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<\/a>An image of our Tale archive with a Progress Pride flag filter. The image includes cabinets, index card boxes on top, and shelving with books above.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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T<\/span>hroughout Scottish tradition\u00a0and\u00a0history\u00a0we have heard many iterations of the Love Song, be it through themes of unrequited love, courtship, lamentations at the loss of a lover, or even bawdy\u00a0tunes and romance. No matter the theme, there is always one thing in common \u2013 that they are a man and a woman\u2019s\u00a0love song. There is\u00a0not much in the way of recorded queer love in\u00a0traditional Scottish songs, and it would have been\u00a0near\u00a0impossible for these to\u00a0enter into\u00a0the mainstream of known\u00a0love songs. However,\u00a0in\u00a0my research on what we hold on the traditional Man\u2019s Love Song and Woman\u2019s Love Song, I have found some content that\u00a0can be \u2018queered\u2019. Through a mix-up of pronouns in song\u00a0or\u00a0change of\u00a0the gender of the singer\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0protagonist\u00a0we can find queer undertones and subtext within\u00a0these traditional love songs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Within the Man\u2019s Love Song, we\u00a0of course\u00a0have many examples of songs with a male\u00a0protagonist\u00a0describing his love\u00a0or telling a tale of love about\u00a0a woman. I will take you through a few examples of songs that\u00a0can be \u2018queered\u2019 through\u00a0being sung by a\u00a0female singer\u00a0and no change of the gender\u00a0of the person\u00a0the protagonist loves.\u00a0Below are just a few\u00a0example\u00a0of songs that\u00a0we hold that\u00a0can be viewed through this lens.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For example, there is\u00a0\u201c<\/span>Mo Ghaol an T\u00e8 Nach D\u00ecobair Mi\u201d. This version, sung by Mary MacRae and recorded by Donald Archie MacDonald is a Man\u2019s Love Song on how \u2018he will always stand by beautiful Mary as being a woman of virtue.\u2019 What I like about this version is that the lover is named, and through queering can be seen as a romantic tune about the virtues of women as recognised and sung by another woman. Listen to this track on Tobar an Dualchais linked below:<\/span><\/p>\n MacRae, Mary,\u00a0\u201cMo\u00a0Ghaol\u00a0an T\u00e8 Nach\u00a0D\u00ecobair\u00a0Mi\u201d,\u00a0recorded by Donald Archie MacDonald,\u00a0The School of Scottish Studies Archives,\u00a0SA1964.062, Tobar an\u00a0Dualchais\u00a0\/ Kist o Riches,\u00a0http:\/\/tobarandualchais.co.uk\/en\/fullrecord\/104516<\/a><\/p>\n There are also examples of unrequited love. \u201c<\/span>Och Mar a Tha Mi ‘s Mi\u00a0nam\u00a0Aonar\u201d, sung by Peggy\u00a0Morrison\u00a0and recorded by\u00a0Morag MacLeod is of a\u00a0man’s love song for a beautiful girl from\u00a0Lochcarron.\u00a0The protagonist\u00a0hopes she gets a man who is worthy of\u00a0her.\u00a0As this\u00a0particular recording\u00a0is sung by a woman, we can\u00a0view\u00a0this recording as being about a woman\u2019s unrequited love for the beautiful girl from\u00a0Lochcarron, but\u00a0they cannot be\u00a0together\u00a0so she hopes\u00a0she finds a good man who is worthy of her love.<\/span> Listen below:<\/span><\/p>\n Morrison, Peggy,\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>Och Mar a Tha Mi ‘s Mi\u00a0nam\u00a0Aonar\u201d, School of Scottish Studies Archive,\u00a0SA1975.210.A4a, Tobar an\u00a0Dualchais\/Kist o Riches,\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/www.tobarandualchais.co.uk\/track\/108130?l=en<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There is also\u00a0another\u00a0about promises\u00a0of marriage, sung by Nan MacKinnon, in\u00a0\u201cGur Tu Mo\u00a0Chruinneag\u00a0Bh\u00f2idheach.\u201d\u00a0In\u00a0this love song, \u2018a man praises his beautiful darling. He would do many things if she promised to marry him\u2019. Different from\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>Och Mar a Tha Mi ‘s Mi\u00a0nam\u00a0Aonar\u201d, this\u00a0song\u00a0allows for a reading of a woman promising many things\u00a0to her lover if she married\u00a0her,\u00a0and\u00a0is not about unrequited love or not being able to marry the lover described.<\/span> Listen below:<\/span><\/p>\n MacKinnon, Nan, \u201cGur Tu Mo\u00a0Chruinneag\u00a0Bh\u00f2idheach\u201d, School of Scottish Studies Archive, SA1958.132.5, Tobar an\u00a0Dualchais\/Kist o Riches,\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/www.tobarandualchais.co.uk\/track\/97353?l=en<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There are also a few\u00a0examples\u00a0of The Woman\u2019s Love\u00a0song as sung by men about a\u00a0man the protagonist longs for or is telling of love\u00a0for\u00a0him.\u00a0Although we have less examples of men singing the Woman\u2019s Love song, there are still more recordings of this type within the collections.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The song \u201c\u00d2\u00a0H\u00f9\u00a0Tha Mo\u00a0Ghaol\u00a0air\u00a0\u00d2igear\u00a0a’\u00a0Ch\u00f9il\u00a0Dualaich\u201d is\u00a0a,\u00a0\u2018woman’s love song to the young man with the beautiful hair.\u2019 This version is sung by John MacLeod and recorded by Polly Hitchcock. Again, through the singer being male, we can hear the description of his love and admiration of the man with beautiful hair.\u00a0<\/span> Listen below:<\/span><\/p>\n MacLeod, John,\u00a0\u201c\u00d2\u00a0H\u00f9\u00a0Tha Mo\u00a0Ghaol\u00a0air\u00a0\u00d2igear\u00a0a’\u00a0Ch\u00f9il\u00a0Dualaich\u201d,\u00a0School of Scottish Studies Archives,\u00a0SA1951.43.A7,\u00a0Tobar an\u00a0Dualchais\u00a0\/ Kist o Riches,\u00a0http:\/\/tobarandualchais.co.uk\/en\/fullrecord\/90295<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In \u201cCha Bhi Mi Buan ‘s Tu\u00a0Bhith\u00a0Bhuam\u201d, the singer, \u2018will not survive if she is parted from her beloved, whom she has loved since she was young. She sits on the hillock, looking over the narrows seeing his boat passing.\u2019 This version sung\u00a0and recorded by Calum Iain MacLean\u00a0can be viewed about the sadness of the childhood lover leaving for sea and being so in love it is difficult to part with him.<\/span> Listen below:<\/span><\/p>\n MacLean, Calum Iain,\u00a0\u201cCha Bhi Mi Buan ‘s Tu\u00a0Bhith\u00a0Bhuam\u201d,\u00a0School of Scottish Studies Archives,\u00a0SA1953.79.1,\u00a0Tobar an\u00a0Dualchais\u00a0\/ Kist o Riches,\u00a0Tobar an Dualchais<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n With Queering the Archives, we are creating a finding-aid to help other\u2019s locate queer and related records. If you are interested in responding to these recordings with your own work or researching our queer collections, please do just get in touch with us. <\/span>Visitor Information | The University of Edinburgh<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why not\u00a0take a look\u00a0at\u00a0the material we hold remotely on Tobar an\u00a0Dualchais\u00a0and think of\u00a0ways in which our sound recordings can be \u2018queered\u2019? If you are interested in recreating our material in any form, please get in touch with us or submit an access to\u00a0digitised\u00a0collections form directly.\u00a0<\/span>Access to Digitised Collections | The University of Edinburgh<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As always, we\u00a0would love to hear thoughts on\u00a0the material we hold\u00a0and would love for you to work with\u00a0us and\u00a0our records.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Queering the Archives will\u00a0have our very first workshop held on the\u00a025<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0August from 13.00 – 15.30. This is a public workshop and is open to all under the LGBT+ and Queer umbrella and allies.\u00a0Get your tickets here:\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/165396797273<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This will take you through understanding of queering, what we are doing for Queering the Archives, and working with our queer records and will involve discussion and practical work on improving our search-terms and catalogues. Access to event via QR code below:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n An image of our Tale archive with a Progress Pride flag filter. The image includes cabinets, index card boxes on top, and shelving with books above. Throughout Scottish tradition\u00a0and\u00a0history\u00a0we have heard many iterations of the Love … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/sssa\/files\/2021\/08\/QtA-Discussion-and-Intervention-Workshop-QR-Code-300x300.png\")
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