Pick a theme… and name your seven favourite examples This month, Dumfries-born tenor Nicky Spence tells us about his best-loved Scottish Songs
Interview by Hannah Nepilova
With regular appearances at the Royal Opera House and English National Opera, Nicky Spence has also sung in venues all over the world. Specialising in psychologically complex roles, he has a particular attraction to the music of Janáček and Wagner, and has sung a good deal of contemporary repertoire. But he also casts his net well beyond the world of classical music. On 24 April he joins soprano Eleanor Dennis and pianist Dylan Perez for a survey of Scottish song as part of the Scotland Unwrapped season at London’s Kings Place.
Robert Burns Ae Fond Kiss
I grew up in Dumfries and Galloway, where Robert Burns is part of the fabric, and I sang his songs on my gran’s knee (‘poor granny’ I used to say, because I was a rather chunky little lad). I loved the simplicity and honesty of his songs and the fact that they were so ahead of his time. This one, set to a Gallic tune, is Sting’s favourite love song and contains the most beautiful lyrics: ‘Had we never lov’d sae kindly, Had we never lov’d sae blindly, Never met- or never parted, We had ne’er been broken-hearted.’
Emily Smith Edward of Morton
Emily Smith is one of my favourite Scottish singers and just so happened to go to school with me. She normally does quite lilting numbers, but this one is very dramatic. It tells the story of Edward of Morton, who is thrown into jail after refusing the advances of a Lady Morton. Sentenced to death, he’s attached to a horse which is made to run until he dies, and his head falls off in the village near to where I grew up. The song is like a miniature opera: it has three minutes to set out its stall and it’s really exciting.
Trad Brose and Butter
It would be easy to come up with a catalogue of ‘woe is me, my sheep has died, my lover’s left, I’ve got no food for my baby’-type ballads. But this next song – apparently one of the favourite airs of Charles II when he was in exile – is very uplifting. It’s an example of port à beul: a rhythmical mouth music that people danced to during the Jacobite rising, when musical instruments were banned. And it’s a spicy one. Burns was a very naughty man, and this song is all about sex, basically.
