Your monthly news from the New Hampshire Scottish Music Club

Volume 35, No. 5, January, 2024

“Having fun with Scottish Music”

Mark Your Calendar!

HAPPYE NEW YEAR! We begin the new year with a date for our annual concert at the Portsmouth Library: Saturday, April 13 at 3 pm. Just one week after our Peterborough concert, we should be in great musical shape to put on a terrific show.

January Gathering

This month we meet on January 14 when the fiddling duo of Ryan and Brennish Thomson will lead our workshop.

January Tunes

This month’s tunes are three original hornpipes by Ryan Thomson. For the dots, click here. To learn about the history of Ryan’s great-great-grandfather, who inspired the tunes, click here.

Your Music Committee is Listening

After the December read-through, it was brought to our attention that the final tune in the finale did not sound like a great final tune to a number of you. Therefore, we have updated the finale set.

In addition, Kip Ferguson, our singer, requested that the Harry Lauder songs be played in different key,s. With the key changes comes a different order.: Lassie in C, Roamin’ in G, ending with Wee Deoch in A. As of this writing the new keys are posted on the website, but not the new order. It should be correct by January 14.

Visit the Concert Music page to find these changes.

Please print out these updated sets and bring to the January gathering so that we can run through them first thing after our tea break.

Hopefully these will be the last changes to our concert tunes. However, if there is a problem you feel cannot be ignored, or you have ideas for future sets, please contact a member of the Music Committee directly by clicking on one of our names below:

Connie Eppich, Alan Wilson, Frank Stewart

Acadia Festival of Traditional Music & Dance

Anne Baier shares memories of the Acadia Festival of Traditional Music & Dance held every summer in Bar Harbor. As you begin making your summer plans, consider attending this or any of the other music camps held in New England. Can’t afford it? Apply for a NHSMC scholarship!

Spring Rehearsal Schedule

The more we rehearse the better we’ll sound.

With that in mind, we’ve scheduled an ambitious rehearsal schedule to prepare for the Bass Hall concert on Tartan Day, April 6. Please try to attend as many as possible. We encourage all members to come on March 10, whether or not you are planning to play, as this is our regular gathering at the Concord Music School. All other rehearsals will be held at Anne Baier’s home in Bow. If you cannot attend the Bass Hall concert but are interested in playing in others as they are scheduled (Portsmouth Library, TBD), do come to rehearse as well. Note that other than March 10, these are all on a Saturday.

• Saturday, March 2, 1 p.m.

• Sunday, March 10, 1 p.m. = our regular gathering at CCMS

• Saturday, March 16, 1 p.m.

• Saturday, March 23, 1 p.m.

• Saturday, March 30, 1 p.m.

If you need a reminder of this schedule, you will find it on our website on the Concert Music page.

December Gathering Recap

With Gordon unable to attend, Debby Dell’Orfano demonstrated her knowledge of the tunes and very capably led the group in a review of eight of the concert sets, some of which were new to us. We worked on transitions, decided on number of times to play each tune, and talked about accents and tempos. After the tea break, we had a lively jam session..

Website Problem?

If you see something that needs attention, if something is too confusing, or if we’ve posted a photo that includes you that you are not happy with, please shoot us an email at nhscottishmusic@gmail.com and the SMC website team will get on it as soon as possible.

Back Issues of Granite Skyes

If you are new to our organization and would like to learn more about us, or you have been with us for many years and are waxing nostalgic, you can read many years worth of our monthly newsletter, Granite Skyes, here.