Southern Scotland
Devised and produced by Moultrie R. Kelsall and Ian Whyte
Catherine Mentiplay (contralto)
George Fleming (baritone)
This week's programme on the theme of Britain and its music moves the scene to Scotland. Tonight's concert will be concerned with the songs and music of that lovely countryside which stretches from the Borders up to the estuary of the Forth on the east coast.
There is a rich heritage of ballads inspired by the battles that have been fought around the Border country, many of them stirring as the fights they commemorate, and some sad songs too, in lament for the brave lives that were lost. As the landscape changes to the coast, so the songs tell a different tale. There one meets with the call of the sea and the work of the fishermen as portrayed in the fishwives' cry of ' Caller herrin' '. Contrasting with this again is the gaiety of Willie's gane to Melville Castle ', telling of a lover who found all the daughters of the house so charming that he could not decide on the one to choose.