A few things
Sep. 12th, 2023 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeNew on the website: Jacobite songbook! Do say if you spot anything missing, or if there are any other Jacobite songs you'd especially like included. :D
Also on the website, I've been messing about with CSS and making some aesthetic updates (messing about with CSS is such an absorbingly fun thing to do), so the updates section on the home page is now in a sidebar, and some of the section front pages have a two-column layout to give a somewhat more equal status to FotH and Kidnapped. And I've figured out how to make responsive HTML work, so the site now looks a bit better on mobile (or otherwise very narrow) browsers.
And I've found a few extra things to add to the adaptations of Kidnapped page, and thus have inadvertently made a heartbreaking discovery. Steeleye Span, an English folk-rock group and my favourite band, have recorded several Scottish Jacobite songs, and these songs have been amongst my favourites of theirs for years, even before I got into Jacobite fandoms. Now I know where they came from: in the 1970s Steeleye performed in a stage adaptation of Kidnapped, playing a soundtrack of Jacobite music some of which later ended up on their next album. This was a one-off event and I will never get to watch it, which was tragic enough before I found out that the adaptation included both books. Thus a double tragedy: I can't watch my favourite band perform my favourite book, and I wouldn't have wanted to anyway. (Maddy Prior played the lass at the change-house! There's a finale song called 'Jacobite Rock'!) Woe, alas, cruel fate, etc. I will try to keep liking the songs.
Look at these beautiful illustrations from a 1948 edition of Kidnapped, kindly uploaded and shared by![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
chiropteracupola on Tumblr! Besides getting the height difference approximately right (it's not quite a foot, but Davie is significantly taller), I think this is the only 'official' (i.e. non-fanart) visual representation of Alan I've seen that actually includes his smallpox scars. (Even the 2016 radio adaptation conspicuously cuts that bit from an otherwise almost verbatim use of David's initial description of him.) Actually my first thought was that Alan looks disconcertingly like the gentleman with the thistle-down hair (in the Portia Rosenberg illustrations from the book, not the TV series; it's that nose, I think); I was mildly alarmed by this until, on consideration, I decided that Alan looking just a little bit like an evil fairy is actually very appropriate. Anyway, I love these pictures very much; I must get myself a copy of the relevant edition. —ETA that I have found this edition on the Internet Archive, where more illustrations can be seen, albeit not in quite such good quality.
The Flight of the Heron ebook is getting close to being done! I don't think I've got a proofreader yet, so would anyone like to volunteer? (How this works: I will send you an ebook in format of your choice; you read it keeping a sharp eye out for any typos or formatting errors and report back on what you find.)
Also on the website, I've been messing about with CSS and making some aesthetic updates (messing about with CSS is such an absorbingly fun thing to do), so the updates section on the home page is now in a sidebar, and some of the section front pages have a two-column layout to give a somewhat more equal status to FotH and Kidnapped. And I've figured out how to make responsive HTML work, so the site now looks a bit better on mobile (or otherwise very narrow) browsers.
And I've found a few extra things to add to the adaptations of Kidnapped page, and thus have inadvertently made a heartbreaking discovery. Steeleye Span, an English folk-rock group and my favourite band, have recorded several Scottish Jacobite songs, and these songs have been amongst my favourites of theirs for years, even before I got into Jacobite fandoms. Now I know where they came from: in the 1970s Steeleye performed in a stage adaptation of Kidnapped, playing a soundtrack of Jacobite music some of which later ended up on their next album. This was a one-off event and I will never get to watch it, which was tragic enough before I found out that the adaptation included both books. Thus a double tragedy: I can't watch my favourite band perform my favourite book, and I wouldn't have wanted to anyway. (Maddy Prior played the lass at the change-house! There's a finale song called 'Jacobite Rock'!) Woe, alas, cruel fate, etc. I will try to keep liking the songs.
Look at these beautiful illustrations from a 1948 edition of Kidnapped, kindly uploaded and shared by
The Flight of the Heron ebook is getting close to being done! I don't think I've got a proofreader yet, so would anyone like to volunteer? (How this works: I will send you an ebook in format of your choice; you read it keeping a sharp eye out for any typos or formatting errors and report back on what you find.)
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Date: Sep. 12th, 2023 04:03 pm (UTC)And I've heard about that Steeleye Span adaptation! I think
Oooh, ebook! Congrats! I've been considering a re-read; this might be a good reason to do it.
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Date: Sep. 12th, 2023 05:18 pm (UTC)Oh, nice! I would like to see that too, if you do upload it. And I've just found another one, as it happens—the graphic novel from 2007 (though I'm not terribly keen on its character designs otherwise).
I had the impression that there are video clips out there from it? I should ask
Oh dear... well, it would be very cool if you did find clips!
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Date: Sep. 12th, 2023 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sep. 12th, 2023 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sep. 12th, 2023 06:52 pm (UTC)You don't link to a recording of 'Bonnie House of Airlie'; my favorite is definitely the Kate Rusby version! I find her occasionally a little bland, but she does this one beautifully.
Ooh, I hadn't heard the Eddi Reader recording of 'Charlie Is My Darling'; that was great. Also I hadn't heard Dick Gaughan's version of 'Laddie, Lie Near Me'--thanks! I like Emily Smith's version (where it's 'Lassie').
Songs you haven't got: I quite like 'Derwentwater's Farewell', which is about the young Derwentwater who was executed after the '15. Here is a version by the Corries, and here is an a capella version. But it's not very related to the FotH or Kidnapped.
in the 1970s Steeleye performed in a stage adaptation of Kidnapped, playing a soundtrack of Jacobite music some of which later ended up on their next album
Oh wow! What a discovery; I feel for you...
ETA: Also, why are all recordings of 'Here's His Health in Water' so relentlessly and overly cheerful??
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Date: Sep. 13th, 2023 02:01 pm (UTC)The gay Jacobite 'Laddie, Lie Near Me' that only exists in my head is such a good Alan/Davie song... I like the new tune that Emily Smith sings (though I think I still prefer the original/standard tune), but I don't so much like her new lyrics.
And thank you for 'Derwentwater's Farewell', too, that is a good one.
ETA: Also, why are all recordings of 'Here's His Health in Water' so relentlessly and overly cheerful??
I don't know! TBH I don't think the mood suggested by the lyrics really works with Burns's recontextualisation anyway, so perhaps the moods all got a bit confused.
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Date: Sep. 12th, 2023 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sep. 13th, 2023 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sep. 13th, 2023 07:53 pm (UTC)Oh, I would love to have seen the first half of that Steeleye Span adaptation!
I love the new Jacobite songbook section! I wasn't familiar with "Bonnie House o’ Airlie" nor that it was virtually a Jacobite song. Very funny that David describes it as his favourite song.
I have so many favourite Jacobite songs...
I love the toe-tapping "A Hundred Pipers" (about the march on Carlisle) but I don't know any good recordings with the words. Indeed it is more often known as an instrumental.
"Smeorach chlann Domhnaill, particularly Bodega's rousing version. Julie Fowlis has a nice recording too but if I remember correctly she leaves out the more Jacobite-esuqe verses, so that doesn't count.
The haunting sadness of Derwentwater's Farewell. I particularly love the Corries' version. They have tons of other great recordings of Jacobite songs too of course: Wha wouldna fecht for Charlie, Sound the Pibroch/Rise and follow Charlie, Flood Gary (about Flora McDonald).
The very famous "Mo Ghile Mear": I quite like Sting and the Chieftain's version of this.
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Date: Sep. 14th, 2023 03:31 pm (UTC)And thank you for all the music recs, I will check them out :D Now, I had come across 'Smeorach chlann Domhnaill' before and liked it, but not speaking the language didn't know what it was about. Hmm, these look like the lyrics that Bodega sing, but I confess I'm not getting the Jacobite references there unless they're very vague—is that an accurate translation?
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Date: Sep. 16th, 2023 06:27 pm (UTC)Haha, I love it!
For 'Smeorach chlann Domhnaill' there are also a few other verses. Bodega leave out some of them in their album, and so does Julie Fowlis I think, though not the same ones. And yes, the translation is fairly literal. It's not one of those poetic translations that reformulates whole lines. I think it's just the 1750s date of composition and vague martial references that make people call it a Jacobite song? That's the reason in my case anyway. Maybe it isn't actually so intended...
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Date: Sep. 17th, 2023 11:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sep. 18th, 2023 11:06 am (UTC)I'd be up for proofreading! I have a good eye for detail.
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Date: Sep. 18th, 2023 04:33 pm (UTC)I've found a proofreader, but thank you for offering!