scottish theme, and we fancy that many a Scotsman would accept the tender duet, '' Oh, Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast," as a true example of his own native music.
The Irish and Welsh folk-songs have not yet come into their just inheritance in classical music, although Dr. Villiers Stanford has used some Celtic themes (notably "The Red Fox") in his"Irisi |
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