Thyme Piobaireachd

Quinie

1 Thyme Piobaireachd Vocal 8:39
2 Thyme Piobaireachd Snare 9:46

A compositional conversation between the Piobaireachd tradition, voice and drum.

A collaboration with Laurie Pitt.

Quinie, aka Josie Vallely, is based in Glasgow. She sings primarily in Scots, with a style inspired by the traditions of Scottish Traveller singers Lizzie Higgins (1929-1993) and her mother Jeannie Robertson (1908 –1975). Quinie’s experiments with composition and vocal techniques create a dialogue between pipe music and voice. Her work has a strong sense of place rooted in an imagined Scotland.

Commissioned by Takuroku, this piece builds on her work exploring the vocalisation of piping traditions. Working in collaboration with Laurie Pitt on snare drum, is an exploration of the solo voice in dialogue with the compositional structure of the Piobaireachd.

The word 'piobaireachd' literally means pipe playing or pipe music, but is now used to describe the classical music of the Great Highland Bagpipe. A piobaireachd consists of a Urlar, theme or, 'ground', with variations which vary in number and complexity following that theme. The Urlar for this piece is a Scots translation of the traditional song May no man steal your thyme.

This classification of Piobaireachd takes in the categories as follows: Laments — Descriptive pieces, Gatherings — Marches, Battles and Salutes — Farewells. In this piece we are using the voice to express the Lament and the drum to Gather.

Both musicians begin with the Urlar, and build in complexity. Quinie by adding vocal references to the Canntaireachd (Scottish Gaelic for 'chanting' - a vocal method of notating Piobaireachd), and Laurie by incorporating a set of drum sticks that are woven from willow, that refer to each section of the work by the number of sticks incorporated in them and the sounds they create.

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Quinie (Josie Valley) - voice

Laurie Pitt - snare drum

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Recorded by Stevie Jones

Cover artwork by Oliver Barrett

Tracklisting:
1 - Thyme Piobaireachd Vocal [08:39]

2 - Thyme Piobaireachd Snare [09:49]

Quinie

Quinie, aka Josie Vallely, is based in Glasgow. She sings primarily unaccompanied in Scots, with a style inspired by the traditions of Scottish Traveller singers, and in particular Lizzie Higgins (1929-1993). Inspired by Higgins, Quinie’s experiments with composition and vocal techniques create a dialogue between pipe music and voice. Her work evokes a strong sense of place rooted in an imagined Scotland, and explores relationships with land and language.

Quinie's first eponymous album was released on casette By GLARC in 2017, Followed by Buckie Prins, in collaboration with accompanied by Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh, Oliver Pit and Neil McDermott. They bring a musicality to the tracks that combines minimalist tension, foundations of drone, stabbing atonal noise, and choppy medieval repetition.

https://glarc.bandcamp.com/album/buckie-prins