The Sound Of Sleat reel

I heard this tune from the playing of Pat Simmonds (fiddle, button accordion) and Kelly Hood (pipes)–two mainstays of the Celtic music scene in Toronto–just last night. It’s apparently a pipe tune from the Shetlands (if I heard the description in the noisy pub correctly). I loved the syncopated bits in the last part, especially with the huge slide up to the high A that Kelly was putting into the first beat of the bar on the pipes.

A great pipe-tune, but nothing to do with Shetland ,I’m afraid.
( Whoever heard of a Shetland piper ?- although I think there is a pipe band in Lerwick.)
The correct spelling is “Sleat”, and it is pronounced “slate”. It’s a sea inlet on the West coast of Scotland.
Composer is a D.McKinnon, I seem to remember.
Recorded by “Ossian” and “The Tannahill Weavers”(at about twice Ossian’s speed !).

You seem to be correct on the spelling of the name of the tune; thanks–I wouldn’t have guessed the right spelling otherwise (and I, uh, didn’t). The author’s name is Donald MacKinnon.

As for “whoever heard of a Shetland piper?”: well, I found one– http://www.shetlandpiper.com. Okay, so it’s an online store. They do sell bodhrans. I couldn’t see a link to pipes on the site, but they do sell weaponry, so I assume that pipes fall under that category.

Seriously, though, there is apparently such at thing as Shetland pipes–small pipes, invented by Royce Lerwick–which posit the existence of Shetland pipers. The only musical Donald MacKinnon that I could find on the Web was from Cape Breton, but he lived in Scotland for a time. Anyone know anything more?

—Michael B.

Hi, this tune can be heard on the cd A Scottish Christmas featuring bonnie rideout ( scottish fiddle) maggie sansone ( hammered dulcimer) al petteway ( guitar) with special guests that include one of the best pipers around- Eric Rigler- known as “the braveheart/ titantic piper- as he played all the pipe music on the soundtrack for those movies on highland, uilliann and small pipes. On A Scottish Christmas- he plays a wonderful rendition of Sounds of Sleat on scottish small-pipes with hammered dulcimer- an unusual combination but it works- the tune was first learnd by Christopher Layer- also a well regarded piper from the Vermont area who has toured with The Trinity Irish dancers and others. see www.maggiesmusic.com- you can then seach in Christmas music, Bonnie Rideout to read about A Scottish Christmas.

A great tune. I first heard it on the “Ossian” album: “Seal Song” and have liked it ever since.

Source: For The Sake Of Old Decency by Cathal McConnel & Len Graham
Transcriptoin: gian marco pietrasanta

The full 4-part version (The Sound of Sleat) is here: https://thesession.org/tunes/1101

I’m not sure if this should count as a duplication, as it diverges considerably from the original version, as composed by Donald McKinnon. Even the title has evolved to mean something quite different.

Gian Marco - any info on where Cathal and Len got it? Is it one of McConnell’s catalytic conversions?

Lovely tune, BTW, both ways.

Sorry, I have no info about that tune.

The Sound of Sleat is a place. It’s the stretch of water (Sound) between Skye from the Glenelg, Morar and Knoydart areas of the Scottish mainland. The Sleet spelling has almost certainly used by someone who heard the name but didn’t know of the place.

Only Sleat is correct; accept no substitute. 😉

I had an amazing experience on a calmac ferry in the Sound of Sleat. We crossed into a pod of Minkie Whales and separated them into two groups. There were obviously mums on one side with their babies on another and there was much mayhem as the mothers rejoined their calves. Minkies are the smallest baleen whales but they are still pretty big.

I am disappointed not to detect any whaley references in this tune.
Noel

Spelt Sleat and pronounced “Slate”.

Very poor version on a lovely tune that is already here. Should be an ABC in the comments of the actual tune before this tune is completely devalued. As Dafydd rightly points out the tune is called Sound of Sleat.

Key signature: D Major
Submitted on January 26th 2008 by gian marco.
~ /tunes/8186

X: 2
T: Sound Of Sleat, The
T: Sound Of Sleet, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
|: FAAB d2 d2 | ~e3 d ef f2 | ~A3 B defd | efdB BA A2 :|
~f3 e f2 af | e2 de fe e2 | f2 df ~f2 af | efdB BA A2 |
~f3 e f2 af | e2 de feeB| d2 dB deed | efdB BA A2 |]

Source: For The Sake Of Old Decency by Cathal McConnel & Len Graham
Transcriptoin: gian marco pietrasanta

# Posted on January 26th 2008 by gian marco

The name of this tune:

The Sound of Sleat is a place. It’s the stretch of water (Sound) between Skye from the Glenelg, Morar and Knoydart areas of the Scottish mainland. The Sleet spelling has almost certainly used by someone who heard the name but didn’t know of the place.

Only Sleat is correct; accept no substitute.

# Posted on January 26th 2008 by Kismul

Sound of Sleat ~ I had an amazing experience on a Calmac Ferry in the Sound of Sleat. We crossed into a pod of Minkie Whales and separated them into two groups. There were obviously mums on one side with their babies on another and there was much mayhem as the mothers rejoined their calves. Minkies are the smallest baleen whales but they are still pretty big.

I am disappointed not to detect any whaley references in this tune.

Noel

# Posted on January 27th 2008 by noelbats

Spelt Sleat and pronounced “Slate”.

# Posted on January 28th 2008 by dafydd

A pale shadow of the original tune.I like Ossian’s version.Can Irish musicians play Scottish tunes? Can the blue men sing the whites?

personally, I prefer to play this poor and pale version of the original tune.

That may be the case Gian Marco but it should still be in the comments as a version of the original. Versions are part of what makes trad fun but simplifying and passing one off as the original is disrespectful to the composer.

Composed by D.McKinnon.

Just checked the tracklist of the album Gian mentioned,and it’s spelled “Sleet”.I bet it’s credited trad. too.Len and Cathal should have done their homework.

Cathal told me he picked the tune up off the radio in Scotland, from Ossian’s version of it. His version is how he remembered it rather than him making any attempt to learn it accurately. Not sure what that says about the way his mind works!

It sounds a little like Cathal borrowed strains from The Noon Lasses https://thesession.org/tunes/1729 to fill the gaps in his memory. This is one way in which tunes evolve into other tunes, is it not?

“Can Irish musicians play Scottish tunes?”

Dafydd - It’s what they’ve been doing for at least 200 years. In doing so, they turned them into Irish tunes. Can Scottish musicans play Irish tunes?

I was only being flippant.Do any other sessioneers of a certain age remember the Bonzos?

FWIW, here’s a link about the Sound of Sleat (the location):

http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/features/featurefirst7091.html

Pipe tune by piper D. MacKinnon published in one of the Scots Guard books.

Cheers!