Name That Scottish Tune

[noelekal]

Michael Palin plays a Scotsman winning Wimbledon at the close of the Monty Python episode "Science Fiction Sketch (part three)." What is the name of the tune that closes the episode (beginning at 6:07 in the clip below). Inquiring minds ( being my wife's and mine) want to know. We would be grateful to learn the tune's name as well as a source for a transcription of the tune if possible.

 

[JKJ]

The SoundHound app identifies the tune as “The Glasgow Highlander“.

 

[boxplayer4000]

Glasgow Highlanders.
noelekal: Perhaps by chance you’ve picked out one of our best known Scottish tunes ( and correctly identified by JKJ). The Glasgow Highlanders were those Scottish highlanders who had mostly been forced off their lands and many came to Glasgow, as well as migrating to North America etc. I think it is Jimmy Shand’s band who is playing the tune on your video. He recorded the tune in 1949. After that the tune became more popular and it was the signature tune for a popular radio series here in the 1950s called ‘The MacFlannels’ who were a family from the west of Scotland.
The tune’s popularity also prompted the dance fraternity to create a set-dance to go with the tune. It is in strathspey tempo which is a rather formal dance format unique to Scotland. Watch the dance here:

 

[JKJ]

Wow, that dance looks complicated! And SO many people!

When our boys were young (maybe 30+ years ago) we spent 10 days driving around Scotland starting from Edinburg: visiting friends, narrow country roads, fresh fish&chips on the west coast, shaggy cows, ancient castles, lawn bowling, lots of music, miles of stone “fences”, more sheep than I knew existed - it was an incredible adventure but I had a terrible time trying to understand the dialect in the small towns far from the city! Everyone we met was friendly.

Our mother told us we were ”Scotch-Irish-German” but we never found evidence in the ancestral tree. The ancestor who brought our name across the ocean was apparently from France, one Jean Jourdain. Probably not a molecule of Scottish blood in me…

JKJ

 

[noelekal]

Thank y'all so much! Rapid and heartwarming responses already posted, allowing us to learn much about the tune which took us down a Jimmy Shand road this afternoon. We've listened to Jimmy Shand on YouTube, sampled the McFlannels, read Jimmy Shand biographies and his obituary, learned about the Hohner Shand Morino accordion.

We're grateful to the Forum.

 

[Dingo40]

but I had a terrible time trying to understand the dialect in the small towns

When I first joined the workforce, we had a Scotsman (a Glaswegian, a really lovely chap) at our office who was very hard to understand at the best of times but, whenever he became the least bit excited ( or over the telephone) he was impossible !
See here:

 

[JeffJetton]

Okay, maybe someone with more Scottish folk music knowledge can help me here. The version of the tune in the Python video features the famous "Scotch Snap" rhythm, which I always thought was a key characteristic of strathspeys. You can hear them on beat two of measures 4 and 7, for example.

But... the version heard in boxplayer4000's video, the version seen in the notation in the same post, and the one on The Session are all lacking them. Which, to my inexpert ears, makes the tune sound more like a hornpipe.

Is it really more that, if people are dancing a strathspey to a tune, then that tune is a strathspey, snaps or no-snaps?

 

[boxplayer4000]

JKJ Glad to hear you enjoyed your visit to Scotland!

noelekal It sounds like you probably know more about Jimmy Shand than most Scots! I think I only saw him once ‘live’ (in the 60s) but I later played in many of the country halls where he had been a regular.

Dingo40 The Scottish accent comes in for a lot of ridicule. Scottish comedians, like Kevin Bridges, have learned how to turn it to their advantage. Personally I like strong accents; they’re only one feature which give us all our individuality and it’s entertaining trying to place a persons origin from their accent.

JeffJeton It’s interesting that your ’non-scottish’ ear is picking up on the differences in the music. The reason is the ’strathspey’ dance is a quite a formal, flowing dance… it ‘flows’ rather than lifts; the ’scottish snap’ is less in evidence. It reminds me of some of the very formal court dances more common to the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe (such as the minuet).
Similar music is used for another of our dances called the ‘Highland Schottische’ which is much more lively and energetic. The tempo is slightly quicker but the ’snap’ is used more extensively used and ‘lifts’ the rhythm. A good example is in this recording of the John Ellis Band.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

rlkey=74orw4wcq4wo77tq07gfmjx8l&dl=0

 

[OuijaBoard]

Lots of "snap" in the Nova Scotia/Cape Breton strathspeys. I hear it more in the Highland fiddling too. But less in the "Scottish Country Dancing" style. Or, that's been my experience.

 

[Pipemajor]

t I had a terrible time trying to understand the dialect

If you really don't want to understand the lingo, have a look at the Rab C. Nesbitt series on youtube.
He is a brilliantly funny comedian in this series.
He played a more serious part in the "Vital Spark" series about a "Clyde puffer" small cargo boat, along with many other great Scottish actors.