{"id":94,"date":"2014-11-01T10:49:09","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T10:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/petercooketest.wordpress.com\/?page_id=1"},"modified":"2016-03-21T20:42:15","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T20:42:15","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.sssa.llc.ed.ac.uk\/whalsay\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About the site"},"content":{"rendered":"

The audio recordings featured in this website were made by ethnomusicologist Peter Cooke
\n\"peter<\/a>during the period 1969-1984 when he was researching the music of the Shetland Isles from his base in the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

They are supplemented by:-
\n+ biographical notes\u00a0and images featuring \u00a0the contributors,
\n+ information on their songs \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0and
\n+\u00a0 text transcriptions.<\/p>\n

The 120+ recordings of ballads, songs, rhymes and riddles comprise a rich sample of oral\u00a0tradition and are preserved as a vivid example of the power of song to give expression to the hopes, fears and joys of this small community. \u00a0Some of the songs were recorded from more than one person\u00a0and as expected their\u00a0 versions often differ.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a joint project, for numerous islanders have collaborated with Peter Cooke to provide information on the singers (often their own parents and grand-parents) and have helped by checking texts, commenting on the songs and providing photographs. \u00a0Their cooperation\u00a0has been readily given and\u00a0highly\u00a0appreciated for it\u00a0has added hugely\u00a0to the interest and value of this site.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly many of the songs and ballads presented here relate\u00a0tales of adventure and tragedy at sea\u00a0\u2013 \u00a0a musical flotsam that travelled by word of mouth around the world\u2019s oceans. Others are dance songs, lullabies, bothy ballads (probably learned from Scots), broadsheet ballads, \u00a0fishing songs and comic music-hall songs dating from the early years of the last century.\u00a0\u00a0To complete this rich store of orature some rhymes and riddles are also included and some of pages featuring\u00a0dance songs also contain fiddle versions of the tunes..<\/p>\n

Some of the islanders were avid collectors themselves making up their own manuscript collections from printed sources such as newspapers and from broadsheets published by\u00a0printers such as Sanderson of Edinburgh.\u00a0 His firm \u00a0 was still marketing\u00a0Favourite Songs for Country Districts <\/i>on penny song-sheets as late as the 1940s.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Other islanders made their own recordings on tape and cassette machines.<\/p>\n

Whereas many of our\u00a0recordings were made\u00a0at private sessions in the homes of the performers, \u00a0the songs were\u00a0performed\u00a0at island functions such as wedding dances and regatta concerts and other entertainments as well as when friends met up in each others’ houses.\u00a0 There was also a lively tradition of end of fishing season \u2018foys\u2019 when the men who made up the crews of Whalsay fishing boats\u00a0visited their homes and those of relatives,\u00a0\u00a0carousing and singing into the small hours.<\/p>\n

Another notable context was \u2018The Cooks’ House\u2019 where on wedding days older men gathered together to attend to\u00a0the cooking of\u00a0the mutton for the feast\u00a0and to chat and to sing, instead of going to the\u00a0wedding dance<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"cooksWhalsay\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By the time the\u00a0work was done a goodly number would have met up in the Cooks’ House and the plentiful supply of drinks could lead to some rousing singing (see for instance The Anchor’s Weigh’d<\/a>). They were customarily\u00a0visited by the bridal couple to thank them for their efforts. In this picture below Laurina (nee) Williamson and Harry Sandison (son of Harriet, one of our singers) are seen\u00a0outside the Cooks\u2019 House on the occasion of their wedding in 1974. \u00a0The house was the home of Harry\u2019s grandfather, John Irvine (‘Old Glibey\u2019)<\/span>, \u00a0one of Whalsay\u2019s finest fiddle players\u00a0and his house was frequently used by\u00a0 ‘the Cooks’ partly because of its situation close to the community hall where wedding\u00a0receptions are usually held.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A visit by the bridal couple to the Cooks.<\/p><\/div>\n

CLICK on IMAGES to enlarge them and on the normal BACK BUTTON (top left ) TO RETURN to your page.
\nThanks to all the Whalsay folk who provided photos, especially John Dally and Ivan Reid for some splendid scenes of the island.<\/p>\n

Roud Index nos. refer to Steve Roud’s comprehensive and most useful on-line song index<\/span>.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-94","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nAbout the site - Whalsay's Heritage of Song<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sssa.llc.ed.ac.uk\/whalsay\/about\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About the site - Whalsay's Heritage of Song\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.sssa.llc.ed.ac.uk\/whalsay\/about\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Whalsay's Heritage of Song\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-21T20:42:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.sssa.llc.ed.ac.uk\/whalsay\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/11\/peter-Cookecropped-247x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.sssa.llc.ed.ac.uk\\\/whalsay\\\/about\\\/\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.sssa.llc.ed.ac.uk\\\/whalsay\\\/about\\\/\",\"name\":\"About the site - 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