The Faa’d Woos o’ the Laird of Cockpen (2018)
Soprano and Piano
This is a short cycle of two comic songs in Scots, written for the soprano Jillian Bain Christie who gave its premiere at a recital at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Aberdeen on 3 November 2018.
The first song, a setting of Lady Nairne’s ‘The Laird O’ Cockpen’, chronicles a humorous attempt by the Laird of Cockpen to seduce a local heiress, describing programmatically his preparations, his arrival at her house, and ultimately her blunt rejection of his offer and his bewildered departure. I have also resorted to moving up a semitone for each verse, normally a bad cliché to me, but in this setting a suitably hilarious effect!
The second song, a setting of ‘When She Cam’ Ben She Bobbed’ by Robert Burns, is essentially a sequel to the first song, where Cockpen, having sorted himself out, now makes an attempt to seduce the heiress’s maid. I decided to be a bit more rustic with this setting, adding a heavy vamp to the piano and keeping the song structure to a relatively basic AABA form.
To emphasise absurdity against the light subject matter of these songs, the cycle begins with an overly-dramatic prelude for piano alone, which introduces the main leitmotifs in a parody of the early 19th century piano fantasy, and the second song wraps up in a rather epic, almost symphonic manner.
I have loosely based the harmonic structure of both these songs on the original chordal structure for the folk song based on ‘The Laird O’ Cockpen’.
PERFORMANCES:
Première: 3 November 2018 - St Andrew’s Cathedral, Aberdeen - Jillian Bain Christie - soprano, Catherine Herriot - piano