Further References

This section contains a number of references that provide more information about Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon and other matters relating to the production.

Books & articles about Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Sunset Song

• Ian S Munro, Leslie Mitchell: Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Edinburgh, 1966)
   
  
• Douglas F Young, Beyond The Sunset (Aberdeen, 1973)
   
  
• Douglas Gifford, Neil M Gunn & Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Edinburgh, 1983)
   
  
• William K Malcolm, A Blasphemer and a Reformer (Aberdeen, 1984)
   
  
• Isobel Murray & Bob Tait, Ten Modern Scottish Novels (Aberdeen, 1984)
   
  
• Ian Campbell, Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Edinburgh, 1985)
   
  
• Douglas Young, Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song (Glasgow, 1986)
  Aimed at students at school and in further education.
   
  

Books and articles relating to Scottish history of the period

• T M Devine, The Scottish Nation 1700 - 2000 (London, 1999)
  Excellent general history.
   
  
• David Kerr Cameron, The Ballad and the Plough (London, 1978)
  Particularly good for an understanding of agricultural life of the time.
   
  

Works relating to the music in the show

Very little music in the show is unequivocally traditional, but for an overview of the type of sings being sung in the North East around the time of the events described in Sunset Song one should refer to: The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collections (Edited by E B Lyle, Aberdeen (8 vols))

A more manageable snapshot of the same sort of thing, though disappointingly short of tunes, is Ord's Bothy Songs and Ballads of Aberdeen, Banff & Moray, Angus and the Mearns (Published by John Donald, Edinburgh 1995)

It is always debatable to what extent Burns' songs are his own work or adapted from an anonymous original. In any case, a fine source book is Burns Poems and Songs (OUP, ed James Kinsley 1969)

Ladies of Spain is an abundant song. Dougal Lee took the words and tunes from the internet, but a fine printed version can be got from The Crystal Spring (OUP, collected Cecil Sharp, ed Maud Karpeles, arrangements Pat Shaw, 1987)

Attached elsewhere are some pieces of music which are used in the show. The songs by Dougie Maclean are subject to copyright and application should be made via his official web address http://www.dunkeld.co.uk/.

Those who have seen the show might be interested to know that the guitar for Chris' song about love and and sexual desire is tuned CGCGCE (an open C chord). This renders the instrument more than usually resonant, with an abundance of sympathetic vibration.

LADIES OF SPAIN

Farewell and adieu to you Spanish ladies
Farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain
For we've received orders to sail for old England
And we hope in good time we shall see you again

Chorus
We'll rant and we'll roar like true British sailors
We'll rant and we'll roar all on the salt sea
Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-five leagues

We hove our ship to with the wind from Sou'-West boys
We hove our ship to deep soundings to take
'Twas forty-five fathoms with a white sandy bottom
So we squared our mainyard and up channel did make

The first land we sighted was called the Dodman
Next Rame Head off Plymouth, off Portsmouth The Wight
We sailed by Beachy, by Fairlight and Dover
And then we bore up for the South Foreland Light

Then the signal was made for the grand fleet to anchor
And all in the Downs that night for to we
Let go your shank painter, let go your cat stopper
Haul up your clewgarnets, let tacks and sheets fly

Now let every man drink off his full bumper
And let every man drink off his full glass
We'll drink and be jolly and drown melancholy
And here's to the health of each true-hearted lass.

Books and discs relating to the music used in the production

• Dougie Maclean - Sunset Song (Dunkeld Records 1993)
  This is a CD of music by Dougie Maclean used for the TAG production of 1993. It does not include the music used in the Prime Productions production, even the two Dougie Maclean songs used therein.
   
  

Websites relating to Lewis Grassic Gibbon/Sunset Song

• http://www.grassicgibbon.com/
  Official Lewis Grassic Gibbon site and details of the Grassic Gibbon Centre
   
  
• http://www.slainte.org.uk/slainte.html
  The website of the Scottish Library Association with a search engine to find references to Lewis Grassic Gibbon & Sunset Song.
   
  
• http://www.stonehaven.org.uk/grassic.htm
  This is a general page about Lewis Grassic Gibbon and the Grassic Gibbon Centre in Arbuthnott where he was born and which is the real life Kinraddie.
   
  
• http://www.ifb.net/webit/gibbon.htm
  This page is connected to a tourist guide to the north east and Aberdeen.