Music: 'Flouers o' the Forest'

Note on the use of music in Sunset Song
By Dougal Lee, musical director of the Prime Productions production

Flouers o' the Forest

The centrepiece to the music of the play, to the music of the wedding (and if 'Ladies of Spain' is Long Rob's theme tune, then this must be the title music) is 'Flouers o' the Forest'. It is a preposterous song to sing at a wedding, especially one's own, but dramatically it is a coup. The song is a reflection on the Battle of Flodden - a Scottish military disaster which wiped out many young men and the 'flower of Scots nobility' (among whom was James IV): in this respect it presages the waste that will be World War 1. Perhaps Gibbon also has in mind that James IV's reign might be seen as the high point of Scottish literature: never again will writers with the self-confidence of Henryson, Gavin Douglas and above all William Dunbar be able to write with quite such complaisance in the Scottishness, and untrammelled by the approaching Reformation. In this respect the song is about the turning of an age.

The wedding party is a Ceilidh - Chris is called upon to sing and perhaps if the actress playing her were to sing the whole song it would work fine. It seems right, however, that this premature elegy for the passing of an era should be come public property, and that it should accomplish that in a dramatic manner. Accordingly we have Chris singing verse one solo. Then, because it is a lament for dead menfolk the second verse is sung in two part harmony by the two women in the cast. The third verse involves a third harmony and the rest of the cast. The harmonies are deliberately simple, such as might be improvised at just such a gathering but it is within the capabilities of the company to sing the song well: it surrounds itself with silence.

Music: