Script Notes: Music

At the heart of Sunset Song is "The Flouers O The Forest" a great lament, regularly played at Scottish funerals. Chris as a schoolgirl is greatly moved by it, sings it at her wedding, and it is played at the very end in the Stone Circle memorial to the dead of the War. Long Rob's enthusiastic singing is a joyous background to life in the community. The music and song at Chris's wedding is seen as an affirmation of community and tradition. People offer a song for the occasion without inhibition or pretension, and each song is taken seriously by the hearers, and honest praise offered to the singers. It should be noted that much of the Kinraddie community’s music is not Scottish traditional: Ellison sings "Dinah and her Villikins", at Chris's wedding, and it is not belittled. And Rob's theme song "Ladies of Spain" is English.

Song in the novel is connected to community and continuity, and to the past. It has a healing function, as in the snatch of song which stops Daftie Andy from harming Maggie-Jean Gordon, and in the final playing of "The Flouers o the Forest".

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