Alan Fleming Baird
IMAGINED DANCES for piano
Bardic Edition BDE1308
Imagined Dances is a work for solo piano in five movements, each of which is inspired by at least one element of a traditional Scottish dance form.
The first movement takes its inspiration from the strathspey which makes use of the 'Scottish snap' rhythm of a semi quaver followed by a dotted quaver and also brings in traditional bagpipe music embellishments.
The second movement takes its influence from the early 20th Century Gaelic work song 'The Cockle Gatherer' which is most likely to come from Barra where cockle gathering is common.
The third movement is a lyrical songlike movement based on Scottish folk ballad songs. The right-hand melody is in three time (three crotchets per bar), while the left hand is in a compound two time (six quavers per bar) creating cross rhythms throughout its opening phrases. This rhythmic texture is meant to portray the lilting quality of Scottish folk music and the inspiration for creating this texture was to reimagine the lapping sounds of water in a loch.
The fourth movement is a reel which is traditionally in common time and made up of quaver movement with the accents being placed on the first and third beats of the bar and in a fast tempo. I use quite constant quaver movement but break the monotony of the constant common time by shifting the material into irregular time signatures.
The fifth movement is a rhapsody based on many different features found in other types of Scottish traditional music. It makes use of the Scottish snap rhythm again and the lyrical song lines of folk song and the dance rhythms of traditional Scottish dances. Alan Fleming Baird
Duration 16 minutes
The first movement takes its inspiration from the strathspey which makes use of the 'Scottish snap' rhythm of a semi quaver followed by a dotted quaver and also brings in traditional bagpipe music embellishments.
The second movement takes its influence from the early 20th Century Gaelic work song 'The Cockle Gatherer' which is most likely to come from Barra where cockle gathering is common.
The third movement is a lyrical songlike movement based on Scottish folk ballad songs. The right-hand melody is in three time (three crotchets per bar), while the left hand is in a compound two time (six quavers per bar) creating cross rhythms throughout its opening phrases. This rhythmic texture is meant to portray the lilting quality of Scottish folk music and the inspiration for creating this texture was to reimagine the lapping sounds of water in a loch.
The fourth movement is a reel which is traditionally in common time and made up of quaver movement with the accents being placed on the first and third beats of the bar and in a fast tempo. I use quite constant quaver movement but break the monotony of the constant common time by shifting the material into irregular time signatures.
The fifth movement is a rhapsody based on many different features found in other types of Scottish traditional music. It makes use of the Scottish snap rhythm again and the lyrical song lines of folk song and the dance rhythms of traditional Scottish dances. Alan Fleming Baird
Duration 16 minutes
