Pretend, for a moment, that you're part of a musical group some four hundred years in the future. You're doing some library work, researching some old songs for your band's next musical project, and stumble across some classic rock and roll songs -- "Satisfaction," "Like A Rolling Stone," a bunch of Beatles songs -- that nobody knows about anymore. You figure out how good these songs are, and realize that your band would have a lot of fun bringing this music back to life. Something similar to that happened to the Baltimore Consort, while compiling material for their latest effort Adew Dundee, a collection of early Scottish music. Mary Anne Ballard (viol), Mark Cudek and Ronn McFarlane (lutes), Custer LaRue (vocals), Larry Lipkis (bass viol and recorder), and Cris Norman (flutes and pipes) uncovered a gold mine of great sounding Scottish songs and tunes from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These pieces often straddle the line between early classical and folk in style, but the strength of Adew Dundee comes from the tunes which capture the essence of Scottish folk music at its birth. And judging by the sound of the album, the Baltimore consort clearly had fun putting Adew Dundee together.
The album begins with a lute fading in, playing the melody on the intro of the Medieval song, "The Gowans Are Gay." The arrangement on this track evokes some of the earlier recordings of the Swedish band Väsen, especially their polska "Amanda." The tone of the album is not really set, though, until the second track "Adew Dundee," the jig which gives the disc its title. While a bit slower than the jigs commonly heard in present-day sessions, the melody and chordal structure of "Adew Dundee" are unmistakably Celtic, especially the way the chord shifts from the tonic G modal to F major. And the tune is breathtaking, featuring a fiercely energetic flute. It is the first of many tunes on this CD gleaned from something called the Skene Mandora manuscript, dating to the 1630's.
"Remember Me My Deir" appears at face value to be a sad ballad, but a close look at the lyrics uncovers some rather sinister connotations. The minor-key "Ane Ground" sounds, at least in this arrangement, like a cross between a baroque piece and a Scottish air. The third song, "A New Scotch Song of Catherine Logy," comes from a 1719 tunebook with the wonderful title Wit and Mirth: or, Pills to Purge Melancholy. This song opens with a clever bluesy riff on the lute accompanying the bagpipes, but Custer LaRue's vocals do not quite capture the feel her bandmates were aiming for.
"The Scotch Cuckold," from the same source, follows this song. "Green Grows the Rashes" is another great energetic tune, finely arranged with some aggressive lute playing underneath a dueling flute and recorder. This is followed by the pensive primitive reel "Alace I Lie Alone" and the lute duet "Blew Breiks," from the Skene Mandora MS. The song "Adeu O Desi of Delyt" is the most classical-sounding piece on the disc. "Generall Leslys Goodnight," dating to 1645, is a slow air with some beautiful chord shifts which, much like those in "Adew Dundee," bear a distinctively Celtic signature.
At this point, Adew Dundee really starts to take off. "Generall Leslys Delight" leads right in to "Lesleis Lilt," another strong Scottish melody in triple time, followed by the jig "Peggy Is Over Ye Sie Wi' A Souldier" and the reel "I Met Her In The Medowe." All three great tunes come from the Skene Mandora MS. The set closes with a quick little reel called "The Old Man," from the 1620's. Any current session would benefit from the inclusion of tunes like these. All are distinctive and memorable, and while they don't quite resemble standard contemporary jigs and reels, they manage to sound fresh and exciting in spite of their age. My one complaint is that these tunes are tracked separately; they go so well together, and in the age of CD burning and i-Pods, these distinctions matter perhaps more than they should.
The sad, mournful folk ballad "Richt Soir Opprest," featuring some beautiful singing above delicate lute accompaniment, is followed by another set of tunes. This set begins with a lute solo on "Suit Smiling Katie Loves Me." The next tune, "Whip My Toudie," opens with a deep muscular lute playing melody accompanied by percussion. Gradually the other instruments build the sound up, but right where the crescendo is anticipated, things quiet down again for the beginning of "Remember Me At Evening." At first the sound comes from the pair of lutes, but the addition of the majestic bagpipes elevates the arrangement to a whole new level. The set closes with "A Scot's Tune," the last of the Skene Mandora MS tunes on this disc.
Two songs follow, from a sixteenth-century collection called Thomas Wode's Partbooks. "Woe Worth The Time" is a musically polite lament of unrequited love. "What Mightie Motion" manages to clock in at over seven minutes, despite only three of the six existing verses being used. However, the combination of LaRue's voice with quiet lute accompaniment works very nicely. The album closes with "Branles D'Ecosse," a set of rapid sixteenth-century waltzes from France which, from the title at least, claim a Scottish inspiration. The set begins with a melody played on a shrill but triumphant whistle, followed by a tune played by dueling lutes, and finishing with a particularly energetic melody played on the pipes that completes the collection in a worthy fashion.
The Baltimore Consort have unequivocally hit a home run with Adew Dundee. Their playing is superb, and the pieces are meticulously arranged all the way through. However, the real stars on this CD are the mostly nameless people who not only composed this great assortment of songs and tunes, but who ensured with their pens or quills that the music would not be lost to history.
